The Queen made Meghan an unusual offer to make her comfortable

Seemingly everyone has a very strong opinion on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's departure from royal life, even more than three years later.

Among these opinionated people is Paul Burrell, Princess Diana's former butler, who regularly speaks to the press about the Royal Family.

If recent comments are to be believed, Paul feels quite badly about the Sussexes' royal exit, in light of how kind he believes the Queen was to Meghan when she first started going out with Harry circa 2016.

"The Queen was very gracious and very kind to Meghan. She even said to Meghan, 'You can continue acting if you like, continue your career,'" Paul told the Mirror.

"It's mind-boggling the amount of goodwill which Meghan and Harry have thrown away. I think that's why it came as a particular blow to the Queen when Harry left the Royal Family because she didn't want him to. She wanted him to stay, and she tried her hardest to persuade them to stay."

There's no doubt the Queen took it hard when Harry and Meghan announced their decision to leave the UK.

"Following many months of conversations and more recent discussions, I am pleased that together we have found a constructive and supportive way forward for my grandson and his family," the late monarch said in an official statement at the time.

"Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved members of my family.

"I recognise the challenges they have experienced as a result of intense scrutiny over the last two years and support their wish for a more independent life."

As the Queen put it, Harry and Meghan did find the level of scrutiny they received as working royals really difficult, and they have been open about it since their departure.

In the couple's Netflix docuseries released last December, Meghan recalled an example of how difficult being a royal was for her.

"I was going through the manual for our security team at home, and one of the pages I happened to flip to it was about online monitoring and it said, 'If you see a tweet like this, please report it to the head of security immediately,'" she said.

"It just said: 'Meghan just needs to die. Someone needs to kill her. Maybe it should be me.' And it's just like, okay. That's like what's actually out in the world because of people creating hate."

Faced with threats like that, it's easy to understand why the Sussexes chose to live a different life.