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

 

[Otterly]

She should go for a chutney line. She can brand it as, ‘A Right (Royal) Pickle.’

 

[MAAAD]

Don't know when this happened, but here's Queen Camilla visiting your average lovely British school.
A heart-warming sight! Children are our future!

 

[Tasty Tatty]

I saw that some days ago on twitter, and yes, the reactions were also of horror.

 

[obsdj]

Don't know when this happened, but here's Queen Camilla visiting your average lovely British school.
A heart-warming sight! Children are our future!

"End the patriarchy" and "Stand up to gender discrimination" signs being waved by a bunch of deluded freaks in hijabs. Idiotic regardless of who you're waving them at, but extra priceless because you know these sad sacks would force Camilla to wear it too if they could. Actually no, they would bury her up to her waist and stone her for committing adultery when she and Chuck were still married to other people.

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

I didn't realise Netflix had remade Sister Act.

 

[John Andrews Stan]

I saw that some days ago on twitter, and yes, the reactions were also of horror.

Go to any UK city and you’ll see these jihadis everywhere. The sick truth is that King Charles has been a vocal supporter of Islam and of Muslims flooding Britain. He is said to find Islam especially fascinating and has spent decades promoting the “religion of peace” lie. The fact that he rolled out the red carpet for fucking QATAR recently should have attracted much more criticism than it did. (Qatar shields and provides monetary support to Hamas and other Islamist terrorists.)

Note to Charlie: No matter how much you ballwash them, they’d slaughter you and your entire family without hesitation if they could penetrate your security.

 

[Free the Pedos]

William and Kate are literally billionaires so this is all beneath them. Kate is just casually wearing a USD$25 million necklace on the red carpet while Meghan... is merching jam

They aren’t nearly as rich as people like Meghan think they are. Most of their stuff belongs to the Crown Trust. Obviously they have plenty of money, but not like Emirati royalty money.

 

[gobbles]

My low effort submission.
View attachment 7019726

Obviously this sounds the best, but I suspect the BRF would go nuclear if the Sussex duo hinted at trading on any family names. Bad enough that they use their titles.

 

[Sean Andalou]

Note to Charlie: No matter how much you ballwash them, they’d slaughter you and your entire family without hesitation if they could penetrate your security.

No conspiracy theories floating around to the effect that Charles is already secretly a Muslim?
If the UK were like the USA, that would be a big thing.

---

Obviously this sounds the best, but I suspect the BRF would go nuclear if the Sussex duo hinted at trading on any family names. Bad enough that they use their titles.

It's her name, so what are they going to do?

 

[Al from Dadeville]

A commenter points out that Meghan's rescue beagle ended up with two broken legs while in her care... (S | A)

I just found out about this a few weeks ago when it was announced Harvey the beagle died and I don’t know why this isn’t a bigger story. How does a dog break its (supposedly front two) legs, other than being hit by a car? I think one of the Sussex retards threw that dog.

 

[John Andrews Stan]

I just found out about this a few weeks ago when it was announced Harvey the beagle died and I don’t know why this isn’t a bigger story. How does a dog break its (supposedly front two) legs, other than being hit by a car? I think one of the Sussex retards threw that dog.

They both have a history of cruelty to animals. Harry ignored advice not to ride a pregnant horse during a polo match. The horse was badly injured and had to be put down. There’s also video of him taunting a pony and smacking it like a full-blown zoosadist.

 

[Disc]

Buried in that article is the fact they donated to a charitable fund to support the mental health of emergency responders, because that's not really the main point - the main point of the visit is they showed up as a reassuring presence, listened to the bereaved families and Kate hugged a paramedic who'd been one of the first on the scene. It might be forelock tugging and indicative of some deep rooted class issues in British society, but people like it. And the importance of it was drilled into the royals by Queen Elizabeth; one of her biggest regrets was delaying visiting Aberfan after the disaster there.

Because the attention itself is a currency.

Royals are heads of state, at least in some form, and them going there proves that the disaster is on the highest radar there is in the country. Even if they can't do anything about it, knowing that the supposed ruler of the entire country is here and listening is incredibly reassuring, and it might get third parties offering their own support.

Meghan and Harry don't actually have the sway in america that their presence can ensure something's on the radar. The more comparable one to the royal visits in america is the president - because he's the one with actual authority.

In fact, them going there feels like the opposite - like they're trying to farm clout. They're David Hogg, cycling to school after the shooting begins.

basically, if your general importance is such that your BAU can override news about the disasters of the little people, you stopping to show your support of them helps them get noticed. If thats not the case, however, going to these places without seriously putting your money where your mouth is only seems to be helping you get noticed. It's signal boosting.

 

[MongInTheMirror]

It's her name, so what are they going to do?

See now, normally I'd agree with you, but in Trump's America? You know that even if she was only breaking some obscure bong law about royal heraldry, he would probably happily extradite her just for LOLs.

...I hope so, anyway. Because that would be really, really funny.

 

[Sean Andalou]

Trump's America?

What's in it for Trump?
She's a 100% American entrepreneur even if she didn't vote for him.

 

[MongInTheMirror]

What's in it for Trump?

I don't know if he'd even need to bother to extract concessions over it, TBH. They've 'sparred' publicly in the past, in the sense that she's an annoying virtue-signalling liberal about him since his first term while he's acknowledged her once or twice to joke about her being a hag.

He certainly wouldn't need to, and it's likely not worth even the minimal effort - but I like to think he might, if just out of a combination of spite and desire to see her racebaiting liberal stans chimp out.

 

[Clem Fandango]

Don't know when this happened, but here's Queen Camilla visiting your average lovely British school.
A heart-warming sight! Children are our future!
View attachment 7019760

Christ, the country of my childhood is already gone forever. Truly horrifying.

 

[Otterly]

Christ, the country of my childhood is already gone forever. Truly horrifying.

I look at my school pictures and not only is everyone white, like everyone is white, they are all different looking somehow. Almost all the kids have the blonde or wheat coloured hair, one or two with the pale skin/v dark hair the Irish get, couple of red heads or gingers and most have light, blue or grey/green eyes. None are fat. We had a couple we thought were fat, but no, compared to these days they weren’t at all . It’s like looking at a different world.

 

[Dog-O-Tron 5000v5.0]

Don't know when this happened, but here's Queen Camilla visiting your average lovely British school.
A heart-warming sight! Children are our future!
View attachment 7019760

In Modern Britain, Colonials Colonize YOU! What a country!!

 

[Clem Fandango]

I look at my school pictures and not only is everyone white, like everyone is white, they are all different looking somehow. Almost all the kids have the blonde or wheat coloured hair, one or two with the pale skin/v dark hair the Irish get, couple of red heads or gingers and most have light, blue or grey/green eyes. None are fat. We had a couple we thought were fat, but no, compared to these days they weren’t at all . It’s like looking at a different world.

Same. Well, in my primary school class we had one, literally one, Indian kid in a class of 30+, and this was the early nineties. They had some kind of special dispensation to leave assemblies early when we sang hymns, which I always thought was a sweet gig.

This tracked into my secondary school too, where I'm pretty sure we had 4 paki, african kids across the year of ~120.

This wasn't even that long ago. What the fuck am I even looking at now??

 

[AssignedEva]

A few Meghan Markle updates:
Her products won't be ready to launch until months after her show

“The show is really her being in her own space and doing her thing,” the TV insider said. “It’s such a joyous show.” But there is a snag. Sources told us that the As Ever lifestyle products won’t be ready for sale until a few months after the show’s launch. As Page Six previously revealed, the mom-of-two has teamed up with Netflix to sell her products. Contrary to reports, we are told there won’t be any pop-up installations or branded cafes at malls across the country.

The reason she's had the As Ever trademark for a few years is because she got banned from selling clothes under that label so had tried a different name

The Mail on Sunday can reveal documents filed at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in October 2022 by Meghan’s high-powered lawyers applied for permission to sell aprons and other items of clothing - along with a long list of products including jams and dog biscuits - under the ‘As Ever’ name. But USPTO issued a 145-page ‘partial rejection’ of Meghan’s trademark application in July 2023 saying she could not sell clothing because her company’s name was too similar to Chinese ‘fast fashion’ brand ASEVER. ASEVER, based in Shenzhen, China is a clothing company which supplies popular high street stores like H&M.

In their response, USPTO said: ‘The marks are identical in sound and virtually identical in appearance and are thus confusingly similar for the purposes of determining likelihood of confusion.’ The trademark office cited ‘clothing category Class 25’ and sent the trademark application back to the Duchess of Sussex’s legal team. The paperwork stated: ‘Registration of the applied-for mark is refused because of a likelihood of confusion.’ Six months later, in January 2024, Meghan’s lawyers filed a revised application which removed any mention of clothing - and her trademark application for ‘As Ever’ was approved.

They're not the only brand making clothing under that name though - there's an independent company making upcycled vintage clothing in NYC called "As Ever", and the Hollywood Reporter covered it.

The Hollywood Reporter turning on her may be because Meghan is probably getting dropped by her talent agency, WME

Meghan Markle has been dropped by WME, multiple sources tell Page Six, after months of speculation about her relationship with the top Hollywood agency. But the agency denies it has given the star the royal flush and says it’s still working with her. We’re told that the Duchess of Sussex has not held any meetings with the agency’s uber powerbroker Ari Emanuel since January last year — though she is believed to have met with her day-to-day agents. An industry insider said Markle, 43, was let go because she was “too demanding” and “difficult to work with.” (...)

In addition to this, we hear that Markle had an outburst in January 2024, right after the holidays, when the duchess demanded a meeting “and expected decks and plans,” though it’s unclear if this was for herself or Archewell. This led to a dispute and “Ari was done with her,” says the insider. The incident was confirmed by another source. The news comes as the mom of two prepares to launch her new Netflix lifestyle show, “With Love, Meghan,” next Tuesday.

She'd only been signed with them since April 2023. WME is insisting they haven't dropped her, but the in-between reading here is that they're still representing Archewell but are not planning to continue representing Meghan herself after the show's out (they never really managed to get her any work, besides potentially a podcast deal with a Spotify competitor that nobody's heard of).
Some further blinds (worth taking with a pinch of salt as the Meghan snarkers tend to be insane)

Meghan attended the Inviticus Games with Harry, but left after only 3 days (it's a week long event) by private jet, reportedly to go back and spend time with the children, so it wouldn't be surprising if there's something going on behind the scenes. Certainly it would explain why she's suddenly so active on instagram to try and drum up "organic" interest in her show (the "ahem, followers" line is suggesting she's using botted followers). One other -

Yet to see any evidence of this, but it would tally with the Hollywood Reporter turning on her. The shitshow of her Netflix series and emergency rebrands + general unpleasantness could be the final straw for a lot of higher ups in the publicity industry, so I wouldn't be surprised if she's not just in a PR freefall but is now facing a PR hatchet job.