- The Queen plans to personally telephone Prince Harry, according to the Daily Mail.
- Its royal editor Rebecca English said the Queen hopes to mend the relationship.
- In the Oprah interview, Harry complained that some members of his family had been distant.
The Queen plans to personally reach out to Prince Harry by telephone in an attempt to patch up relations between the Sussexes and the royal family, according to a report in the Daily Mail.
The paper's royal editor, Rebecca English, that the Queen is expected to make the call in the next few days as the palace struggles to deal ith the aftermath of the couple's interview with Oprah Winfrey.
"It is difficult to underestimate how shell-shocked everyone is by what has happened," an unnamed palace source told English.
Buckingham Palace spokespeople did not immediately respond to Insider's request for confirmation.
There was a short silence from Buckingham Palace after the couple's interview aired on CBS on Sunday night. But on Tuesday, the palace issued a statement saying that the royal family will be addressing the claims the couple made "privately."
"The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning," the statement read. This came in reaction to a claim by Harry that a senior member of the royal family had raised "concerns" about the potential color of their son Archie's skin while Meghan, a biracial woman, was pregnant.
According to English's report, Harry and Meghan were made aware of the palace's statement in advance via palace staff. The Queen's call will be the first personal effort to heal the wounds, the report said.
The Mail has been aggressive in its coverage of Meghan and Harry, and sympathetic to the rest of the royal household.
Numerous reports have focused on perceived inaccuracies in what the couple told Oprah, often citing anonymous sources close to the palace. Earlier this week, the paper ran a front-page headline calling for the two to be stripped of their titles, citing a poll suggesting that a majority of Britons would support such a move.
-BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) March 9, 2021
The feud between the publication and the couple is long-running. Meghan and Harry criticized the paper by name in the interview for publishing details of their home in California, and Meghan recently won a court battle against its sister publication, the Mail on Sunday.
DailyMail.com, the US edition of the Mail's website, employs Piers Morgan as a columnist, who often uses his articles to criticize the Sussexes. Morgan quit his job as a presenterfor Britain's ITV network this week following criticism of his aggressive coverage of the Oprah interview.
A personal call from the monarch could be significant given that Harry complained in his interview that his family had been distant.
Harry said that Charles had stopped taking his calls before the couple announced they would be stepping back from royal life in early 2020.
He also said that he and Meghan had an invitation from the Queen to visit her abruptly taken back during the time they were negotiating their exit from royal life.
The Queen herself is one of the few
Markle said the Queen "has always been wonderful to me," and said she reminded her of her own grandmother. "She's always been warm and inviting and really welcoming."
She added that she had called the Queen after learning that Prince Philip had been admitted to hospital "just to check in."
The palace hopes that the Queen's phone call will help things begin to smooth over, the Daily Mail reported.
"There is a long way to go but hopefully things will start to move in the right direction in order for bridges to be built," a palace source told English.