Just as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s departure from the UK six years ago came as a complete surprise, so too is their shock announcement they now intend to return. Their unilateral decision could fairly be said to have blind-sided the royals. King Charles was only informed on Sunday and is said not to have been involved in the decision making.
No mention was made when Harry, Meghan and their two children visited Charles at his private home at Highgrove last month. Yet in less than two weeks, the Sussexes will be installed in a private non-royal residence, somewhere outside London, with Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, already enrolled in British schools. The reasons for this spectacular U-turn, which was simultaneously broken by four media outlets in the UK, US and Australia on Wednesday night, have not been spelled out.
The couple left the UK amid accusations over media intrusion and attacks, especially on Meghan. Their relationships with senior royals – Charles and William in particular – was severely strained. They subsequently cited, in TV interviews and Harry’s memoir, Spare, the lack of palace support for Meghan.
And their dreams of half-in-half-out royal roles had been firmly dashed by Queen Elizabeth II. Six years on, such problems have not gone away – if anything they seem more firmly entrenched. In addition, they face the expensive headache of having lost taxpayer-funded security, which was afforded to them when they were still working royals.
Relations with some sections of the British media are at an even lower ebb. Having successfully taken legal action against Mirror Group Newspapers as well as the publishers of the Sun and News of the World, Harry returns having just comprehensively lost his latest courtroom battle against the publishers of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday over unproven allegations of unlawful information gathering. There appears to be some form of reconciliation with Charles, yet there were times over the past six years when, Harry has said, his father did not return his calls.
Palace officials have been cautious throughout about private information leaking, given Harry’s willingness to talk so openly and so publicly. While it is “great on a personal level” for Charles to have more private access to his younger son and grandchildren, it will “take a long time to establish a reasonable degree of trust”, said Joe Little, the managing editor of Majesty Magazine. It’s not going to be a case of six weeks and everything is forgiven and forgotten.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
