Prince Harry was given the warning by a very senior royal. (Image: Getty)

Prince Harry was issued a stern warning ahead of his marriage to Meghan Markle by Queen Elizabeth II, a new bombshell royal book has claimed. The book, written by royal author Hugo Vickers, will be released next month to coincide with what would have been the late Queen’s 100th birthday. In it, he claims that Meghan’s arrival marked a major turning point for the late monarch and the royal traditions she had long upheld. Mr Vickers explains that the Queen encouraged Harry to take a measured approach and slow down the speed of the relationship.

The author writes: “The Queen herself suggested that Harry should wait a year. He did not take her advice. Instead, as we know, the wedding went ahead just over six months after the couple’s engagement.”

The late Queen was not the only person who sounded the alarm bells over the speed at which Harry and Meghan’s relationship was progressing. The Duke of Sussex’s uncle, Charles, Earl Spencer, was reportedly asked by Prince William to speak to his nephew about taking a moment to pause and reflect on how fast everything was moving.

In his first book, Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors, Tom Bower wrote: “At William’s request, Spencer weighed in. Three times married, Spencer cautioned his nephew to reconsider his haste towards marriage. His advice provoked a bitter reaction. ‘This was going to be really hard,’ Harry would later reflect on establishing Meghan’s place in the family.”