And after months of seeing the very fabric of the monarchy being unravelled by the actions of her grandson Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, Her Majesty has declared the situation an emergency.
Sources tell New Idea that the monarch has ordered her aides to draw up safe and secure plans for an 11-hour flight to California, where she plans to confront Meghan and Harry at their new $20 million mansion in Montecito over their alleged involvement in the biography Finding Freedom – which she feels has torn her family apart.
We understand that she has hand-picked security and medical personnel for the private flight, which will take off in the coming days from Aberdeen, Scotland near her current location of Balmoral Castle, and land in LA before she is whisked to the couple’s sprawling 1670-square-metre house overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
The neighbourhood is also home to celebrities including Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres.
According to an exclusive source, rumour is rife in Santa Barbara that the five-star Hotel Californian has been advised to keep its best suite – and several surrounding rooms – on standby for a “VVIP” arrival.
“Given her age and the current global climate, it’s a huge and risky undertaking for someone her age, but she has decided enough is enough,” says a source.
“She had left it to Prince Charles, Prince William and their teams to iron out the issues before Harry and Meghan announced they were leaving the family back in January, and since then, and especially with this biography coming out, things have only gotten worse.
She feels the only person Meghan and Harry will truly listen to is herself. And since they refuse to come back to England, the Queen is left with no choice but to visit them and read the riot act.”
The book, which was released last week, is filled with pro-Sussex accounts of how mistreated and misunderstood Harry and Meghan were at the hands of “viper” royal aides, along with digs at the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for being less than welcoming to Harry’s bride.
It claims 39-year-old Meghan felt “stifled” and “unprotected” by the Palace, and that it became obvious to Harry, 35, that they had no choice but to leave – and though the authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand insist the couple did not give an interview, many royal experts have scoffed at the denial.
“The Queen feels this is a very one-sided version of events. All of this has been damaging to her family and the institution itself. The whole country is squabbling over the alleged treatment of Meghan and Harry when they should be focusing on much bigger issues, and she has had just about enough of it,” says a source.
“She gave her more support than any other royal wife, the plum patronages, a stunning country home at Windsor, a royal wedding and anything else she could ever ask for. That she is even having to do this at her age is mind-blowing,” continues the source.
“The monarch part of her is furious. The grandmother part of her is disappointed.”