Harry and Meghan announced their decision to ‘step back as ‘senior’ members’ of the British royal family back in 2020, and some experts believe the late Queen’s response held a hidden message
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped down as senior royals in January 2020, the late Queen revealed an unprecedented statement regarding their decision.
And while it seemed wholly supportive on the surface, some experts believe she included a secret message to the couple within her carefully chosen words.
Five days earlier, Harry and Meghan had made the bombshell announcement that they wanted to ‘quasi-abdicate’, stating, in part: “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.
“We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to The Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages.”
It led to the monarch having “very constructive discussions” with her heir, Prince Charles; Prince William; and Prince Harry himself at Sandringham Estate.
She then issued her 153-word message. “My family and I are entirely supportive of Harry and Meghan’s desire to create a new life as a young family,” it read, in part. “Although we would have preferred them to remain full-time working Members of the Royal Family, we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life as a family while remaining a valued part of my family.”
She also reiterated the couple’s plans to become financially independent and possibly make their own professional incomes. “Harry and Meghan have made clear that they do not want to be reliant on public funds in their new lives,” her statement continued.
“It has therefore been agreed that there will be a period of transition in which the Sussexes will spend time in Canada and the UK,” she added, echoing the couple’s plans to split their time between North America and the United Kingdom. The Queen concluded, “These are complex matters for my family to resolve, and there is some more work to be done, but I have asked for final decisions to be reached in the coming days.”
While on the surface, the message seemed to support Harry and Meghan, royal experts claimed the late Queen was sending an underlying message.
“There is no reference to them becoming part-time working royals and there is not a skerrick of a suggestion that the family’s press secretaries and pinstriped mandarins are beavering behind the scenes away to come up with a blueprint for the Sussexes’ mooted ‘new working model’,” noted Daniela Elser, royal expert for the New Zealand Herald, at the time.
“This omission is glaring. In their statement last week, Harry and Meghan said they wanted to be able to “work to become financially independent”. The question now is whether the Queen felt that intention was drastically at odds with them continuing to have any sort of official role as representative of the Crown. Essentially, they can head Stateside and earn their own coin or they can be official representatives of the woman whose face is on the coin. Not both.
“It is also worth taking note of the repeated use of ‘my’which is a truly impressive offensive manoeuvre and a sublime power play. Language matters, deeply, and the Queen does nothing by accident – this was an unambiguous reminder of who is truly calling the shots.
“…What the Queen has done today is to make clear the demarcation between Buckingham Palace and Brand Sussex.
