Prince Harry ‘punished’ best friend for daring to question wedding to Meghan Markle, but now a ‘growing rift’ might be threatening their marriage

We’ve heard a lot about how Prince Harry is allegedly “lonely” now that he’s living in the U.S. with Meghan Markle and his children, having left his old life as a Royal behind him. Still, if you believe all the reports and rumors, Harry’s Californian isolation is only his own fault as new intel claims he pushed his best and oldest friend out of his life after they dared to warn him against marrying Meghan.

According to details revealed in the upcoming book Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Family from authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand (via The Daily Telegraph), Harry’s old friend Tom “Skippy” Inskip — the latest Viscount Caldecote, a schoolmate of Harry’s from Eton — came clean about his reservations with Harry’s relationship with Meghan shortly before they got engaged in late 2017. Inskip is said to have pleaded with Harry to try living with Meghan first before “doing anything more serious.”

Harry is said to have been left incensed by Inskip’s advice, and although it obviously “came from a good place,” it’s said that it “really hurt him that someone he was so close to would not trust his judgment.” It stung so much, in fact, that Inskip and his wife Lara Hughes-Young, were “punished” by being barred from attending the evening shindig at Frogmore Cottage after Harry and Meghan’s wedding.

These days, however, Viscount Skippy’s warning may have been proven well-founded, assuming that is you believe the claims that Harry and Meghan are having problems with their marriage.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s “tough few months” have caused a ‘growing rift’ between the duke and duchess

Harry and Meghan certainly haven’t had a great time of it of late, what with the couple hit by one wave of negative PR after another. Most recently, Harry’s ESPY Award controversy and Meghan’s less-than-successful opening to her America Riviera Orchard business label. According to the usual mystery insider sources, this has led to a pronounced strain on the Sussexes’ relationship.

“This has been such a tough few months for Meghan and Harry and the pressure they are under is a lot to handle, they feel they are constantly under attack. When they first left the royals, they had so much support and that support seems to be dwindling over time and they’re facing more and more criticism.”

This isn’t the only intel pointing in this direction either, as Royal commentator Tom Quinn told The Mirror US (via Express) that a “rift” is “growing” between the married pair due to the duo’s dwindling lack of fame and power.

“There is a growing rift between Harry and Meghan caused by Meghan’s increasing concern that her life is not going in the direction she had planned she loves media attention and hates the fact that surveys suggest she and Harry are no longer of much interest to the American public.”

This isn’t the first time that doubts about the longevity of Harry and Meghan’s union have sprung up in recent times. We previously learned that a major Royal family member placed a secret bet on when the couple will divorce. Then again, other rumors say the couple could be planning on more kids, so really the only people who actually know what’s going on in Harry and Meghan’s marriage are the duke and duchess themselves.