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In an oft-told story, Prince William sensed right away that Meghan Markle might not fit into the House of Windsor’s “never complain, never explain” style of British royalty.
After Prince Harry reportedly introduced William to the American TV actress, and told his big brother that he planned to marry her, the future king reportedly said, “This seems to be moving quite quickly. Are you sure?”
Some say Williams’s “tactless but well-intentioned” reaction to Meghan is the origin for the current historic moment the royal family finds itself in, with Harry and Meghan stunning the world by announcing Wednesday their “Megxit” from the royal family, according to the Daily Beast.
After William’s comment, Harry “flew into a rage” and never got over the idea that Meghan– and he with her — would never be fully welcomed into the family, the Daily Beast added.
In the fall-out from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s announcement, there has been no end of speculating on whose fault it is that the monarchy has suddenly lost two who some say are its brightest stars. People also are debating whether it was disrespectful for Harry and Meghan to give no notice to William, the queen or Prince Charles before going public with their plans, as the BBC reported.
But if nothing else, it appears that William was right to wonder whether Meghan would fit in, because it turned out that she couldn’t, or that she didn’t want to after all. Of course, Meghan came into the marriage as a woman with a thriving career and money and opinions of her own, as the Atlantic said. But more than that — whether William realized it at the time — Meghan turned out be the catalyst for his brother to see that he wasn’t happy with the status quo and that he needed to change things up for himself.
The result is that Harry and Meghan are pushing for “a progressive new role” within the royal family that challenges decades of tradition. But there are differing reports about who in the marriage has been the driving force behind the couple’s disruptive moves, as one would say in tech world.
William and royal courtiers around him may be inclined to blame Meghan. The Sun, citing palace sources, said Meghan has “taken total control” of Harry’s life. In this version of events, the ambitious Meghan has long wanted to become a global philanthropist and enjoy A-list fame, like her new friends Oprah Winfrey and George and Amal Clooney.
So she zeroed in on marrying Harry, and she has transformed the seemingly easy-going, one-time Las Vegas party boy into a “neurotic, faux-woke millionaire,” as a source told The Daily Beast.
“A lot of his old mates and the old boys at the palace say they now just find both of them a complete pain in the arse,” the source said. “I don’t think anyone will be too gutted to see a bit less of them, to be honest.”
A counter-narrative is that Harry — the “spare” to William’s heir — had long sought a meaningful purpose in life. He may have realized, via Meghan, that his purpose would be best served by working outside the royal family.
After all, Harry was “always a royal rebel,” the Atlantic said. He always seemed to chafe under the unwritten rules of being a senior member of the royal family, which include suppressing talk about one’s private struggles and personal beliefs, the Atlantic added. Harry also was known to abhor being at the mercy of royal correspondents and the vociferous tabloid media. Harry blames the latter for tormenting his mother, Princess Diana, until her death, and he and others say some of the coverage of his wife was racist.
There was a time, in the months after Harry and Meghan announced their engagement and in the run-up to the wedding, that the royal family and the British media seemed excited about the match and what it could mean. Many hoped that Meghan, a biracial, Los Angeles-born feminist, would bring a forward-thinking energy to the 1,000-year-old monarchy.
Whatever doubts William may have had about Meghan, he cast those aside once it became clear Harry was going to marry her, the Daily Beast said. He and his wife Kate Middleton “rolled out the red carpet,” inviting Harry and Meghan to stay with them during their visit to the queen’s nearby Sandringham estate for Christmas in 2017, the Daily Beast.
During the first, exciting months of their acquaintance, William, Kate, Harry and Meghan became “the Fab Four” and worked out plans for how they could all work together, the Daily Beast said.
Meanwhile, in a show that the royal family had welcomed Meghan into “The Firm,” Prince Charles walked her down the aisle at her globally televised May 2018 wedding. This was after her American father allowed himself to become ensnared in the sort of tacky, unpleasant tabloid scandal that the royals seek to avoid.
But somewhere along the way, things within the Fab Four fell apart, the Daily Beast said. Maybe it was because Meghan had made Kate cry during a dress fitting or had become too demanding about a tiara for her wedding — or so the tabloids said. Or maybe it was because both she and Harry had reportedly become difficult to work with — though that would seem to be par for the course for royals, especially for the infamously arrogant Prince Andrew, the Daily Beast added.
From Harry and Meghan’s point of view, they suggested in their ITV documentary interviews that she didn’t get the kind of support she needed to transition into royal life or to fend off what they say were false, negative reports about her in the British media. She also said that things became more challenging when she was pregnant with their son, Archie.
Other reports, citing sources close to the couple, suggested that the couple believed they had innovative ideas about how to use their influence to promote worthy causes and advance British interests, but they didn’t believe they received the support they thought they deserved from the royal family.
The couple certainly made many of their frustrations clear on Wednesday, with their exit announcement and with the launch of their new SussexRoyal.com website.
In their announcement, they said they wanted to “transition to a progressive new role” within the royal family and to live part of the time in North America, possibly in Canada.
Under this new model, they said they would become “financially independent” and no longer accept taxpayer funding via the Sovereign Grant to support their work. By rejecting taxpayer funding, they would thereby eliminate the rationale for public scrutiny into their lives.
But according to Harry and Meghan’s website, this grant money was only covering about 5 percent of their office operations, with the majority of their expenses paid for by Prince Charles’ Duchy of Cornwall estate. This reliance on other people’s money got to their other big frustration: Their inability, as royals, to earn their own income.
By becoming financially independent, Harry and Meghan can potentially “earn millions,” pulling in huge sums “on the international celebrity circuit,” according to The Sun. Both could command six-digit fees as public speakers on issues such as climate change and women’s empowerment, and rake in even more money by marketing products they recently trademarked under the Sussex Royal brand, The Sun said. Meanwhile, there could be potential TV and film production deals; Harry already is working with Oprah Winfrey on producing a series on mental health for Apple TV.
According to their website, Harry and Meghan see financial independence as a way to address their biggest frustration: lack of control over their media coverage. If they are no longer senior royals, their thinking goes, they are no longer subject to what’s known as the “royal rota,” a long-agreed-upon arrangement among U.K news outlets to pool coverage of royal events.
“By withdrawing from the royal rota, Harry and Meghan are pursuing a media strategy closer to Hollywood A-listers than the grin-and-bear-it universalism associated with the royal family,” the Atlantic said. As their website indicates, the couple will communicate directly with their followers via social media and only give access to reporters who don’t report rumors and who only engage in what they call “objective news reporting.”
The couple’s desire to move in the world like Hollywood A-listers, to profit from their fame and to have global influence over causes they care about bolsters the argument that Meghan’s ambitions always extended beyond the royal family. It may also explain William’s reported doubts that Meghan could fit into the confines of the monarchy.
In any case, Meghan came along and provided Harry with the catalyst he needed for his own exit. “Like another American divorcée, Wallis Simpson, she has emboldened her royal husband to break away from his family,” the Atlantic said.
This story has been updated.
