Book Claims Queen's Christmas Snub Led to Prince Harry & Meghan Markle's Royal Exit & Decision to Skip This Years Holidays

The royal rift that has been brewing between Prince Harry and his royal family seems to be getting worse by the day. Initially thought to have stemmed from comments about Meghan Markle by Prince William, a new book says otherwise.

Before their exit from the royal palace in 2020, Prince Harry and his former actress wife, Meghan Markle, reportedly had conflicts with royal family members for quite a while.

Initially, the conflict was said to have stemmed from remarks that Prince William had made, asking Prince Harry to take his time to get to know Markle well before getting serious with her.

A new book, "Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan," by the critically acclaimed author Christopher Andersen, however, refutes the claims.

The book claims that a decision by the reigning monarch to remove a photo of the Sussex from a display just before her 2019 Christmas broadcast may have been the straw that broke the camel's back and quickened the Sussex exit in early 2020.

The photo of Harry and Markle with their son Archie had reportedly been one of many on display before the Queen's decision. The rest featured various other members of the royal family.

Prince William is said to have been shocked when he realized that the Sussex photo was missing from the desk arrangement while watching his grandmother's televised holiday broadcast.

SPENDING CHRISTMAS AWAY FROM FAMILY

For the upcoming holiday season, it appears that Harry and his family do not intend to go to the U.K. to spend Christmas with the royal family, as has been the norm for many years.

Even though they have not made an official statement, a source from the royal palace disclosed to Page Six that there had been no communication about Harry coming in, which would only mean there are no plans to do so on Harry's side.

They will be spending the holidays away, even though this will be his grandmother's first holiday season without her husband, Prince Phillips, who passed on earlier this year.

For the past year, Queen Elizabeth has been dealing with severe back problems and has dealt with an array of other health problems.

A LOSE-LOSE SITUATION

The U.S. Weekly also reports that Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton, who plan on traveling to the U.S. for their tour, are unlikely to stay with the Sussex at their California home.

In what the royal expert Jonathan Sacerdoti calls a "lose-lose" situation, he says that if the Cambridges are invited and decline to go, it will be wrong, and if the Sussex do not invite them at all, it will be just as bad.

Despite the publicity surrounding their possible absence at the Christmas celebrations in the U.K, Markle and Harry have not addressed the issue.