Meghan Markle gave Queen Elizabeth II an “ultimatum” in public before leaving the royal family, along with Prince Harry, a royal photographer has claimed in a documentary about the couple.
It has been more than a year since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their intention to step down from their senior roles in the royal family and seek their own financial independence elsewhere.
Speaking for a documentary — Harry and Meghan: The Next Step, Arthur Edwards said that the way the couple announced their decision was insulting to the Queen and the royal family.
At the time, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced on their “Sussex Royal” Instagram account that they would be leaving the royal family and carving out “progressive roles” — words which implied the royal family was behind the times.
Edwards said that the situation was “pretty serious” since two senior royals were quitting and moving away to a different continent.
He added that the couple had given the Queen an “ultimatum” in public. Edwards revealed: “A senior member of the Royal Family deciding to quit and go and live abroad is pretty serious. A few years ago, Meghan Markle was working on a show called Deal or No Deal. Today, she’s doing a deal or no deal with the Queen of England through a speakerphone.”
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left the UK last year and initially settled in Canada with their son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, before moving to the USA and buying a multi-million dollar property in Los Angeles, California.
Another royal expert, Robert Hardman, claimed that the couple wanted to have it both ways, but that being “half-royal” is not possible.
The Sussexes wanted their own financial freedom and independence — which Hardman acknowledged was understandable — but also wanted to retain some of their royal privileges, including their brand, Sussex Royal.
He stated: “Meghan Markle and Prince Harry wanted to have their cake and eat it. Look, they’re clearly very unhappy with the royal existence that they have at the moment and the way that their public life impinges on them.”
The royal expert went to say: “It’s something they clearly want to change, and many people will have sympathy with that – it’s understandable.”
Ultimately, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were able to retain their HRH titles but were forbidden from using them in conjunction with any work and could not develop their brand as initially planned.
Earlier this month, the rift between the Sussexes and the wider royal family resurfaced when a source claimed Buckingham Palace had forced Meghan Markle’s first names “Rachel Meghan” to be removed from her son, Archie’s birth certificate weeks after he was born.
