Prince Harry Says His Royal Exit Was ‘Never a Surprise’ to Queen Elizabeth II: ‘She Knew How Hard It Was’

usmagazine.com:

A close confidant. Prince Harry opened up about his tight bond with the late Queen Elizabeth II during his candid Good Morning America interview, remembering how she reacted to his royal exit.“I had many, many conversations with her both in the U.K.

over the years and in the run-up to the point of this change, so it was never a surprise to anybody, least of all her,” Harry, 38, recalled in his Monday, January 9, sit-down on ABC. “She knew what was going on.

She knew how hard it was. I don’t know whether she was in a position to be able to change it.”When asked how he thinks the monarch, who died in September 2022 at age 96, really felt about his and Meghan Markle‘s choice to leave their senior royal duties, Harry noted that Elizabeth was likely “sad” — but never angry. “My grandmother and I had a very good relationship,” he added. “She never said to me that she was angry.”The former military pilot shed light on the reason behind his departure from The Firm, explaining that he and Meghan, 41, wanted to forge their own paths. “We were trying to find a different way to work, but for one reason or another, despite the fact that it already exists within the family, we weren’t allowed to do things slightly differently,” Harry said. “To still perform and work and support and represent the monarchy, but to be financially independent, to remove the supposed public interest, which the [British] tabloids had used repeatedly to invade every single element of our life.”The couple, who wed in May 2018, announced their step back in January 2020 and moved to California later that year.

In February 2021, Buckingham Palace confirmed that the Sussexes would not return as senior working royals.“Even if there was an agreement or an