Prince Harry and Meghan Markle 'hit breaking point' over brutal Christmas snub
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Family tensions can often boil over during the Christmas and New Year period - just ask Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. It was in early January in 2020 that the Sussexes shocked the world by announcing they were to sensationally quit their royal roles and leave the UK. And according to a contoversial royal book, it was actually an incident over Christmas just weeks earlier that had left them "furious", leaving them certain they needed to make their "own path".
During Christmas 2019, Harry, Meghan and a baby Prince Archie decided to skip the royal festive celebrations at Sandringham and instead spent time in Canada with Meghan's mum Doria. But when it came to one major fixture of the season, the late Queen's Christmas message, they were reportedly left angry due to the family portraits on her desk - as none of them featured the Sussexes.
In the book Finding Freedom, authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand claim the couple believed the Royal Family were "conspiring against them" with the move. They said the couple felt they had "long been sidelined by the institution and were not a fundamental part of its future".
They wrote: "One didn't have to look further than the family photos displayed during the Queen's Speech on Christmas Day. In the Green Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace, where the Queen delivered her address, viewers glimpsed photos of the [Waleses] and their children, Charles and Camilla, Prince Philip, and a black-and-white image of George VI.
