God, I just got a flashback to a ridiculous storyline from last summer. Remember when royal reporters dug up a dead woman just so they could credit her as one of their primary sources as they attacked the Duke and Duchess of Sussex? The dead woman in question was Lady Liza Anson, and she was Queen Elizabeth II’s cousin. Anson was an event planner and she fully expected to organize Prince Harry and Meghan’s 2018 wedding. The only problem? When Anson approached Meghan solo, Meghan told Anson that she would think about it and talk to Harry. Harry then told Anson that her services would not be needed, that they were planning their wedding their own way. Anson was so offended, she spent the next two years of her life making up lies about how Harry yelled at her, or yelled at QEII and it was all Meghan’s fault (obvs). Well, Anson’s lies from the grave have come up again in Russell Myers’ terrible book about Prince William and Kate. It really does sound like the book is mostly about the Sussexes though?
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding was among the most-watched events of 2018, with the ceremony at St George’s Chapel and reception at Windsor Castle being a mammoth organisational task.
Now, royal editor Russell Myers has revealed new insights into the behind-the-scenes of all the prep that went into one of the biggest weddings in modern memory in his book William & Catherine: The Intimate Inside Story, published on 24 February. He detailed how Meghan, now 44, disagreed with Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, when it came to who would be involved in organising the big day.
Myers wrote: “Lady Anson, who died aged 79 in 2020, had helped plan many royal events, including the Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations, the Queen and Prince Philip’s 70th wedding anniversary, and William and Catherine’s wedding. At the behest of the Queen, Lady Anson offered her assistance to Harry and Meghan, but Meghan told her she was not required. Lady Elizabeth said the fiery exchange with her grandson left the Queen ‘hurt beyond belief’.”
Lady Anson, who was also known as Elizabeth Shakerley, was the first cousin once removed of the late monarch as the sister of Patrick Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield. Alongside William and Kate’s wedding, she also planned the nuptials of Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece to Marie-Chantal in 1995 and Sting’s 1992 wedding to Trudie Styler.
It wasn’t the only issue that caused a clash between the Queen and Meghan Markle in the lead-up to her and Harry’s big day. Myers penned: “[Royal author Sally] Bedell Smith described how Meghan ‘refused’ to tell the Queen about her wedding dress and had insisted on wearing a veil, which the Queen privately disagreed with, due to her being a divorcee.”
Stand back for a moment and understand just how bonkers this whole thing is, especially at this point. Harry and Meghan’s 2018 wedding was a hugely positive PR bonanza for the royal family, the wedding was watched by tens of millions of people and it frankly went off without a hitch largely because Harry & Meghan organized so much of it by themselves. Ever since the wedding, the Windsors, the courtiers and their media allies have tried to convince everyone that the wedding was actually bad or problematic, or it was the beginning of the end because Meghan got what she wanted! Like, how many times are these people going to shoot themselves in the d–k and blame Meghan for it?
Also, I think the detail about the veil is new, right? We’ve been told ad nauseum for years that Queen Elizabeth II was a judgemental B who hated Meghan, hated Meghan’s “too white” gown and hated that Meghan was a divorcee. It turns out that QEII also hated Meghan’s veil as well. Dear god, they really want people to believe that QEII was raging out about wedding veils and NOT her favorite son trafficking women and girls through the palace doors?
Thank you!
You have successfully joined our subscriber list.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
