Prince Harry 'Crushed' by Palace Move—Not What Queen Would Have Wanted

Prince Harry's team "literally had to beg" Buckingham Palace to delay a statement announcing Queen Elizabeth II's death until after his airplane had landed—and even then they did not wait long enough, according to an extract from a new book by Omid Scobie.

The Finding Freedom author's latest biography, Endgame, an excerpt of which was published by People, takes a look at whether the royal family has a future, and describes Harry's experience on the day the queen died, September 8, 2022.

Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle were in Britain for a charity event when it became clear the queen was in her final hours. King Charles summoned him to Balmoral Castle, the royal family's estate in Scotland where the queen had been staying.

Endgame outlines how the father and son had a disagreement over whether Meghan should join him on the journey. Harry also asked Prince William if it would be possible to fly up to Scotland with him and got no response, according to the book.

Harry had still not been told about Elizabeth's death when his plane took off at 5:35 p.m., more than two hours after the queen passed away at 3:10 p.m. He was then uncontactable in the air when Buckingham Palace wanted to officially announce the news.

"His team literally had to beg for them to wait for his plane to land and they reluctantly agreed to hold the statement back for a little bit," a close family source is quoted as saying in the book.

Scobie wrote: "Palace 'sources' later briefed certain papers that Charles had personally shared the news with his younger son, but this was just a move to save face."

"Harry was crushed," a friend of Harry's told Scobie. "His relationship with the Queen was everything to him. She would have wanted him to know before it went out to the world. They could have waited just a little longer, it would have been nothing in the grand scheme of things, but no one respected that at all."

At Balmoral, Harry was also not invited to a dinner that Charles had with Queen Camilla and Prince William and so he flew home early the next day, on September 9, says Scobie.

"When he arrived at Balmoral, Princess Anne warmly greeted him and led him to the Queen's room, where he spent a quiet moment privately paying his respects," Scobie wrote. "He had hoped to see his father—who had made it to Balmoral Castle in time to see his mother alive—to express his sympathies, but he was informed that Charles, William, and Camilla had already left for Birkhall together.

"Again, no invite was extended to Harry. That night after eating he retired to his room, exhausted by the day's emotional roller coaster," Scobie continued. "He was glad to have had a private moment to say goodbye to his grandmother, but there was no point in sticking around.

"With no offer to return with William and the others in the morning (all of his texts, including a thoughtful message about the loss of their grandmother, continued to be ignored), Harry booked his own British Airways ticket on the first available departing flight."

The author told People the Prince William now sees Harry as a defector.

"I was talking to a source quite early on in the process, and they called Harry a 'defector' and said that was William's view," Scobie said. "These were two men who once upon a time were firmly aligned in their outlook. One of them had to move on to also protect the crown."

Endgame will be published by Dey Street, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers on November 28.

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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