While I wouldn’t disregard the idea that she favoured Andrew, I have never seen anything but rumours without even the slightest example. I can absolutely believe she is closer to her younger children because she spent more time with them and Andrew seemed to have taken the family constellation rather well as a young man while Edward was always a bit more on the sensitive side (allegedly). So not as emotional as Charles and Edward, more lighthearted and easy going but also not as tough as Anne who is said to be more like Philip, HMTQ might have found dealing with him easiest. But just because it would make sense doesn’t mean it’s actually true and as I said, I am missing the examples.
She is however, not exactly a dream mother. She has shown a tendency of just doing nothing (for reasons only she knows) when her family went off the rails. And I doubt her grandchildren or great grandchildren even spent that much time with her.
The whole family is said to be rather distant. And that’s ok. Being more stiff, not extremely emotional and keeping a stiff lip is not a crime. People are what they are and it seems the majority of them have found a way to be ok with it. Even play a pretty successful PR campaign together, selling themselves as loving and as if they actually like to spend time together.
I don’t think anyone in this thread faults Harry for stepping back. His unhappiness with the royal life is well documented. Even though he/they managed to built a better look for some years, where it seemed he had found an ok way for him (but while the yearlong whole George/Charlotte no photos for the public, Carole vs Charles drama created money for the tabloids went on, people in the royal watching community already predicted Harry would shield his children even more). It’s generally fine to step back. Be it because of a decades long problem with the situation or just because you don’t want it anymore after a good time. The question is how though.
And it’s not as if he wanted to actually step back. They originally wanted to carve out a new role very much inside of the RF. And only when they realised they wouldn’t get what they wanted the whole thing escalated (and over the course of a year escalated further and further).They still put their royal titles on everything. The “just call me Harry, just one of the lads” was only lip service. And they evoke the royal topic at every possible moment. And that is what drove most sympathetic, generally well meaning watchers away from them. Not the exit itself.
