Harry is ‘neither bright nor strong and Meghan is both’, claims Queen's cousin Lady Elizabeth Shakerley
1 July 2025, 14:45 | Updated: 1 July 2025, 14:54
Prince Harry is neither bright nor strong while Meghan Markle is both, Queen Elizabeth’s late cousin Lady Elizabeth Shakerley claimed in newly surfaced remarks.
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In comments published on journalist and royal biographer Bedell Smith’s Substack, Royal Extras, Lady Elizabeth described Meghan as “full of charm” after meeting her in 2018.
The party planner and first cousin once removed to the late Queen had met the American actress in the weeks leading up to her wedding with Prince Harry, where they reportedly spoke about the pair's relationship.
Following their chat, Lady Elizabeth later said it is “worrying" that people had been questioning whether "Meghan is right for Harry".
She added the issue is that Harry is neither "bright nor strong" while Meghan is "both".
It came after the Queen was left “really upset” over not being consulted on the Harry and Meghan's wedding plans, the Queen's late cousin is alleged to have said.
Meghan had reportedly said she did not want Lady Elizabeth, the Queen’s favoured party planner, to organise the day's events.
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Lady Elizabeth said that Harry wrote to her to inform her things were “going another way”.
“He said, ‘I am close to my grandmother, and she is content with this.’ When I spoke with the Queen, she said she is not at all content”, Lady Elizabeth was quoted as saying.
It is thought that Queen Elizabeth also told her cousin that Harry was “rude to her for ten minutes” in one meeting leading up to the wedding.
Making matters worse, the Queen was allegedly furious that Harry had asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to perform the wedding service in St. George’s Chapel without first asking permission from the Dean of Windsor.
Two weeks before the wedding, Lady Elizabeth had another chat with the late Queen, whom she nicknamed “Jemima”.
She reportedly said: “The number one lady — I call her Jemima — says the jury is out on whether she likes Meghan.
“My Jemima is very worried. Harry is besotted and weak about women. We hope but don’t quite think she is in love. We think she engineered it all.”
Lady Elizabeth added: “It’s worrying that so many people are questioning whether Meghan is right for Harry. The problem, bless his heart, is that Harry is neither bright nor strong, and she is both.”
She also claimed “Meghan and William and Kate were not working well”.
Lady Elizabeth Anson died in November 2020, aged 79.
She was born at Windsor Castle, with her grandfather being King George VI while Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother was her grand aunt.
Viscount Anson and Anne Bowes-Lyon were her parents.
