Behind closed doors Queen Elizabeth was seemingly not afraid to put her foot down if she felt her family needed to be told off. According to royal historian Hugo Vickers, who met the late monarch over 40 times, she once "got in her car" and went to talk to the Duchess of Sussex after receiving a report from the head gardener at Windsor.
He was asked about the alleged incident on the Daily T podcast and claimed, "She apparently was rude to one of the under-gardeners and the head gardener went up to the Queen and reported this and the Queen got in her car and went down and tore a strip off her because you cannot be rude to staff."
In Hugo’s view, Meghan Markle had "been rude to the gardener, so she needed to be ticked off, put in her place" by Queen Elizabeth.
As of now, the Duchess of Sussex hasn’t publicly commented on the historian’s remarks regarding this supposed telling-off. However, this isn’t the first time reports have circulated about Queen Elizabeth rebuking Meghan over her approach to certain aspects of royal life.
Writing in The Windsor Legacy, royal author Robert Jobson claimed that the Duchess’s choice to wear a Dior dress with an "estimated £60,000 price tag" during a visit to Morocco "drew the Queen’s ire" when she read about it. She apparently "later let Meghan know" that an outfit this expensive "was an ill-judged choice".
Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth is said to have made her feelings clear to Prince Harry about who had final say over the Duchess’s wedding tiara. His alleged "What Meghan wants, Meghan gets" comment is now well-known, but the monarch reportedly disagreed.
"Her Majesty did not approve. 'Meghan cannot have whatever she wants,' she was reported to have replied. 'She gets the tiara that she's given by me’," claimed royal author Robert Lacey.
In his memoir, Prince Harry denied he ever uttered such a remark at all and Meghan ultimately wore Queen Mary’s Bandeau Tiara for their wedding. Whilst these reports claim she might have had words with Meghan occasionally, the Duchess of Sussex has always talked glowingly about her late grandmother-in-law.
She called her the "most shining example" of female leadership a few months after Queen Elizabeth passed away and expressed "deep gratitude" for having got to spend time with her. The monarch was also known to step in and scold other family members, including Prince William, when she felt it was necessary.
He previously reminisced in the Our Queen at Ninety documentary about getting reprimanded when he was younger.
"We were chasing Zara around who was on a go-cart, and Peter and I managed to herd Zara into a lamppost. And the lamppost came down and nearly squashed her, and I remember my grandmother being the first person out at Balmoral running across the lawn in her kilt," he said, sharing that she came "charging over" and gave them an "almighty b*********".
Queen Elizabeth was also spotted telling the Prince of Wales to "stand up" when they were on the Buckingham Palace balcony during Trooping the Colour in 2016. He’d been bending down to chat to George but immediately straightened up in response to his remarkable granny.
