Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are ‘desperate to rejoin the royal family’ and ‘keep the connection’ for lucrative deals, experts tell PALACE CONFIDENTIAL

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s phone call to Prince Charles ‘smacks of desperation’, a royal expert has claimed.

Speaking to Palace Confidential, Daily Mail editor-in-chief Richard Eden said the couple may be trying to return to the royal fold to exploit the connection for lucrative deals.

The Duke of Sussex is believed to have called his father on his birthday this week to wish him a happy birthday – a call believed to be the estranged royal’s first phone call in six months.

Meghan Markle is also said to have spoken to her father-in-law and showed him a video of the couple’s children. Archie and Lilibet recorded a video of themselves singing “Happy Birthday” to their grandfather, the Telegraph newspaper reported.

The report claimed that Charles and Harry will speak again next week after their phone call marked a ‘shift’ in tone and a ‘turning point’ between the pair.

But Mr Eden said sources close to Harry leaking details of the call ‘smacked of desperation’.

‘We are talking about two privacy activists here. When it comes to the privacy of others, we get the details,” he said.

‘To me it smacks of desperation, of Harry and Meghan wanting to return to the royal fold.

“We no longer see videos of Meghan sending clips to her own father, but when it comes to the king, we do.

‘They seem very keen to maintain their royal connection. It’s lucrative.’

The couple previously had multi-million contracts with Apple, Netflix and Spotify to create content.

It comes as the royal family faces new bombshell claims from Harry and Meghan’s biographer Omid Scobie, just hours after the Duke of Sussex reportedly had a “warm” phone call with King Charles to mark his 75th birthday.

Mr Scobie has shared an extract from his new book, Endgame, in which he makes explosive claims, including that Prince Harry was ‘kept in the dark’ about the Queen’s health in the hours before she died.

Mr Scobie, who previously released a biography of the Sussexes titled ‘Finding Freedom’, said Harry, 39, and his 42-year-old wife Meghan had ‘no idea’ the royal family was preparing for the death of the couple. queen last year.

The author too suggests that the relationship between William and Harry is irreparable because the Prince of Wales…sees his brother as a ‘turncoat’.

And in the excerpt shared with Peoplehe claims there is ‘no way back’ for the brothers and ‘absolutely nothing has changed’ since the Duke of Sussex released Spare earlier this year.

It is not known how the new book could influence the rapprochement. Buckingham Palace has declined to comment on the extract.

Sarah Vine added that Scobie is “milking the last drops of money” from the couple after she “made a career in stoking the feud within the royal family.”

Charles and Harry are said to have had minimal contact for months, especially since the release of Harry’s tell-all memoir Spare, published in January, and a Netflix series, released the month before.

Harry and Meghan previously said they had had “no contact” from Buckingham Palace about an invitation to Charles’ 75th birthday evening.

The Sunday Times reported that Prince Harry had turned down an invitation to the birthday party.

But one a source close to the Sussexes told MailOnline they were not invited to Charles’s party.

“They had not received any invitations and were not aware of any celebrations until the stories emerged,” the insider previously said, adding: “I’m sure the Duke will find a way to get in touch privately to To wish His Majesty a happy birthday, as he always did.”

Buckingham Palace previously refused to discuss the king’s plans.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment on reports that the father and son spoke before the king’s birthday and will speak again next week when contacted by MailOnline. MailOnline has also contacted Prince Harry’s representatives for comment.

Meanwhile the Prince and Princess of Wales were seen enjoying a late night out as they left Clarence House around midnight after King Charles’ glittering 75th birthday party last night.

They were joined at the monarch’s birthday by his niece Princess Beatrice, Princess Margaret’s daughter Lady Sarah Chatto and Princess Anne’s daughter Zara Tindall and her husband Mike Tindall.

Lady Susan Hussey, 84, the former maid of honor to the late Queen Elizabeth II, was also in attendance, wearing an elegant blue glittering dress, while Jools Holland also made an appearance.

Other family members who attended Charles’ birthday event included the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, and David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon, son of the late Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones.

In the endgame, Mr Scobie told how the Sussexes had visited Britain on a series of engagements in September 2022, when the palace announced that Queen Elizabeth had been advised to rest by her doctors.

He writes: ‘The next morning, the Sussexes had no idea that Buckingham Palace was already making plans for the Queen’s final hours and the first days of the new era of the monarchy – until the Duke’s phone started ringing. An unknown number. Most of the time he ignored them.’

Meghan told her husband to answer the phone and he accepted the call “just before it stopped,” the author wrote.

He continues: ‘Harry hadn’t spoken much to his father that year, but this was not the time for father-and-son tensions. Charles told him that he and Camilla were about to leave Dumfries House for Balmoral, where Princess Anne was already at the Queen’s side. He told Harry to go to Scotland at once.’

Harry sent a text message to his brother William asking how he and Kate were planning to go to Scotland and if they could travel together, but received no response, Mr Scobie claims.

He was later told that Harry had managed to arrange a flight with his uncles Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.

“It was disturbing to witness,” Scobie claims he was told by a source close to the Sussexes. ‘[Harry] was all alone.’

Mr Scobie claims that Palace ‘sources’ informed certain newspapers that Charles had personally shared the news of the Queen’s illness with his son. He quoted a friend of the duke as saying Harry was “devastated” by it.

The journalists make new claims about the damaged relationship between William and Harry.

Mr Scobie even claims that William ‘doesn’t want to know’ his younger brother, who he claims has been ‘brainwashed by an army of therapists’.

He writes: ‘I spoke to a source quite early in the process, and they called Harry a ‘defector’ and said that was William’s view.

‘These were two men who once had the same vision. One of them had to move on to protect the crown as well.’

Endgame, published on November 28, is likely to cause further unrest at Buckingham Palace.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson declined to comment on Endgame when contacted by MailOnline.