Meghan Markle 'Disappointed' She Would Never Be Queen, Royal Biographer Claims

Royal biographer Tom Bower has claimed in his new book, released on 26 March, that Meghan Markle feels frustrated that she and Prince Harry would never become king and queen and that Queen Camilla told a friend she had 'brainwashed' Harry.

The claims, carried in coverage tied to Betrayal: Power, Deceit and the Fight for the Future of the Royal Family, have been rejected by the Sussexes, who accused Bower of drifting from criticism into what their spokesperson called 'deranged conspiracy and melodrama.'

According to GLOBAL Magazine, the latest row lands after a bruising stretch for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in both royal and media circles. Reports cited in the same coverage revisited the fallout from the couple's March 2021 CBS interview, the suggestion of tension around their Netflix projects, and the collapse of their Spotify deal in June 2023 after Meghan produced one season of Archetypes.

Meghan Markle And The Royal Claims

Bower's book says Prince William, 43, and Princess Kate, 44, concluded early that Meghan was 'a divisive agent' and 'a threat' to the royal family, and he further alleges that she was 'disappointed' by the reality that she and Harry would never sit on the throne. Those are serious assertions, but they remain Bower's account rather than established fact, and the Sussexes have not let them pass unanswered.

The sharpest line in the book is attributed to Queen Camilla, 78, who Bower says told a friend, 'Meghan's brainwashed Harry.' In the passages reproduced in reports, Bower writes that Harry began ignoring old friends, changed his telephone number without telling his family, and became increasingly consumed by grievance as his relationship with Meghan deepened. It is a portrait designed to wound, which is precisely why attribution matters here.

The Sussex camp answered with unusual force. Their spokesperson said Bower had 'long crossed the line from criticism into fixation' and argued that readers looking for facts would not find them in his work, only elaborate theories about people he does not know. Nothing in the material available independently proves the book's central allegations, so those claims should be treated with caution rather than certainty.

Meghan Markle Amid Pressure Beyond The Palace

The royal sniping is not unfolding in isolation. The same report says Netflix disputes the suggestion that it was blindsided by Harry and Meghan's bombshell CBS interview in 2021, in which the couple said a member of Harry's family had raised concerns about their future children's skin colour and that the Princess of Wales had made Meghan cry before the 2018 wedding. It also says friction was reported over whether the couple were withholding material from their late 2022 docuseries for Harry's memoir Spare, a suggestion that was likewise disputed by the streamer and the Sussexes.

Then there was Spotify. After ending its deal with the couple in June 2023, the company's head of talk strategy, Bill Simmons, called them 'f**king grifters,' according to Variety, and had earlier mocked the idea that anyone cared what they had to say unless they were discussing the royal family. That line has lingered because it cut through the palace drama and landed on a more uncomfortable question about celebrity, commerce and how much value there is in perpetual grievance.

Yet the reporting also suggests Harry's position is not quite as simple as his critics would like. The coverage said the renewed uproar was difficult for him at a moment when he was still trying to build a bridge with his family and reconnect with his cancer-stricken father, King Charles III, 77.

Even so, Harry would always choose Meghan, describing her as his 'soul mate' and saying his focus remained on being a father, playing polo and promoting his philanthropy while the noise around them remained 'painful and tiresome.'