The Queen's Praise For A Newspaper That Broke Negative Stories About Harry And Meghan Is Raising Eyebrows

The media's opinion on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's royal exit is still divided. Outlets have both applauded and criticized the Sussexes' decision to move to the U.S. and start their own life with their children. The negativity in the media space around Harry and Meghan is not new — it's also one of the reasons why they left their royal duties in the first place.

In their chat with Oprah Winfrey — an interview that revealed many unheard secrets of the royal family — Harry and Meghan had much to say about the U.K. press. "The U.K. is not bigoted. The U.K. press is bigoted, specifically the tabloids," Harry told Winfrey (via The Wrap). There was also Meghan's privacy lawsuit against a British outlet that published excerpts from a letter by her estranged father, Thomas Markle. Per AP, Meghan won the lawsuit with Judge Mark Warby writing that she "had a reasonable expectation that the contents of the letter would remain private," and that the articles published by some outlets had "interfered with that reasonable expectation."

Harry and Meghan's battle with the U.K. media might be familiar, but then there's Queen Elizabeth II, who might just not be aware of everything that's going on between the Sussexes and the British press — at least this is what her praise for a newspaper breaking negative stories about Meghan and Harry suggests. Read on to find out more about what the queen had to say in appreciation of a newspaper that dissed the Sussexes.

Queen Elizabeth has been a part of numerous royal ceremonies over the course of her long career as a monarch. She has been a part of the many flashy and talked-about royal weddings of her family. Of course, she has been a fixture in media coverage. According to Newsweek, Elizabeth met the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery soldiers at Windsor Castle on October 7, three days after the soldiers had participated in a Buckingham Palace ceremony. Per Newsweek and videos released online, the queen said it was "rather nice" that The Times covered the former event in its October 5 edition. "The picture was rather an advance, on the front page of The Times, wasn't it?" the queen quoted telling one of the soldiers. "Well, it's rather nice to think that they, you know, took an interest." 

The publication may seem to have won the queen over, but it's certainly a long way from pleasing Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. They had previously published an email from the Sussexes' former communications secretary that accused Meghan of bullying her staff.

The queen's opinion on the outlet highlights that she might be a regular reader of the publication, suggesting that she could be well aware of their coverage of Harry and Meghan in the past — or she could have just been paying a compliment without thinking too much about it. Maybe the queen does take some gossip with her tea!