BREAKING NEWS: Meghan Markle’s ‘jarring’ one-word verdict on Princess Kate
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have returned to the UK but King Charles has made it clear the couple are no longer working members of the royal family
Meghan and Catherine at the late Queen’s funeral (Image: Alkis Konstantinidis – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle may have relocated back to Britain with their two youngsters, Archie and Lilibet, but King Charles has left no doubt about their position within the Royal Family.
Six years ago the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped away from their duties as senior working royals and moved to California, where they stated they wished to achieve financial independence.
Since 2020, they have disclosed information about their experiences in the monarchy through a number of prominent interviews, including one with Oprah Winfrey, their Netflix series, Finding Freedom, and Harry’s memoir, Spare.
In a striking reversal just a few weeks ago the pair revealed they were now relocating back to Britain to establish a home in a non-royal property outside London with their youngsters enrolled in British schools.
Since their arrival, King Charles and Harry’s elder brother, Prince William, have stayed in “complete agreement” that the pair cannot adopt a ‘half in, half out’ arrangement within the Royal Family, reports the Daily Star.
The King made his stance clear earlier this week through a letter outlining Harry’s precise status, something which the Sussexes have stated left them “surprised”.
In his correspondence King Charles wrote: “It is well known that in January 2020 the Duke and Duchess stepped down from undertaking representative duties on behalf of the Sovereign, and are no longer working members of the Royal Family. The charitable work of the Duke and Duchess is a personal matter for them both and undertaken in their private capacity.”
The correspondence also clarifies that the couple’s HRH titles remain suspended and are not to be used in official contexts.
A spokesman for the Duke and Duchess said: “We were a little surprised not to have been told about this in advance.”
Meghan and Catherine were close in the early days (Image: Simon Bruty/Anychance/Getty Images)
Beyond expressing being “surprised”, the Sussexes’ spokesperson also indicated that the statement caught the couple off guard. Following Meghan and Harry’s statement, Palace officials have told the Daily Mail this claim is “incorrect”, insisting the couple had received the letter 67 minutes before it was released publicly, although they were not consulted on its contents.
This development comes as Harry and Meghan continue their case to argue for 24/7, taxpayer funded, police protection for themselves and their family, which is provided to working members of the royal family.
While relations between Harry and the remainder of his royal relatives appear to remain fraught, particularly with elder brother, William, the Duke of Sussex previously enjoyed a tight-knit relationship with those most closely related to him.
Catherine once shared an especially close bond with her brother-in-law but a biography about her and husband, William, written by Mirror royal editor, Russell Myers, suggests she rapidly became cautious of Meghan.
William and Catherine: The Intimate Inside Story provides details of how the relationship between the two couples, formerly dubbed the Fab Four, deteriorated. It represents a stark contrast from the early days when Harry spoke about their initial encounter in his first interview following his engagement to Meghan.
During it he said: “William was longing to meet her, and so was Catherine. So, you know, being our neighbours, we managed to get that in a couple of – well, quite a few times now, and Catherine has been absolutely…
Princess Catherine, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (Image: PA)
“She’s been wonderful,” Meghan interjected.
However, by the time the pair had departed the UK and released their own Netflix series, memories appeared to have shifted with Meghan employing just one word to describe her encounter with Catherine – “jarring”.
Meghan said at the time: “When Will and Kate came over, and I met her for the first time, they came over for dinner, I remember I was in ripped jeans and I was barefoot. I was a hugger. I’ve always been a hugger, I didn’t realise that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits..
Meghan and Catherine at Wimbledon (Image: Andy Cheung/Getty Images)
“I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside. There is a forward-facing way of being, and then you close the door and go ‘You can relax now’, but that formality carries over on both sides. And that was surprising to me.”
Meanwhile, in his memoir, Spare, Harry added: “The only possibly discordant note I could think of was the marked difference in how the two women dressed, which both of them seemed to notice. Meg: ripped jeans, barefoot. Kate: done up to the nines. No big deal, I thought.”
Although Kate considered Meghan to be ‘friendly’, she drew attention to the contrasts between the two women by observing that there was a ‘touch of California’ about the Suits actress, according to Myers’ book
