President Donald Trump said Wednesday he was glad Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle had left the United States -- while adding that if he were part of the British royal family, he would not have taken them back.
Trump accused Meghan, 45, of being "terribly disrespectful" to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in his first reaction since the prince and his American wife moved back to Britain from California.
The A-list celebrity couple is now settling in back in Harry's homeland, six years after they stepped down as working royals and left for the United States amid bitter acrimony with his family.
"I'm happy about it. I was not a fan," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked what he thought about Harry and Meghan's departure.
"I thought they treated the royal family with great disrespect. I didn't like it. I didn't like the way she acted. I thought she was terribly disrespectful to the Queen, to King Charles."
Harry, 41, appeared to have mended relations with his father, King Charles III, who is battling cancer, during more recent UK visits.
Harry reportedly remains estranged from Prince William, his brother and heir to the throne, and William's wife Catherine.
Trump said he wouldn't have been so forgiving.
"Maybe I'm different. I wouldn't have taken him back, right? If I were the royal family, I would not have taken them back," said Trump.
The 80-year-old former reality TV star has previously traded barbs with Meghan on a number of occasions.
On the eve of a state visit to Britain in 2019 during his first term, Trump denied that he had called Meghan "nasty," despite the comment being clearly audible on a tape of an interview with a tabloid.
She had in turn been critical of Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, calling him "misogynistic" and "divisive."
Trump again seemed stung when Meghan commented ahead of the 2020 election, which he lost, saying he was "not a fan" and adding: "I wish a lot of luck to Harry, because he's going to need it."
The royal couple's return to Britain along with their children Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, marked the end of a long exile from Harry's homeland.
The pair married in a glitzy wedding in 2018 but two years later relinquished their role as working royals after a feud with the British royals and moved to North America.
The rift then deepened as Harry published his tell-all memoir "Spare" and the couple gave a no-holds-barred interview to US talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey.
Meghan, who is mixed-race, and Harry insinuated to Winfrey that the monarchy was racist, claiming a family member raised a question about the skin color of their son before he was born.
Meghan also said she had contemplated suicide after joining the royal family.
But while the couple signed a string of commercial deals with US platforms like Netflix and Spotify, reports said their attempts to make a living in the United States had fallen flat.
Their return to Britain has raised a number of questions.
The Telegraph newspaper reported that the couple plan to stay for "an extended period," living in a home in the Cotswolds region, in central England, having enrolled their children at a school for the coming academic year.
But with speculation rampant around their reasons for returning and whether the stay is permanent, reports have noted the couple intend to keep their existing homes in California and Portugal.
Meghan faces a particularly tough challenge in reassimilating to life in Britain, where she remains unpopular. Polling shows a majority of people hold unfavorable views of her and, to a lesser extent, Harry.
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