Prince Harry's decision to quit the British Royal Family left the late Queen Elizabeth II "hurt" as her grandson walked away from his birthright and people who raised him to be with Meghan Markle in California.

The mother of King Charles III, who died in September 2022 at the age of 96, was left "exhausted" by the choices of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and towards the end of the fiasco, she was even said to have rejected attempts to talk about it.

"She was very hurt and told me, 'I don't know, I don't care, and I don't want to think about it anymore,'" a royal insider wrote in The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth's Legacy and the Future of the Crown, as per Vanity Fair.

The longest-serving monarch in British history was also said to have been saddened by the fact that she couldn't see her two greatgrandchildren as Prince Harry and Meghan didn't bring them to Balmoral in August 2022, where she died a month later.

"It was a source of sadness to the Queen that she got to see so little of Archie and Lilibet," Katie Nicholl wrote. "And that Harry and Meghan were not able to join her for a weekend at Balmoral in August when the Queen used to host a 'sleepover' for all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren."

Prince Charles eager to patch things up

The Queen had met Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor just once after she was born on June 4, 2021 before she died of old age and natural causes at her getaway home in Scotland, allowing Prince Charles III to ascend.

Perhaps the combination of this, and confrontation with his own mortality after being diagnosed with cancer in January 2024, is why the current monarch of the United Kingdom is keen to make sure he can see more of his grandkids.

But schedules and the vast distance of the Atlantic Ocean and United States makes visiting hard to coordinate and plan, with the last time Prince Harry and King Charles were together being back in February after the 75-year-old's cancer diagnosis.

"He is hurt and disappointed," an insider told the Independent, of King Charles. "But he has always said his love for Harry is unconditional."