Royal fans were dismayed when Meghan Markle and Prince Harry decided to take a step back as senior members of The Firm in January 2020.

By March of that year, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had made their final rounds of royal engagements and moved to Canada — and then onward to their more permanent home in Montecito, Calif.

Now, amid Markle, 42, and Harry’s recent public appearances at the Invictus Games last month and visit to New York City for World Mental Health Day earlier this week, the “Suits” star’s alleged last words before officially leaving royal life — uttered quietly to a confidante — have resurfaced.
Omid Scobie — co-author of the book “Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan” — reveals in the new biography what Markle’s supposed final words on that difficult final day.

“It didn’t have to be this way,” she reportedly learned and whispered tearfully to the journalist. The two were both attending the Association of Commonwealth scholars event at the time.

Scobie then gave her a hug, he said in a piece written for Harper’s Bazaar.

The couple tied the knot in 2018 and moved to California in 2020. POOL/AFP via Getty Images

One reason why the couple left was because they felt a lack of support from the Firm. Getty Images

“The tears that the duchess had been bravely holding back [were] free to flow among familiar faces,” he wrote, adding that Markle was wishing things had gone in a different direction.

Scobie continued: “The Duchess of Sussex emotionally [bid] much-loved aides farewell, with her flight ‘home’ to Canada leaving in a matter of hours.”

“Meghan would fly back to Canada on the last commercial flight of the day, eager to be back in Vancouver Island by the morning before [her son] Archie wakes up,” he said.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle married in 2018 and stepped back from the royal family in early 2020. EPA

“To say [Harry and Markle] were crushed is an understatement. It’s a decision that the couple still feel wasn’t necessary, but also wasn’t a surprise, given the lack of support they received,” Scobie wrote.

Harry, 42, and the former actress have claimed over the years that the reason they departed from the family was due for the need to become more private citizens and because they felt that their fellow Royals did not give them support.

The couple further discussed their exit in a March 2021 bombshell sit-down with Oprah Winfrey.

In the shocking interview, the duo made claims including discussions over how dark their son Archie’s skin would be, how Prince William’s wife Kate Middleton made Markle cry and more.

The former actress and the Invictus Games founder welcomed their son Archie in 2019 and their daughter Lilibet in 2021. Alexi Lubomirski / Duke and Duch

Following the Oprah chat, Markle and Harry dropped a medley of jaw-dropping projects where they described the pain they felt while being a part of the royal family.

Harry published his 410-page memoir, “Spare” earlier this year, while the couple premiered their Netflix docuseries “Harry & Meghan,” in December 2022.