Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left King Charles “crushed” after giving him just 20 minutes notice before making their relationship public, it has been claimed.

Back in November 2016, Kensington Palace released a statement on social media confirming the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were indeed in a relationship, following romance rumours that were circulating the previous month.

At the same time, the then-Prince of Wales was in the midst of preparing for a hugely important tour in Bahrain.

But according to royal authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, the now-monarch was left “crushed” after being given just a 20-minute heads up about the public announcement, as he thought the bombshell news would overshadow his tour in the Persian Gulf sovereign state.

They wrote in their book FindingFreedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family: “It was a critical moment that had been in the works for months. A statement from Kensington Palace condemning the Press and, in the same breath, confirming Harry’s new girlfriend would all but eliminate coverage of Prince Charles’s tour of the Gulf.”

The duo, who reportedly have close ties with Harry and Meghan, added: The team at Clarence House, which had spent months putting together Prince Charles’ tour in the hopes that it would be covered significantly, was crushed.”

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