Meghan and Harry’s final blow to the frail Queen. Friends of the royals disclose most disrespectful thing they did – and tell me of their new theory: RICHARD EDEN

The Duchess of Sussex’s decision to postpone the release of her long-awaited Netflix cookery show, With Love, Meghan, because of the devastation wreaked by wildfires in her home state of California has been praised by her fans.

One of her favoured publications, People, reported that Meghan ‘didn’t think twice’ about delaying the eight-part series until March.

‘I don’t think she could imagine putting out a show centered on joy and hosting when so many people in her home state no longer have homes to host people in,’ an insider sympathetically told the American magazine.

Her decision has, however, led to some wry remarks from those connected to the Royal Family, I can disclose.

One friend of the royals pointed out to me this week that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex allowed their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey to be broadcast in 2021 even though Prince Philip was seriously ill in hospital. Prince Harry’s grandfather died four weeks later.

‘Meghan seemingly didn’t think twice about going ahead with the Oprah interview, did she?’ commented the royal source.

Let’s not forget how deeply the interview with America’s chat show queen must have wounded the Royal Family.

Meghan’s lurid accusations, including claims that the Princess of Wales had made her cry and that unnamed senior royals had raised concerns about her baby’s skin tone, would have undoubtedly hurt Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth.

Some courtiers are even wondering whether the postponement of her cookery programme is a commercial one.

‘Would people really want to watch a glossy TV show about someone’s luxury lifestyle when thousands of Americans have seen their homes and lives destroyed?’ one figure with connections to the royals asked me this week.

It’s questionable whether the delay until March will make much difference to the appetite for such a programme. There will still be thousands of people homeless in three months’ time.

And the Oprah interview wasn’t the only project that the Sussexes knew would hurt Harry’s family but went ahead with anyway.

They recorded their Netflix ‘docu-series’, or reality show, Harry & Meghan in 2022, when Queen Elizabeth was in rapidly declining health.

That six-part programme, broadcast in December – two months after the queen’s death – worsened relations with the royals by accusing them of ‘leaking’ and ‘planting’ stories in the media. Some even felt Meghan demonstrating the extravagant curtsy she had performed for the late Queen had the effect of mocking her. The Queen had died two months before it was broadcast.

Two books have since reported that the Queen was suffering from bone cancer for a year before her death. It’s not clear if the Sussexes knew this, but they would have been acutely aware that she was increasingly frail. Yet they recorded the hurtful series anyway.

Most disrespectful to the Queen were the sections of the programme devoted to denigrating the Commonwealth, the organisation close to her heart.

There had, of course, been no complaints from Harry or Meghan when the Queen had given them roles promoting the Commonwealth while they were still part of ‘The Firm’.

Harry similarly didn’t think twice about writing his tawdry memoirs while his grandmother’s health was worsening.

Thank goodness that it was not published until four months after the Queen’s death, so she did not have to read about his betrayals of private conversations and vilification of her loved ones.

It’s not hard to see why some close to the Royal Family would treat Meghan’s  concern for the feelings of others with profound scepticism.

Sign up for Richard Eden’s Royal Newsletter. Click here.