Queen Elizabeth is clearly the monarch in the family. When she reached out to her family, she made sure that her children were the person she reached out to — not husband Prince Philip.
While Prince Charles has his own private assistant, along with the royal commoners — members of the public who meet with the royal family — he is the sole person that the queen picks up the phone to.
But Charles has only had that position for the past several years, since his wife and the queen have grown apart.
Other members of the royal family are given additional royal staffers. Prince Andrew is given his own private secretaries, which has also helped set him apart from his father, Andrew’s former aide said.
Prince William only has two personal assistants, one for domestic affairs and one for the appointment of overseas associates, so it is not clear how much influence he has on his father or brothers, as is often said of Charles.
In a recent Vanity Fair article about Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, the queen’s former private secretary claimed that Philip has no say in the affairs of the palace — for example, he doesn’t endorse and is not involved in William and Kate’s Kensington Palace apartment building project.
The queen’s main objective is not about her looks or her social circle — those her favorite have been her members of the royal family, specifically, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, said Anglesey royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith.
For decades, the queen has not been house hunting, and is content staying in a cottage outside Buckingham Palace to be close to her staff.
In 2008, Kate Middleton attempted to claim her royal “role” as the queen’s heir, but even a recent engagement by Prince Harry wasn’t enough to change the queen’s world.
The queen has simply made it clear that Prince Charles will be the one leading the English monarchy, regardless of his six-year gap in marriage — in 1969 she asked Prince Philip to marry her — and the UK will be fortunate to have an heir within the next few years.
The upcoming royal wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will also prove that the queen remains strong and well-managed — she has been the best thing that could have happened to a woman in the late 1970s, despite herself only meeting Meghan in January, the Financial Times says. She was a one-woman task force to help Prince Charles, who did the right thing by changing the prince’s mind about getting married, and not setting him up for failure.
It should not surprise anyone that the queen loves her daughter-in-law, whether she wants to admit it or not. The queen was deeply, personally involved in the political and personal decisions that marked Meghan Markle’s life from birth until her marriage. It should come as no surprise that the queen would prefer a woman to be married to Prince Charles, not her husband, as she’s been known to say privately.
For the queen, Meghan is an excellent pick, said Phyllis Weiler, a lifelong friend of Prince Charles and his ex-wife Diana.
“What mattered to Charles was the effect he had on people and making their lives better,” Weiler told the London Telegraph. “He was not interested in the superficial aspects, he was interested in people, he thought Meghan would do that.”
And Meghan? She may seem light-years away from her current role, being a biracial, divorced woman, but she was deeply connected to Prince Charles’ children by a mother who loved being with them and the idea of bringing a girl into the royal family.