UK United Kingdom Royal Family / Royal Families Drama General Thread - formerly "Prince Harry and Meghan to step back as senior royals"

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have announced they will step back as "senior" royals and work to become financially independent.

In a statement, Prince Harry and Meghan also said they plan to split their time between the UK and North America.

The BBC understands no other royal - including the Queen or Prince William - was consulted before the statement and Buckingham Palace is "disappointed".

Senior royals are understood to be "hurt" by the announcement.

In their unexpected statement on Wednesday, also posted on their Instagram page, the couple said they made the decision "after many months of reflection and internal discussions".

"We intend to step back as 'senior' members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen."

They said they plan to balance their time between the UK and North America while "continuing to honour our duty to the Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages".

"This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity."

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said discussions with the duke and duchess on their decision to step back were "at an early stage", adding: "We understand their desire to take a different approach, but these are complicated issues that will take time to work through."

The couple's announcement on Wednesday comes two months after the Duke of York withdrew from public life after a BBC interview about his ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in August.

Harry and Meghan to step back as senior royals

No other royals were consulted before the couple's announcement, the BBC understands.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

Didn't one British King behead two of his wives?

King Henry VIII. He didn't do it personally it has to be said, however he went through a lot of wives including founding the Church of England to get himself annulments of some of those.

 

[6MillionCoofs]

Whether or not it really is a colostomy bag, how did this happen anyway? Aren't the royals supposed to have the most advanced model of mincing, lisping fags on-staff to specially dress them in custom outfits for every occasion? Did no one think to say "Hey Kate, your inflation valve is showing right through that dress"? It's literally someone's job to catch that stuff.

You are going to be able to notice the bulge no matter what dress. At that point might as well just shrug and go with it.

 

[Not A Bunny]

My much less serious take is history has repeated itself (if you know what i mean, another wife of a princess and somethingbad happening to them)
Actual serious answer: They don't want people to look into their private lives is my guess

I never understand this attitude with celebrities that actively court the press.

I'm not saying they don't deserve privacy, but they created the monster that consumes all the information about their lives, and then get indignant about people's lack of boundaries towards them?

It's perfectly possible to have privacy as a celebrity (like, make it financially difficult for paparazzi to follow you by living somewhere where there aren't a lot of other celebrities), and part of that is not making almost everything about your life public. Case in point: having a special photo released to the world for a holiday to show everyone how fulfilling and picture-perfect your life is.

So when people start noticing it's a facade, they're going to have questions.

At that point might as well just shrug and go with it.

I've always gotten the sense that everyone in the BRF save for Liz love the notion of projecting the image of "better" than everyone else.

The public image of Kate and Wills has always been "picture-perfect family", so if that image is tarnished in some way, even if it's for a perfectly understandable human condition, it's damn near murder to these people. They're only "relatable" when it comes to selling themselves to the public. It's why we don't see them with servants in tow, though we all know they're there. Even a common medical condition is a danger to expose them as "better": their care is better, so they're surviving better. Their clothes are tailored, so they can hide appliances better.

Any time there's an opportunity to show that they're down here with the rest of us is a matter of treason.

 

[BrainProlapse]

If I had to guess, she's had a hysterectomy.

Some women have the surgery and aren't fully recovered even 6 months later despite the surgery going to plan, and not to mention the huge hormonal shift. She probably just feels like shit and doesn't want to be seen.

 

[Otterly]

If Charles has pancreatic cancer that’s a death sentence. Very few people survive it, you’d need to catch it immediately. Many patients often have surgery as well and as far as we can see he hasn’t - if it was caught during prostate surgery my bet would have been a bowel/lower GI tract tumour. How fingers show he’s had some issue for a while. The irony of waiting so long then dying in a year or so. Buy commemorative coins i guess, they’ll appreciate in value
I cannot see wills knocking Kate around somehow, it just doesn’t scan.

Let Anne be regent, let Anne be regent...

This would be good, she’s about the most sensible of the lot.

 

[teriyakiburns]

From seeing the pictures with an abnormal number of fingers, I assume AI was used to generate fake pictures. But why?

He doesn't have an abnormal number of fingers, though. The kid likes to twist one finger over another; it's some sort of nervous habit, probably. I used to do the same thing all the time when I was a kid. It looks weird in photographs, but it's not the first time he's been accused of having wierd hands in a photo and it's not a sign of AI. You don't even have to be particularly flexible to recreate it yourself.

 

[Dog-O-Tron 5000v5.0]

For context, I was read about Tsarevich Alexi's hemophilia and how it was a well-guarded secret, a Russian state secret. While we've certainly come a long way regarding transparency since then, I wouldn't be surprised if Buckingham Palace had a similar attitude toward's the Princess of Wales' medical issues.

But...why?

She's not an heir to the throne, and she's produced a bushel of future heirs. There is no downside to her having a colostomy or hysterectomy or whatever.

In fact it's all upside. She gets to be the Royal Face of this medical problem, smiling and championing the cause. She can be the role model for how to live a full life after surgery, recovering, coping, etc.

I think as a society we're past the "oh no poop" or "ewww ladyparts" attitude that you can't discuss it due to public humiliation. The only possible thing I can think of might be they don't want to seem like she's competing with the pity party for Chuck, or make people think the entire Royal Family is sick and weak and must go. Which is bizarre because it makes them more relatable--lots of families have multiple crises at once.

 

[Mayhem]

I mentioned this in another thread - some of the royal watching accounts on social media said about a month ago that Kate has Crohn’s disease and her mysterious abdominal surgery was a bowel resection. That would also track with the colostomy bag, and it is also possible that she’s on a feeding tube as well. She’s always been very thin, even after having multiple children. She didn’t look much thinner in the recent car photos, but that’s not saying much.

 

[Feline Supremacist]

But...why?

Thy're Br*tsh. One doesn't advertise they have a poop bag or whatever.

 

[R00T]

What gets me is how amateurish it is. You’d think that they’d get some photoshop professional to do the job if it was full on truth regime deception, in that case it probably wasn’t sanctioned by whoever is usually in charge o pictures that are presented to the public. Strange, but the royal family has always been.

“Royal ai image generator why did you create a picture where the future young prince has a mangled hand.”

“Its not muh fault muh bing account ran outta credits. Simple as.”

 

[obsdj]

She's not an heir to the throne, and she's produced a bushel of future heirs. There is no downside to her having a colostomy or hysterectomy or whatever.

In fact it's all upside. She gets to be the Royal Face of this medical problem, smiling and championing the cause. She can be the role model for how to live a full life after surgery, recovering, coping, etc.

Shouldn't she have some choice about whether to plaster her (imaginary, speculative, quite possibly entirely made up) colostomy bag and/or hysterectomy all over the news cycles as gossip rags? Why shouldn't she be allowed to have the same agency and privacy in her medical issues as the rest of us, especially since as you say, she has already birthed an heir and two spares?

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

as the rest of us,

because she isn't
she's part of the British Royal Family, a very specific freak show that she chose to join

 

[6MillionCoofs]

Why shouldn't she be allowed to have the same agency and privacy in her medical issues as the rest of us,

Because the press say she shouldn’t.

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

My Guess:

The Photo.

The takedown of the photo was ordered by Meghan after she spilled some 'secrets' to American media: "The royal family edit photos, big scoop if you dig". Which led to a massive nothing-burger and conspiracies created by American media to save face.
The kids are busy being trained for the life of Princes and Princess and time is very short getting affairs in order, to the point where the kids/family don't have all day to stand around getting a perfect picture for the media shitehawks.

'Kate'

Had a serious surgery a couple of months ago, still only half-way through recovering. She's a private person and has told British Media "Lay-off while I recover then i'll do interviews when I get back.
Kate has said to William: Go do what you need to do with your Dad, let me recover, I don't want you seeing me in such a poor state (A stance most loving partners would take).

William

Helping Dad around the house and learning the ropes to be King. Even if Charles isn't dying, this is a kick up the arse to be prepared for the worst. After-all, Charles has been busy taking over as King and hasn't had time to think about succession.
Juggling a sick wife, three kids, a promotion and the possibility that his old man is passing away must take one hell of a burden on a person. They're human, after all.

Charles

Cursed with sitting on the throne in late age and can only do it for a limited time, as prophesised since the 90's. Maybe the health scare is enough for him to realise that he can't do the job, maybe he needs more time to adjust. Either way, he will be prepping his son and grandson for the tasks ahead.

Harry

Has offered his services to be Prince of Wales/help William out while the kids come of age. Charles has said "not on my watch" so Harry is waiting in the wings. I would expect a divorce from Meghan within the year, sooner if Charles slips away.

No grand conspiracy, just bad timing, a little bit of bad luck and preparation, preparation, preparation.

That, or Meghan has tried assassinating the family and the ranks have been closed until they can find out proof or a way to bump her off. Harry could have been told meghan will be Diana'd with the kids.

 

[tehpope]

https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/1b2q7hm/i_have_a_theory_on_kate_middleton/

https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/1bcl4fh/i_have_a_theory_on_kate_middleton_part_2/

Not sure if these or other time lines have been posted yet.

 

[babadook]

No, wrong. Whatever is going on, it's huge and Kensington Palace doesn't know how to handle it.

Kate and her three children haven't been seen since Christmas, where she made an appearance where she looked even thinner than normal.

ALLEGEDLY sometime between Christmas and NYE an ambulance was called to their home and left with a police escort.

At some point after that and before the surgery announcement, a weird article was posted suggesting that Kate is unstable and that she and William were having major arguments. It was quickly taken down and Kate's name was search-replaced with Harry's (though the editor who did the revisions missed a crucial pronoun swap, revealing that the original subject was female).

If it were *just* surgery+recovery and the palace behaved normally (a bowel resection lines up with the recovery timeframe given and Kate has long been speculated to have Crohn's or a similar condition), no one would really care.

But this level of obfuscation and stonewalling, Kate either being so unwell that she can't be seen even for a staged photo (please remember that this is a woman who was posing for the media six hours after giving birth after a difficult pregnancy) and/or is refusing to be seen, the kids being MIA, William making weird statements about "focusing on work" when questioned about the whole matter, Thomas Kingston's suicide, William appearing to have bruises on his face and neck, the proof-of-life photo that was revealed to be a full composite using a Vogue cover from years ago (NOT just "retouched"), the Rose Hanbury allegations resurfacing and rumors of her leaving her own husband -- something big is going down.

Finally some good fucking tea, this thread is endless "lol sheboon" posting

 

[teriyakiburns]

https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/1b2q7hm/i_have_a_theory_on_kate_middleton/

https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/1bcl4fh/i_have_a_theory_on_kate_middleton_part_2/

Not sure if these or other time lines have been posted yet.

Basing anything on the contents of Spare is retarded. The entire DV/affair/pegging narrative came from Meghan. Besides, if William was having an affair, I'd expect it involve rubber wellingtons and a horse. That's much more in keeping with previous royal behaviours (not looking at anyone at all Charles).

 

[mindlessobserver]

So just say that, and say she doesn't want to be photographed because she looks like death following a colon resection. The only reason there is a feeding frenzy now is because they decided to go full "weekend at bernies" with her twitter account.

 

[Otterly]

also possible that she’s on a feeding tube as well. She’s always been very thin, even after having multiple children.

She had severe hyperemesis with the pregnancies. That can also do a lot of damage - if she’s needed a mesh repair for a hiatal hernia or similar she will need a long recovery time. She’s judged relentlessly on how she looks (I know people like to screech about how women are in general but really, no one gives a shit if I’m at work and didn’t notice one of the kids spilled something on me before I left the house - but she genuinely is judged for it.) I don’t blame her for lying low.
The lad is just twisting his fingers round - when they learn how to do this they do it constantly for a while. I also saw some speculation in the press about Charlotte’s teeth and how AI can’t make teeth - again she’s losing her baby teeth and getting adult ones and that makes you look cute and goofy for a bit. I think some of the media have never seen a child before. They gurn, wriggle and will not sit still even if they’re royals trained to do it. She probably just combined a few pics to make one where nobody has their finger up a nostril

 

[babadook]

View attachment 5813962
Fuck. I didn't realize how bad things really were. He looks like his father did after 90. Huge difference from a couple years ago:

He got that Just Fuck My Shit Up eyes