According to excerpts from a book about Prince Harry and Meghan, relations between the Sussexes and Prince William and his wife, Kate, deteriorated to the point that the two couples were hardly communicating by March.

According to the book Finding Freedom by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, the spouses hardly talked during an engagement at the Commonwealth ceremony at Westminster Abbey despite not seeing one other since January due to the repercussions from the Sussexes’ choice to pull aside from the royal family.

The book says there were concerns that Harry and Meghan’s popularity with the people might exceed that of the Royal Family.

One insider says Finding Freedom contains ‘buckets of bitterness. It will certainly not help relations with the Royal Family.’

The infighting and distrust got so severe that when the couple thought they were being barred from visiting the Queen, they contemplated violating protocol by paying her a surprise visit after returning from their Christmas vacation in Canada.

The book will be released in August and will be serialized in the Times and Sunday Times. Harry and his wife, Meghan, have said that they were not interviewed for the book and did not contribute to it in any way.

Other royals and members of staff, according to Prince Harry and Meghan, have been patronizing them for “too long.”

Reports suggest that the couple grew disillusioned with the Royal Family, and there was a culture of growing friction between the couple and Buckingham Palace.

According to the book’s writers, the pair “liked being in control of their narrative” from the beginning of their marriage. Being instructed to function under the auspices of Buckingham Palace after separating their home from the Cambridges’ was “a big disappointment to them.”

“As their popularity had grown, so did Harry and Meghan’s difficulty in understanding why so few inside the palace were looking out for their interests. They were a major draw for the royal family.”

The writers depict a developing culture of animosity and hostility between the Sussexes and other members of the royal family.

After stepping down from royal responsibilities in March, the pair, who married in 2018, now reside in Los Angeles with their 14-month-old son Archie.

While the media believed that Meghan was behind the couple’s decision to divorce, the book Finding Freedom states that she was “willing to do whatever it takes” to make it work.

‘There were just a handful of people working at the palace they could trust,’ the authors wrote’.

‘A friend of the couple’s referred to the old guard as “the vipers”.

Meanwhile, a disgruntled royal employee referred to the Sussexes’ crew as “the squeaky third wheel” of the castle.

Harry felt “unprotected” by his family and was mocked inside palace gates for being “too sensitive and outspoken.” He felt that members of the old guard “simply didn’t like Meghan and would stop at nothing to make her life difficult.”