Queen wanted to transfer Meghan Markle, Prince Harry to New Zealand: Author

Queen Elizabeth II tried to fix problems with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle before they announced departure from the UK.

Royal biographer Andrew Morton tells on podcast Pod Save the King that Her Majesty wanted to move to Sussexes to New Zealand.

He began: "Harry was having conversations in a London hotel with Oprah Winfrey back in November 2018, just six months after they'd been married.

"So they were thinking about a different direction of travel pretty early on. The irony is they had been given the keys to the first class lounge when Prince Harry was given the position of Youth Ambassador to the Commonwealth.

"This was effectively the Queen's way of saying 'you do the rest of the world, leave William and Catherine to do the UK where they will eventually be the Heads of State.'"

Morton said: "They were thinking about living in New Zealand and they even spoke to the Prime Minister of New Zealand about this - so they had all kinds of plots and thoughts for their future.

"It didn't work out because when it actually comes down to it, Prince Harry is cursed with charisma but hates being a prince and I think that he saw Meghan as a way out. They didn't have to leave the Royal Family in the way that they did, but they did," he concluded.