Queen visits £3.2bn ‘Big Lizzie’ warship as she’s seen for first time since Harry fired attacks

The Queen has visited Royal Navy flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth in her first public appearance since Prince Harry’s latest bombshell comments which accused the Royal Family of ‘total neglect’. 

The monarch, 95, toured the £3billion warship, which is affectionally called ‘Big Lizzie’, on Saturday in a tumultuous week for the Royal Family which saw Prince Harry drop another ‘truth bomb’ in an Apple TV+ series. 

The Queen was greeted by the ship’s commanding officer Captain Angus Essenhigh, and Commodore Stephen Moorhouse, commander of the UK Carrier Strike Group (CSG), as she arrived by helicopter on board the aircraft carrier at Portsmouth Naval Base.

The monarch wore a rouge button-up jacket with a matching bowler hat as well as a scarab brooch, which was gifted to her by her late husband Duke of Edinburgh, as she greeted Royal Navy personnel on the warship.  

Her visit comes after her grandson suggested his father, Prince Charles, had allowed his children to ‘suffer’ when it came to the media because of his own negative experiences.

He also accused the monarchy and the media of attempting to ‘smear’ his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, in the run-up to the couple’s bombshell interview with Miss Winfrey in March.

The flagship, with eight RAF F35B stealth fighter jets on board, will depart later on Saturday for Asia accompanied by six Royal Navy ships, a submarine, 14 naval helicopters and a company of Royal Marines. The Queen’s tour follows a visit to the flagship by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday.

The ship’s 28-week operational deployment will cover 26,000 nautical miles travelling through the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, then from the Gulf of Aden to the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean to the Philippine Sea. 

The deployment has been organised as part of the ‘UK’s tilt to the Indo-Pacific region’ in a bid to ‘bolster deep defence partnerships’ as well as to take part in an exercise to mark the 50th anniversary of the Five Powers Defence Agreement with Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.  

Her visit comes after her grandson suggested his father, Prince Charles, had allowed his children to ‘suffer’ when it came to the media because of his own negative experiences in Oprah TV series (pictured) 

The Queen’s visit to the warship was her first public appearance since Prince Harry accused the monarchy and the media of attempting to ‘smear’ his wife, ‘total neglect’ and even bullying.

In his latest attack, part of a series on mental health for Apple TV+ with his friend Oprah Winfrey, the former royal suggested his father, Prince Charles, had allowed his children to ‘suffer’ when it came to the media because of his own negative experiences. 

His comments came on the five-episode The Me You Can’t See series – part-televised therapy session and self-help guide, part-confessional – which was released in its entirety yesterday.

In the documentary, Harry describes how Meghan shared her darkest thoughts with him, including ‘the practicalities’ of how she had considered ending her life.

He said: ‘I felt completely helpless. I thought my family would help – but every single ask, request, warning, whatever it is, just got met with total silence or total neglect.’

Harry, referring to the racism he believed Meghan experienced in the UK, also suggested his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, had been hounded to death because she was dating ‘someone that wasn’t white’ – Dodi Fayed. Buckingham Palace and Clarence House were last night retaining what sources described as a ‘dignified silence’ on the claims.