Prince Harry Right to Worry About Queen's Staff—Finding Freedom Author

Prince Harry's comments about making sure Queen Elizabeth II is "protected" are justified by a series of past disputes with her staff, royal author Omid Scobie says.

The Duke of Sussex told NBC he wanted to ensure his grandmother had "the right people around her," but was heavily criticized in the media with one Daily Mail columnist describing him as a "smirking assassin."

Scobie, co-author of Finding Freedom, used a new column on Yahoo News to defend Harry's interview with Hoda Kotb.

The biographer wrote: "The reality is, since the passing of Prince Philip one year ago, the Queen is living by herself.

"While Prince Charles, the Cambridges and others stop by for visits, the people surrounding the monarch on a daily basis—aides, courtiers and household staff responsible for every aspect of her life—are all employees of the royal institution.

"And it's at the hands of some of these same people that Harry experienced some of his darkest and most distressing moments as a working member of the Firm."

Scobie cited a dispute with Angela Kelly, the queen's dresser, over Meghan's wedding day tiara, which wound up on the front page of The Sun in late 2018.

He wrote: "It was also the Queen's right-hand woman and dresser, Angela Kelly, who multiple sources told me made it almost impossible for Meghan to have a necessary 'hair trial' with her chosen wedding tiara—even standing up the duchess-to-be and her hairstylist, who had flown in especially, at a pre-scheduled fitting.

"Harry, sources said, felt it was a cruel attempt to put his partner 'in her place'."

Scobie also pointed to an issue Harry himself highlighted during the March 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview, when the duke suggested aides blocked his efforts to sit down with Elizabeth face-to-face.

The prince told CBS the queen had invited him to dinner at Sandringham, in Norfolk, in January 2020 when he and Meghan were trying to negotiate their way out of royal life.

Harry told Oprah: "The moment we landed in the UK I got a message from my private secretary, Fiona at the time... cutting and pasting a message from the Queen's private secretary, basically saying 'please pass on to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex that he cannot come to Norfolk. The Queen is busy, she's busy all week... do not come up here.'"

However, Tina Brown's memoir The Palace Papers, released on April 26, has a different take on the same dispute, suggesting palace staff took issue with the fact Harry wanted to discuss official business during an unofficial get together.

The book quotes a palace source: "Such conversations would have to be done in the spirit of Elizabeth II as sovereign so there would've been agendas. Talking points would've been agreed on beforehand between private secretaries...What the Sussexes tried to do was circumnavigate that and go and see her because, on her own, she famously says 'yes.' She caves."

Harry's NBC interview provoked widespread criticism from within the worlds of media and politics alike.

Among the condemnations, Jan Moir wrote in the Daily Mail: "Everyone knows the person the Queen is most in need of safeguarding from is Harry himself, the man who has single-handedly done the most damage to the British monarchy since Oliver Cromwell."

She added: "Yet here he is, as nice as sour cream pie, the smirking assassin in a polo shirt, assuring millions of viewers on U.S. television of his vital role at Her Majesty's side, which is news to everyone back in Blighty."

Harry was asked by Kotb about a stop over in Britain in which he and Meghan had tea with the queen at Windsor Castle.

The duke told NBC: "Being with her, it was great. It was just so nice to see her. She's on great form.

"She's always got a great sense of humor with me and I'm just making sure that she's, you know, protected and got the right people around her."