When Meghan Markle and Prince Harry publicly announced that they would step down as senior royals in January 2020, they wrote in a statement.

And now royal biographer Tom Bower has revealed what "internal discussions" between the Sussex and Windsor families really were.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex spent the last weeks of 2019 on Vancouver Island, Canada, with their baby son Archie, but according to Bower, they were not just relaxing there.

"Located in the same time zone as Los Angeles, Princess Meghan was in constant contact with business manager Andrew Meyer, attorney Rick Genow, and Keeley Thomas Morgan of Sunshine Sachs, a public relations agency," he wrote in an excerpt from his forthcoming biography In an excerpt from "Revenge: Meghan, Harry, and the Windsor Family War" (opens in new tab), he writes (opens in new tab).

"Top on the agenda were ongoing negotiations with Netflix and Spotify, and the re-registration in Delaware of Frim Fram Inc, the company behind her defunct blog, The Tig, on October 22, 2019. Their new Archelwell Foundation (which means "source of action") was already registered in Delaware."

Yes, I mean, it all makes sense so far. If you had to move to another continent and start your life over, you would probably need to know where your income comes from.

Bower also claims in his book that the Queen, Prince Charles, and Prince William were all basically aware of the situation and were prepared to move out on the Sussexes' part.

"The Queen took the initiative after consulting with Prince Charles and Prince William. Convinced that Harry and Meghan would never resume a normal life in England, the three agreed that the future of the monarchy should focus on revitalizing Brand Cambridge," Bower wrote.

The author further asserts that all this behind-the-scenes planning became visible in the Queen's Christmas broadcast in 2019. He writes, "Harry staggered from Vancouver, watching his grandmother."

"Four silver-framed family photos were carefully placed behind the Queen. They showed the Queen's father, King George VI, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Camilla, and finally William and his family. Harry was furious that there were no photos of himself, Princess Meghan, and Archie. The Windsors had erased the Sussex family from history."

This is not the first time a royal expert has claimed that Prince Harry was hurt by the Queen's decision: Christopher Andersen also made a statement to that effect in December 2021.