Hours after news broke that Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, will be splitting from the Royal family, the palace responded to the apparently shocking news.
According to the BBC’s royal correspondent Jonny Dymond, the royals were caught off guard by the announcement and are “disappointed.”
“BBC understands that no other member of the Royal Family was consulted before Harry and Meghan issued their personal statement tonight, the Palace is understood to be ‘disappointed,'” reported Dymond on Wednesday evening.
BREAKING. BBC Understands that no other member of the Royal Family was consulted before Harry and Meghan issued their personal statement tonight, the Palace is understood to be ‘disappointed’.
— Jonny Dymond (@JonnyDymond) January 8, 2020
In an official statement, the palace said Harry and Meghan are at an “early stage.”
“We understand their desire to take a different approach, but these are complicated issues that will take time to work through,” the statement said.
Queen Elizabeth and the British royals are eh… not amused. pic.twitter.com/HyfTsx03A7
— Richard Chambers (@newschambers) January 8, 2020
“Harry and Meghan say they plan to step back as senior members of the British Royal family, and ‘carve out a progressive new role within this institution’ while working ‘to become financially independent,” NBC News reported earlier on Wednesday.
“Harry and Meghan say they plan to balance time between U.K. and North America,” the outlet noted.
“This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter,” said the couple.
Harry and Meghan say plan to balance time between UK and North America: "This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter."
— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 8, 2020
“After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution,” Harry and Meghan added in the joint statement, according to The Associated Press, which called the announcement “stunning.”
“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,” the statement read.
According to the AP, Meghan told the press last year that “her British friends warned her not to marry the prince because of the intense media scrutiny that would follow in his country. But the U.S. television star said she ‘naively’ dismissed the warnings, because as an American she didn’t understand how the British press worked.”
“I never thought this would be easy, but I thought it would be fair. And that is the part that is hard to reconcile,” she said. “But (I) just take each day as it comes.”
According to “royal insiders,” Meghan and Harry have been “a public relations disaster for Buckingham Palace.”
“Royal experts griped about everything from the Sussexes’ private jet use to Duchess Meghan allegedly courting the press to ‘break the Internet‘ with her guest-edited edition of Vogue U.K.’s September issue,” Fox News reported in September.
“[The couple’s recent behavior is] a public relations disaster for Buckingham Palace, who are having a hard time reining them in,” author Lady Colin Campbell told Page Six. “Meghan is clearly calling the shots, but she’s a minor operator who is playing in the big leagues and mucking it up in the most catastrophic fashion.”
Additionally, as noted by The Daily Wire, the climate-alarmist couple’s questionable travel habits have welcomed accusations of hypocrisy, something that’s irritated the couple.
“I spend 99% of my life traveling the world by commercial [flights]. Occasionally there needs to be an opportunity based on a unique circumstance to ensure that my family [is] safe,” Harry responded to critics. “We can all do better and while no one is perfect, we all have a responsibility for our own individual impact. The question is what we do to balance it out.”