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

 

[Tragon Dirtle]

Wasn’t her previous blog thing profitable? She should have just carried on with that.

Her old blog was all sex in the city professional single gal loves being single. Her new realising every girl's Dream by becoming a princess narrative basically ruined the entire brand she'd built up, but would have been worth it if she'd got the bag on all the royal privileges she wanted.

 

[Otterly]

Her old blog was all sex in the city professional single gal loves being single. Her new realising every girl's Dream by becoming a princess narrative basically ruined the entire brand she'd built up, but would have been worth it if she'd got the bag on all the royal privileges she wanted.

She’s bagged the spare. If she’d kept her gob shut and shaken a few hands at country fairs a few times a year she could swan around on beaches for the rest of her life. All the privileges and none of the responsibility. She wasn’t disliked in Britain until they started behaving badly. She seems very unable to read the room.

I’m fascinated as to what she thought royal life would be like. It seems to be a funny mix of old world glam and extreme boredom , shaking hands with the public and living in draughty period buildings . The late queen used to eat cornflakes out of Tupperware, watch the horses on a dog hair covered sofa then din a few million in priceless diamonds and greet the sultan of wherever at a banquet. Must be such an odd life.
Yes they have all sorts of pretty trinkets and castles but the day to day work is really dull and there’s no spending money like there would be if you were a Silicon Valley wifey.
Why not bag a multimillionaire like the other ageing out yacht girls?
Did she not see the succession of pretty rich blonde girls who noped out of marrying Harry in favour of hedge fund managers?

 

[Tragon Dirtle]

Why not bag a multimillionaire like the other ageing out yacht girls?
Did she not see the succession of pretty rich blonde girls who noped out of marrying Harry in favour of hedge fund managers?

She was homing in on piers morgan right before she got to Harry, so she was definitely aiming for a british celeb husband for some reason. Harry is probably the second biggest british name you could get, I don't think she thought about the other stuff.

 

[Otterly]

She was homing in on piers morgan right before she got to Harry

Well that’s an ‘are you on glue?’ moment if ever I saw one.

 

[LordofTendons]

She was homing in on piers morgan right before she got to Harry, so she was definitely aiming for a british celeb husband for some reason. Harry is probably the second biggest british name you could get, I don't think she thought about the other stuff.

I think she was after some football player too-- Ashley Cole?

 

[Geraldine]

Meghan didn't just want whatever privileges really are attached to being a princess.
She evidently thought she would be the center of attention and get to push everybody around.

 

[Tragon Dirtle]

I think she was after some football player too-- Ashley Cole?

You're right, she kept texting him but he turned her down. I wonder why, had she just burned all her bridges in hollywood and we're the next biggest english language market?

 

[John Andrews Stan]

The Behavior Panel’s take is that Meghan’s letter to Palmolive was the formative experience that determined how she’s handled everything that’s come since. Meghan was rewarded with unprecedented attention at a young age for a shakeup of an established institution (an iconic American CPG brand) that she continues to tell herself she did single-handedly. In fact, she was one of many letter writers who may or may not have influenced Palmolive’s decision to change the ad copy. But Meghan was featured on Inside Edition and she learned that being a pain in the ass complainer was the shtick that would take her far.

(I’d love to know how that segment came to be. My bet is that Meghan or her father pitched it via letter to the producers, or cajoled a schoolteacher into doing so.)

So what does she do when she weasels her way into the monarchy? She starts fucking shit up.

TBP guys also point out how retarded it was for Meghan — who goes on ad nauseam in the Netflix series about how she’s felt like such an outsider all her life due to her race and constant rejection as an actress — to try to ingratiate herself with one of the most notoriously insular institutions in the world. Monarchies are not renowned for their openness to and acceptance of outsiders.

The fact is that EVERY outsider who’s married into the BRF — or attempted to — was subjected to intense scrutiny and outright trolling at the beginning. That’s not a new phenomenon and is in reality a hallmark of British culture: The media has always tested the mettle of would-be royals by digging deep into their closets and cutting them down to size so they don’t get ideas above their station. How the subject handles that process determines how quickly the media moves on to the next stage: building them back up, however temporarily.

The fact that Harry didn’t warn her about any of this just shows what an impotent moron he is. He bangs on about protecting his family, but he couldn’t even arm his girlfriend with the most basic data and insights to help her anticipate what was coming. (I don’t believe for a moment that she didn’t Google that family to death. But I do believe she’s not sharp enough to have understood the broader context in which she was operating.)

 

[Tasty Tatty]

I still think that, deep inside in her empty brain, she thought there was a chance she'd be queen.

 

[Free the Pedos]

I still think that, deep inside in her empty brain, she thought there was a chance she'd be queen.

I thought that for a little while, but now I’m firmly on the side of “she never meant to stick around; she always wanted to go back to Hollywood.”

 

[John Andrews Stan]

I thought that for a little while, but now I’m firmly on the side of “she never meant to stick around; she always wanted to go back to Hollywood.”

We can see from The Tig that her bigger picture goal was to build a billion dollar lifestyle brand with her as the face of it ( à la Gwyneth and Goop). I don’t think she was ever particularly attached to acting; it was just a means to the end of fame and fortune. Acting is work and this bitch isn’t one for putting in 20-hour days on set and 3AM wake-ups if she doesn’t have to. It’s much easier money to do brand deals and license your name for product lines. I’m surprised she didn’t go straight for her own fragrance launch, as that’s REALLY easy money for anyone with a bit of celebrity.

 

[Geraldine]

Another Brit expat to California.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/sunak-could-be-heading-to-california-to-live-in-a-7m-penthouse/ss-BB1ptuOW

I wonder if he'll look up Harry and Meghan when he gets there?

 

[Otterly]

Outsiders can and do get in and manage. Big Suze is now a royal and apparently one who is liked.

 

[AnotherPleb]

Another Brit expat to California.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/sunak-could-be-heading-to-california-to-live-in-a-7m-penthouse/ss-BB1ptuOW

I wonder if he'll look up Harry and Meghan when he gets there?

That rat fuck needs to go back to India.

 

[isalaide]

Outsiders can and do get in and manage. Big Suze is now a royal and apparently one who is liked.

Very much so. And little Maud is such a cutie. Also, Duchess Sophie is the inner inner circle. Meghan is widely reported to have blown off all Sophie's attempts to befriend and housetrain her. Bad move.

 

[AssignedEva]

Very much so. And little Maud is such a cutie. Also, Duchess Sophie is the inner inner circle. Meghan is widely reported to have blown off all Sophie's attempts to befriend and housetrain her. Bad move.

Duchess Sophie would have been a really beneficial ally as she also used to run her own PR agency and was quite grounded in her approach to becoming a royal;

I couldn't turn up at a charity and go, right, I think you should be doing this, because that's what I was used to doing in my working life. I had to take a really big step back and go, OK, they want you to be the icing on the cake, the person to come in to thank their volunteers and funders, not necessarily to tell them how to run their communications plan.

Unfortunately "You're going to have to settle for not having everything your way, and will have to become stage dressing for the British state" is the exact sort of advice Meghan would reject out of hand.
Claims she had to hand in her car keys and was trapped in the Palace are likely bunk (they probably hold onto the car keys for royals so the royals don't have to look for them) but you do have to wonder if they started putting Meghan under heavy restrictions because she so obtusely ignored anything approaching sensible guidance.

 

[DumbDude43]

Why not bag a multimillionaire like the other ageing out yacht girls?
Did she not see the succession of pretty rich blonde girls who noped out of marrying Harry in favour of hedge fund managers?

hedge fund managers or west coast tech millionaires might provide a more relaxed and enjoyable lifestyle, but they don't bring the enormous amount of exposure and attention that comes with british royalty.
if she had gone with some random rich guy like that, she would be a nobody today, just a minor american TV actress.
but because she went with harry instead, millions (maybe even billions) of people all around the globe know who she is.

 

[Geraldine]

That rat fuck needs to go back to India.

California has better Chinese food.
Which would you pick if you had to?

 

[AnotherPleb]

California has better Chinese food.
Which would you pick if you had to?

China has no niggers.

 

[Geraldine]

Furthermore tortillas de harina are indistinguishable from chapattis, so he can still feel at home if he wants UK cuisine.