The late Queen Elizabeth II was worried about Prince Harry during the early stages of his relationship, a royal author claims.

The late Queen Elizabeth II expressed words of concern during the early stages of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s relationship, a royal author has claimed.

Gyles Brandreth, also a close confidant of the senior royals, has disclosed how the late Queen was genuinely delighted with Prince Harry’s choice of wife, and had high hopes for the contribution the American actress could make to public service.

However, as a number of staff left the Sussexes’ service as claims of bullying came to light, denied by the Duchess’ legal team, the late Queen expressed her worries about the effect on her grandson.

Gyles writes in his book ‘Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait’, that Queen Elizabeth let slip if Harry wasn’t “perhaps a little over-in-love”.

The extract, as reported in the Telegraph, reads: “The only concern the Queen let slip in the early days of the Sussexes’ marriage was to wonder to a friend if Harry wasn’t ‘perhaps a little over-in-love’. This was as far as she came – to my knowledge at least – to ever uttering a word against the new Duchess of Sussex.”

The broadcaster says in his book that the late Queen liked Meghan, and did “everything to make her feel welcome”. Knowing about her previous acting work, she suggested she could “carry on being an actress”. Meghan reportedly said she would step back from her career, however, to fully commit herself to her royal duties.

However, the late Queen shortly became concerned after Meghan allegedly rejected an offer to have Prince Edward’s wife, Sophie, “show her the ropes” in royal life.