The Queen was worried about Harry and Meghan

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published 22 July 2022

She often went to visit them.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were deeply unhappy when they were working royals living in the U.K. If we didn't quite know it at the time, their departure from that life and subsequent interviews certainly confirmed it.

They have revealed that they were constantly being hounded by the media, with many tabloids unkindly comparing Meghan to Kate Middleton, family members allegedly making racist remarks, and — as they later admitted during their Oprah interview — Meghan's mental health deeply affected by having to pretend to be OK all the time while she was being "character assassinated."

Plus, according to Tom Bower in his new book Revenge, Meghan didn't take well to renouncing her sense of self and her career aspirations in favour of performing royal duties.

"I do know that when the Sussexes were living at Windsor, the Queen was popping in to see them quite regularly," royal expert Richard Palmer told Royal Round Up (via Express).

“She was worried about how unhappy and unsettled they were. So, I was told at one point that she was going around to see them to make sure they were okay."

The Queen famously has a soft spot for her grandson Harry, which probably meant she was extra worried about his wellbeing — especially considering she was at his side in Balmoral when the tragic news of Princess Diana's death broke. It's natural that she would want to protect him from further pain to the best of her ability.

On a more practical level, the Sussexes were living in Frogmore Cottage in Windsor while they were working royals, and while the Queen hadn't made Windsor Castle her permanent residence yet at the time, she did spend a lot of time there, so it will have been easy to "pop in."

Harry and Meghan still retain Frogmore Cottage for when they visit the U.K. Princess Eugenie, her husband Jack Brooksbank, and their son August have been living in the house in their absence, though they are set to relocate to Portugal in the very near future.

Iris Goldsztajn is a celebrity and royal news writer for Marie Claire. As a London-based freelance journalist, she writes about wellness, relationships, pop culture, beauty and more for the likes of InStyle, Women's Health, Bustle, Stylist and Red. Aside from her quasi-personal investment in celebs' comings and goings, Iris is especially interested in debunking diet culture and destigmatising mental health struggles. Previously, she was the associate editor for Her Campus, where she oversaw the style and beauty news sections, as well as producing gift guides, personal essays and celebrity interviews. There, she worked remotely from Los Angeles, after returning from a three-month stint as an editorial intern for Cosmopolitan.com in New York. As an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles, she interned at goop and C California Style and served as Her Campus' national style and LGBTQ+ editor. Iris was born and raised in France by a French father and an English mother. Her Spotify Wrapped is riddled with country music and One Direction, and she can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.

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