Prince Harry ‘ditched an old friend for criticising Meghan Markle’, book claims
- Finding Freedom claims Harry was shocked by reception given to Meghan by friends
- The books claims he fell out with inner circle over ‘slightest hint of prejudice’
- Prince Harry cut off an old male friend who had been gossiping about Meghan
The Duke of Sussex was so ‘incandescent’ with rage at the racist abuse Meghan Markle received after their relationship went public that he ditched an old friend for gossiping about her, a bombshell new biography claims.
Harry was shocked at the reception given to his new girlfriend by his social circle and the wider public, according to the Finding Freedom book.
He was especially concerned about ‘the ugliness of racism…both unconscious and intentional’.
However, his fiery statement condemning the remarks led to tensions with his own father.
Its release coincided with Prince Charles’ tour in the Middle East, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall having arrived in Bahrain to meet the country’s King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa.
It was a critical moment that had been in the works for months and a statement from Kensington Palace condemning the press while confirming Harry’s new girlfriend would all but eliminate coverage of Prince Charles’s tour.
Despite this, the palace decided to go ahead with the statement, much of it drafted by Harry himself.
His father only learnt of the statement 20 minutes before it was released and, unsurprisingly, it soon dominated the news cycle.
The Duke of Sussex dropped an old friend who had been making negative remarks about Meghan Markle soon after the couple’s relationship began in 2016, the new book claims
Prince Charles and his team were left crushed and disappointed, though Charles also understood the intervention was a necessary one.
However, the episode only served to prove that Harry felt the need to prioritise the woman he loved over duty to the royal family.
Authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand wrote: ‘Harry, sensitive to even the slightest hint of prejudice, had fallouts within his own circle.’
Questions about the new relationship left him wondering: ‘Is this about race? Is it snobbery?’
Matters came to a head with an old male friend of the prince who ‘spent an afternoon gossiping about Meghan’.
The writers say: ‘Word got back to Harry and the prince immediately cut him off.’
The book offers no clue to the identity of the friend.
Social media became a hell for Meghan shortly after their relationship went public, with trolls posting racist messages branding her a ‘n*****’ or a ‘mutt’.
The horrific messages left Harry furious, Meghan’s experience serving as something of an introduction to racism for the prince.
Dealing with that left him willing to cut off old friends if he believed they were showing signs of prejudice against Meghan.
It has previously been reported that the duke’s friendship with several members of his former inner circle cooled or ended altogether after he met Meghan.
Matters came to a head with an old male friend of the prince who ‘spent an afternoon gossiping about Meghan’. The writers say: ‘Word got back to Harry and the prince immediately cut him off’