Not only does Sir Ian McKellen believe that the late Queen Elizabeth II was “quite rude” when they met, but he also takes Prince Harry’s “side” in the royals’ ongoing bitter family drama.
“I’m most definitely on Harry’s side,” McKellen, 85, told The Times of London in a profile published on Friday, September 6, while leafing through the duke’s Spare memoir. “Imagine being born into the royal family. I’ve been in public life a bit, but these people are in prison.”
He added, “They can’t do anything normal. Can you imagine having to be nice to everyone you talk to?”
Harry, 39, is the second son of King Charles III and late ex-wife Princess Diana. While the Duke of Sussex spent much of his adult life serving as a senior working royal, he and wife Meghan Markle stepped down from their duties in 2020 to seek a more private life.
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Harry and Meghan, 43, subsequently relocated from London to Montecito, California, which is where they are raising children Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3. In that time, Harry and Meghan’s relationship with the royals (namely Charles, 75, and Harry’s older brother, Prince William, 42) further dissipated.
“My family literally cut me off financially, and I [needed to be able to] afford security for us,” Harry said in a bombshell CBS interview that aired in 2021. “[I was cut off] in the first quarter of 2020. But I’ve got what my mom left me [when she died in August 1997] and without that, we would not have been able to do this.”
Harry continued at the time, “I will always love [my family], but there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened. I will continue to make it one of my priorities to try and heal that relationship.”
Harry later alleged that Charles and William were responsible for planting unkind and false stories about Meghan and her family in the British newspapers.
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While the Firm never publicly responded to Harry’s accusations, his relationship with Charles has been slowly mending over time. After the king was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in February, Harry jetted off for an impromptu visit.
“I love my family,” Harry, who also attended his father’s 2023 coronation, said on Good Morning America that month. “The fact that I was able to get on a plane and go and see him and spend any time with him, I’m grateful for that. I jumped on a plane and went to go see him as soon as I could.”
A source later told Us Weekly that Charles was “extremely touched” by Harry’s travel gesture, hoping it could lead to a full reconciliation.
For McKellen, he offered his kudos to the royals who can “stay sane in that world.”
“Hats off to anyone who [does] … like the [late] Duke of Edinburgh managed to do, although even he was deeply, deeply eccentric and I suspect deeply unhappy. Same with the present king,” McKellen quipped to The Times. “[Charles] sort of survives, but he is clearly damaged. As for Harry, he’s probably not bright enough or doesn’t have the right friends to really help himself. Mind you, he had the pick of all the pretty women in the world. I hope he’s got the right one [in Meghan].”
