A royal expert is speaking out this week to reveal what Prince Philip really thought when his grandson Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped down as senior royals earlier this year, saying that he feared their “Megxit” would be “damaging to the monarchy.”

Ingrid Seward, author of the new book “Prince Philip Revealed: A Biography,” said that the 99 year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth was actually an ally of Meghan’s before she and Harry stepped down as senior royals.

“Philip had a great deal of sympathy with Meghan,” Seward told Fox News. “And I think that because Philip himself was an outsider when he married Princess Elizabeth. He was treated appallingly by the courtiers, but that was in 1947.”

“I think that Philip really understood that Meghan was going to find royal life difficult, and he was supportive of her,” she added. “But at his great age, there was a limit to how involved he wanted to be. At that age, you just don’t have the energy and the drive to interfere too much with your grandchildren’s lives.”

Seward, who has covered the royal family since the 1980s, went on to say that Philip feared that Harry and Meghan’s move could be “very damaging to the monarchy.”

“It all came as a huge shock,” the royal author explained. “If Prince Philip would have been younger, he would have been more influential. He would have told Harry, ‘Are you sure you know what you’re doing? Do you know what you’re giving up? You cannot have one foot in the palace and the other foot out. You have to make a decision and I don’t want you to regret it.’”

“Internally, Philip was very upset, but he wasn’t going to let Harry see that,” Seward added. “And he’s always going to support his wife, [Queen Elizabeth II]. He knew that Harry and Meghan leaving would be damaging to the monarchy because people will then say, ‘What’s so awful that this young couple couldn’t bear to be part of it?’”

She then said that while Philip felt sympathy for Meghan, he will always put duty above everything else.

“He will always support the queen,” Seward said. “Harry and Meghan had their own agenda really. For Philip, he felt if that’s what they want to do, then that’s what they must do. But they will also have to face the consequences.”

Philip retired from public life in 2017, and he’s now enjoying a more quiet routine, according to Seward.

“He likes watching television,” she said. “He loves cooking programs. He’s always been incredibly interested in food and different ways of cooking it. He writes letters. He’s very deaf but still has his eyesight. He hasn’t been driving recently, but even in his 97th year, he was still going out with his horses and carriages. He’s very active for someone of his age. And he feels that’s what keeps him going every morning.”

“Philip’s greatest legacy is the lessons he’s taught his sons, which were passed on to his grandsons and great-sons…” Seward continued. “He’s a sort of character who hardly exists anymore because he has this great devotion to duty. However uncomfortable it may be, he feels duty comes first. And I think people don’t have that anymore.”

This piece originally appeared in UpliftingToday.com and is used by permission.

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