There is no turning back for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and it is reported that the royal couple will no longer take on royal duties. This was in the wake of painful revelations in a book that exposed the couple’s bitter feud with the monarch. It is said that the bombshell biography has ‘torpedoed’ the prospect of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex taking on official roles. The biography has exposed the relationship between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with the monarchy extensively.
Royal insiders claimed that the revelations will also hurt the efforts to restore their feud with Harry’s sibling, William. It is also reported that the way Harry and Meghan conducted themselves in Los Angeles has fallen foul of the palace. The biography unveiled the couple’s bitter relationship with the monarchy in great detail and it is likely to scupper any hopes of negotiating the couple’s royal duties when ‘Megxit’ is reviewed.
The revelations are feared to have hurt the efforts to reconcile the Duke and Duchess’s relationship with brother William and his wife Kate. According to a royal insider: “The door will always be open to them as much-loved members of the family.
“But it’s hard to see how they can now salvage the new role they wanted as ‘hybrid’ royals, running commercial careers alongside royal duties from the US.”
Another insider told the Mail: “The review period has not yet been discussed but it doesn’t seem as if there is any way of going back now. Some very private family matters have now been aired in public, seemingly with their blessing. That will be hurtful.”
All members of the royal family were given a one-year ‘probationary’ period to give space and allow the royal couple to build their independent new lives and also give them an opportunity to resume their royal roles if they have decided to do so. However, it is believed that the way Harry and Meghan behaved in LA has ruined the chance of them returning. One of the reasons was borrowing a glitzy £14.5million Beverly Hills mansion as well as the bombshell biography.
An insider added: “Given the state of the world this just seems so ill-timed. The Sussexes need to move on.”
The Sussexes have publicly dismissed that they were interviewed by the writers of the book Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family and have not ‘contributed’ to the book.
However, it is not clear if the couple allowed their peers to collaborate on it. Authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand claimed that they wrote the book with ‘participation of those closest to the couple’ and boasted of having access to Harry and Meghan’s personal and professional ‘inner circle’. Sources believe that it could only have happened with their permission.
The dismissing of Archie’s night nurse and a private meal Harry had with the Queen were details that would have been known to the royal couple. The biography which is serialised in the Times and Sunday Times wrote about the soured relationship between Harry and William as well as the rollercoaster romance where Harry and Meghan declared their love for each other within three months.
The book claimed that Harry was so enamoured by Meghan that he wanted to marry her after their second date. It also stated that Meghan used to tip off the paparazzi when she worked as an actress in Canada. Her friends claimed that Meghan goes through prejudice from the royal household. It was also written that Harry believed William was a ‘snob’ for asking him not to rush into his relationship with Meghan.
Meghan was said to be disappointed that Kate did not welcome her into the family. She was referred to as ‘Harry’s showgirl’ by a senior royal. Harry felt ‘unprotected’ by his family and was disparaged for being ‘too sensitive and outspoken.’ The popularity of Harry and Meghan ‘needed to be reined in’, according to senior courtiers in other households. And finally, the book also claimed that Meghan sacrificed everything for the royal family and she told her friends about the couple’s decision to quit royal duties.