The Queen's aids cancelled plans to see Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ahead of their decision to step down from royal duties, Oprah Winfrey has now revealed.
Speaking on CBS This Morning, the talk show host discussed the fallout of her groundbreaking interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, revealing some extra information from the three and a half hour chat, which was edited down to a under two hours.
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Revealing some clips which almost ended up on the cutting room floor, Oprah was keen to demonstrate further that the royal couple didn't "blindside" the reigning monarch with their decision to leave the UK, as reports at the time suggested.
In one clip, Harry reveals that he and Meghan were invited to stay with The Queen on January 6th 2020, but the invitation was revoked at the last minute, once they had landed in the UK from Canada.
Harry explains that his grandmother had personally invited them to visit her at Sandringham "the moment they [landed]", for a "chat, tea and dinner", and they had planned to stay overnight.
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But he claims the invitation was abruptly cancelled when they landed.
"The moment we landed in the UK, I got a message from my private secretary Fiona, cutting and pasting a message from the Queen's private secretary," he says.
"Basically saying, please pass along to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex that he cannot come to Norfolk.
"The Queen is busy. She's busy all week."
Harry adds that he had then called The Queen from Frogmore Cottage to question the change of plan, only for her to tell him she had something in her diary that she hadn't been aware of.
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The Duke tells Oprah he didn't want to "push back" against his grandmother - who he has a good relationship with - because he knew what happening behind the scenes.
"I think that was such an important story to be shared last night, in the process of trying to edit this 3 hours and 20 minutes down to 1 hour and 25 minutes, the most important question to be answered at the end of this show was why did they leave?," Oprah told CBS This Morning hosts.
"They stories about blindsiding the queen was very hurtful to them."
Oprah went on to clarify that The Queen herself had acknowledged there had been "months and months" of discussions before the pair had finally relinquished royal duties.
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The special saw Prince Harry reveal that his exit from royal duties put a strain on several of his family relationships - but The Queen wasn't one of them.
Instead, he suggested there was a blame on "the institution" behind the Royal Family, when it came to keeping Harry from his grandmother.
"I've spoken more to my grandmother in the past year than I have for many many years. I have a deep respect for her," he said of The Queen elsewhere in the interview.
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Such fond words weren't said about his father, Prince Charles, who wouldn't take his calls for a period of time, but is now speaking to him.
"There's a lot to work through there. I feel really let down because he's been through something similar," he confessed.
"Archie is his grandson. I will always love him, but there's a lot of hurt that's happened. I will continue to make it one of my priorities to heal that relationship."
Discussing his fraught relationship with his brother, Prince William, he added: "Much will continue to be said about that.
"As I've said before, I love William to bits - he's my brother and we've been through hell together and we have a shared experience but we're on different paths."
In the special, Oprah also spoke with Meghan about her marriage, motherhood and mental health. Plus, the couple revealed they were having a little girl.
Elsewhere in the chat - which was pre-filmed - Prince Harry discussed his mother, Princess Diana.
On how she was treated after leaving the Royal Family, the Prince candidly said: "For me I'm just really relieved and happy to be sitting here talking to you with my wife by my side.
"Because I can't imagine what it must have been like for her going through this process by herself all those years ago, because it's been unbelievably tough for the two of us but at least we had each other."
The interview was broadcast in the US on CBS in the early hours of the morning UK time, and is set to be shown here in the UK tonight at 9pm on ITV.
Topics: TV News, The Queen, Royal Family, Prince Harry, Royals, Meghan Markle