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

 

[PuffyGroundCloud]

If I want to watch some famous British struggling with farming, I rather watch Clarkson's Farm.

 

[Tasty Tatty]

I want to see a reality show where all Meghan's servants leave and she has to maintain her entire California estate herself - doing the dishes, mowing the lawn, paying the taxes, everything. Oh yeah, that guy she's married to can help too.

Harry's way more skilled than this dumb bitch, though.

 

[KeepHopeAlive]

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/meghan-markle-disabled-instagram-comments-220019266.html

Aaaaaannnnd she's turned off comments. But of course.

If ya can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.

 

[AssignedEva]

I want to see a reality show where all Meghan's servants leave and she has to maintain her entire California estate herself - doing the dishes, mowing the lawn, paying the taxes, everything. Oh yeah, that guy she's married to can help too.

Up the ante a bit - no staff, but she also has to try and live up to the effortlessly singlehanded picture perfect image she projects. Except there's separately a dour mother-in-law type who appears every episode to nitpick.
"I'm sure you had a lot of fun swanning around making candles, but you left Lilibet with an iPad watching YouTube kids while you did that. How many hours of screentime has she had today? She's 3! And I don't think she's even had lunch yet. Honestly I don't understand why you're making candles, anyway, I know you're spending $70 apiece on those Diptyque candles and you don't even light them. Now I hope you've got something nourishing planned for dinner, and there'd better not be any edible flowers on the plate, you know they don't agree with Archie"

 

[DreinMeinVein]

If I want to watch some famous British struggling with farming, I rather watch Clarkson's Farm.

Best comparison.

We all know the studio behind Clarkson's Farm is paying him to let us watch the struggle. We know that if it all goes tits up, Jeremy won't be homeless and starving. There's a big difference between him and Meg.

It's partly because of his politics, and mostly that Clarkson seems to genuinely want to live out his retirement by farming his land, there is jeopardy in watching him try to make his farm financially viable. That jeopardy makes for good telly.

This is just a bored actress playing at being a posho. There is jeopardy, because if Meghan fucks this up she will fade into irrelevance. Absolutely no chance the show will delve into that aspect of their life.

I'll always feel slightly sorry for Harry. I bet he imagined they'd retire to a little cottage and live off the fat of the land. Nope.

 

[isalaide]

I make 2025 the Year of the American Riviera Mindfully Finding Royal Separation.

Which will absolutely involve Meghan making accusations of domestic violence. She can never make it back to the cosiness of the civil list, but she will make damn sure Harry can't return to being a working royal either.

 

[Carpe Jugulum]

It’s guaranteed if they do separate it will be an absolute shitshow. Megs always has to be a victim.

 

[Dog-O-Tron 5000v5.0]

I'll always feel slightly sorry for Harry. I bet he imagined they'd retire to a little cottage and live off the fat of the land. Nope.

Seeing how hands on his father was in actively managing the gardens on his estate, and having read parts of Harry's book where he talked about working in a farm in Africa or Australia or someplace, I think he would actually enjoy physically working a personal farm. He seemed to legitimately enjoy the camaraderie and hardships of military life. I can believe he would gladly walk away from the glitz and glamor of the royal and rich lifestyle.

Too bad he married who he did.

 

[Not A Bunny]

I bet he imagined they'd retire to a little cottage and live off the fat of the land.

This is why I think he's a tremendous dunce. He didn't get the idea to leave on his own. That's all down to Meghan.

If he married an obedient little society wife, she would have understood The Firm was bigger than she was, enjoy her comfortable little life, wave for the cameras and do all of the other silly things that royals do when they're not in line for the throne, and Harry would have settled into a life out of the spotlight just fine.

But he's too much of an idiot (and whipped) to tell Meghan to sit down, shut up, and deal with the fact that there are rules and she had to follow them, and if she couldn't do that, damn it, he's a prince of England, and he doesn't need a wound-up American tart fucking things up for him.

 

[Tasty Tatty]

I can believe he would gladly walk away from the glitz and glamor of the royal and rich lifestyle.

This is probably what he expected it would happen when Meghan and him were meant to retire from the spotlight. Little he knew he would be dragged to reality shows and interviews.

 

[Otterly]

Except there's separately a dour mother-in-law type who appears every episode to nitpick.

Make it actually Camilla. That would be great

Which will absolutely involve Meghan making accusations of domestic violence.

She will have to do something dramatic, so she may well. I just don’t think anyone would believe that. Harry has flaws, he’s not very bright, he has poor judgement, and he’s easily led, but I can’t see him as a wife beater or emotional abuser and I don’t think the public would buy that either.
Best case scenario for him is becoming a single dad and slinking back off to the Uk to apologise. Maybe a few years down the line find some equally nice but dim posh Totty to wed. An obscure and quiet life on one of the minor royal estates, and a bit of shorty work to salve his reputation.

 

[Kosher Dill]

Best case scenario for him is becoming a single dad and slinking back off to the Uk to apologise.

I find it hard to imagine anyone accepting an apology from Harry after all this.

 

[Otterly]

I find it hard to imagine anyone accepting an apology from Harry after all this.

I reckon if he really grovels people might, if he keeps his gob shut and doesn’t nothing other than open animal rescue centres and shake hands, be Ok. But not her, she’s burned all the bridges.

 

[jje100010001]

 

[Sean Andalou]

Meghan's brother-in-law in the news.

Prince Andrew reported to the POLICE after 'using fake name' amid saga around private investments company​

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14257287/prince-andrew-reported-police-false-claims.html

Prince Andrew has been reported to police and accused of using a false name to register a company.

The Duke of York, 64, used the pseudonym 'Andrew Inverness' when in 2002 he set up business Naples Gold Limited with sports retail tycoon Johan Eliasch.

Now Graham Smith, the chief executive of Republic, an anti-monarchy campaign group, has submitted a complaint to Scotland Yard to accuse the prince of using false information in documents filed to Companies House.

The Metropolitan Police is currently assessing the report to determine whether any further action is required.

...

But technically any royal title is a legit name, and he's the Earl of Inverness.
He could also be Andrew York. Or use his mother's name Battenberg. Or Windsor.
I quick trip to Wiki reveals he's also Baron Killyleagh.

More aliases than the Mafia this lot.

 

[NoReturn]

Let them eat sponge cake: we watched Meghan Markle’s cooking show trailer so you don’t have to​

Clown Planet, which normally just does clip videos, did a full reaction to the trailer.

 

[John Andrews Stan]

Last night the Meghan’s Mole account on Xitter posted that Meghan is telling people she cut off her father because one of Thomas Markle Jr.’s friends molested her and her father didn’t do anything about it. I wish I’d taken a screen shot because today that tweet is gone.

 

[Phalanges Mycologist]

Do I detect she's wearing some sort of spray on tan, not unlike the incoming president of the USA?
Or perhaps some sort of filter? But then Harry'd get it too.
I seem to recall she used to be lighter.

It might be a bronzer. I think she's been trying to darken herself in order to embrace her "black" heritage.

She overdoes the spray tan and bronzer.

She does this when she thinks she looks Too white, she likes farming the oppression points and tried to pull this with the RF but it went nowhere, for a while during her pre-harry era she like to try an play up her racially ambiguous looks to come off as "exotic" but she didn't have the build to be cast as a lead so when she said I'm Black she tried leaning into that hard an tried to darken her skin as a result.

She doesnt care what she is, just what get's her the most attention.

Catherine has been keeping bees for years and now Meghan is copying that too. But of course.

Does she? That’s fantastic, I like her even more. It’s very therapeutic. I wonder if she keeps the tradition of ‘telling the bees.?’

Yea the dude who keeps a few Hives on my land knows her an supposedly she's a legitimately talented Bee keeper, Cathrine has supposedly done some primitive bee keeping as an experiment so a queen introduced into a stone hollow or a log hollow to build a natural hive in etc and was sucsessful.

Good on her it's a nice skill and very relaxing.

Maybe it’s a launchpad for American Riviera Orchard, Meghan’s brand of jams and nut butters that she launched in 2024 and has yet to produce any content or products.

This is exactly what this is, she's trying to pull a Nigella Lawson i.e. Toff mum who wants to look like she can do something without any of the skills, the problem is Nigella admitted when she started an still to this day to varying extent says she had help lots of it an she only learned to cook on her own an garden on her own because of her TV persona an still heavy relies on her garnder an cheff to do all the really tricky stuff.

I recently read Harry's book, Waaagh, and I don't think he's going to survive the divorce. He's the incarnation of that "When A Man Loves A Woman" song.

He will have a public meltdown, sometime in the next 2 - 3 years he's going to have a massive public meltdown and it's going to be bad for him from a PR perspective at any rate.

I want to see a reality show where all Meghan's servants leave and she has to maintain her entire California estate herself - doing the dishes, mowing the lawn, paying the taxes, everything. Oh yeah, that guy she's married to can help too.

That would be fucking amazing, she's barely made a cup of tea for herself in years if rumours are to be believed (an this is why the cooking show is going to implode), she has people for everything, kid crying? that's nanny's job, Want food that's the cooks job, need to go somewhere that’s the Chauffeur.... She's someone who does all the nice bits of a hobby an not the smelly or ugly bits, and she has the money to cover that part of her existence at the moment but the second they disappear she's left totally helpless.

 

[Kosher Dill]

But technically any royal title is a legit name, and he's the Earl of Inverness.

Yeah, I'm not sure these accusations are going to fly in the country where William and Harry joined the army as "William Wales" and "Harry Wales". Isn't that just what those no-last-namers do?

 

[Free the Pedos]

Yeah, I'm not sure these accusations are going to fly in the country where William and Harry joined the army as "William Wales" and "Harry Wales". Isn't that just what those no-last-namers do?

I always wondered why they weren’t Windsor in the army. Must be some custom of theirs.