The special plan the Queen had for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle if they didn't leave the royal family

The Queen had some very special plans in place for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, had they not left the royal family.

• The Queen reportedly had big plans in place for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle - but they missed out on them after leaving royal life.
• Her Majesty is said to have been inspired by the early days of her marriage to Prince Philip when she came up with the special idea for Harry and Meghan to spend the first couple of years of their marriage away from the UK.
• This royal news comes after the Queen suffered sadness after the death of a close family friend.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex left royal fans in shock last year when they confirmed they were stepping down from their roles as senior members of the royal family.

Having left their high-up place in the Queen's close circle, the couple moved to Los Angeles with their one-year-old son Archie to start a new life as "financially independent" people.

Since their move to the United States, the pair have launched several projects with big brands, including a deal with Netflix and a podcast contract with Spotify.

Prince Harry was even spotted filming what looks to be an episode of James Cordon's iconic Carpool Karaoke recently.

While Meghan and Harry seem to be happy with their newfound LA lifestyle, the Queen reportedly had big plans for the pair and their future in the royal family, had they stuck around.

According to royal pros, Her Majesty was taking into account the couple's desire for a more private lifestyle and took inspiration from the early days of her own marriage to Prince Philip.

The Queen is said to have had plans to send Harry and Meghan to South Africa to enjoy some time as a family before getting stuck into real royal life.

Royal author Robert Lacey, who worked as an advisor on Netflix's The Crown, explained that the Queen's idea had come to her after she began thinking back to the time she spent visiting the Duke of Edinburgh in Malta when he was serving as a naval officer between 1949 and 1951.

The monarch is said to have regularly flown out to spend time with him during the stint away - something that reportedly strengthened their relationship as newlyweds.

"The Queen wanted to offer both honour and responsibility to the couple by handing them some role in her beloved British Commonwealth of Nations — a highly personal token of trust," Lacey claims in his royal biography, Battle Of Brothers: William, Harry And The Inside Story Of A Family In Tumult.

"And by handing the recently ennobled Duke and Duchess a semi-regal role visiting and being honoured ceremonially around the Commonwealth, the plan also surely offered the best route yet devised to give a British 'spare' self-sufficient status that truly matched, but did not threaten, that of the heir."