MEGHAN AND HARRY. While they were in the United Kingdom without any appointment scheduled with the royal family, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had to review their plans after the serious health alert of Elizabeth II on Thursday…
[Mis à jour le 8 septembre 2022, à 16h24] The news fell this Thursday, September 8, plunging the United Kingdom into anguish. In a twitter post posted on the British Royal Family’s account at midday, doctors at Buckingham Palace said they were “concerned” about the health of 96-year-old Queen Elizabeth II. A very unusual communication that sounded like a serious alert across the Channel. The new British Prime Minister Liz Truss immediately expressed the concern of “the whole country” when Prince Charles and Prince William made it known just as quickly that they were going to the Queen’s bedside, installed in her residence of Balmoral, Scotland.
Prince Harry, who has been at odds with the royal family for several years, has also indicated that he will go there with his wife Meghan Markle, said the BBC in the early afternoon. While he has lived for several years in California with his wife Meghan Markle, the grandson of Elizabeth II was already in the United Kingdom at the time of the announcement. Since September 3, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have indeed been stopping off in Europe. They started their stay at Frogmore Cottage, Windsor, to go a few days later to the One Young World Summit, an annual summit bringing together 190 international leaders in Manchester, in the north of the country. This Monday, September 5, they were present at the event in which Meghan Markle is a part.
On Tuesday, the couple traveled to Germany, this time to Düsseldorf, for the launch of the Invictus Games 2023, an athletic competition for injured war veterans and people with disabilities that Harry has been patronizing for many years. This Thursday, the couple, who were still in Germany, were to return to London according to the official program. The WellChild Awards ceremony, an organization providing care for children with serious illnesses, was notably on the program for Meghan and Harry. Sean Coughlan, correspondent following the royal family for the BBC indicated in the afternoon that “the Sussexes will have to give up” this charity event.
The visit to the United Kingdom of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, already highly publicized, is therefore turned upside down by events. After a week of headlines about the tensions and the noticeable absence of meetings with Charles, William or even the Queen, they will find themselves in the middle of the royal family in an unexpected way.
Read also
In January 2020, via Instagram, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had expressed their desire to put an end to their duties with regard to the royal family and their intention to withdraw from it. They also wanted to gain financial independence and live between North America and England. The case then caused a stir, the English tabloid press very quickly evoking a “Megxit”, in reference to the Brexit earthquake. The couple will retain the titles of Duke and Duchess of Sussex, but renounce the predicate of royal highnesses. They will also lose their right to police protection and will then have to reimburse the taxpayer for the £2.4million spent on refurbishing Frogmore Cottage, the mansion they were intended to reside in.
From March 2020, Harry and Meghan settled with their son Archie in Beverly Hills and then in Montecito, California. Financially independent of the British crown, they have since embarked on a series of media activities in order to finance their lifestyle and the devices necessary for their security. The couple notably signed a multi-year contract, estimated at 100 million dollars, in order to produce series, documentaries and programs for children. They now live with their two children, Archie and Lilibeth, in the Santa Barbara neighborhood in northwest Los Angeles..
Tensions between the couple and the royal family have fueled speculation for several years. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey on the CBS channel in March 2021, Meghan Markle returned to a rumor that she made Kate Middleton, her sister-in-law, cry during her wedding for a disagreement over the dresses of the bridesmaids. . The American then denied and assured that it was “the opposite” that had happened. “I’m not saying this to disparage anyone, because it was a really tough week, and she was upset about something. But she acknowledged what happened and apologized, she gave me flowers and sent me a letter begging my forgiveness”.
Meghan Markle has repeatedly explained that she has no hard feelings and called the Duchess of Cambridge a “good person”. Prince Harry’s wife also insisted on several occasions to assure her sympathy for Elizabeth II. In her 2021 interview, she had sent a message to the sovereign, to make her understand that she had nothing to reproach her for: “There is the family, and then there are the people who run the institution, they are two separate things and it is important to be able to compartmentalize them because the queen, for example, has always been extraordinary with me“, she had declared in front of Oprah Winfrey. Harry didn’t have the slightest reproach for his grandmother either. “I have deep respect for her. She is my Colonel-in-Chief. She will remain so,” he said.
For a week, however, the tabloids have nevertheless been making a feast of Meghan and Harry’s stay in the United Kingdom, stressing that no visit with other members of the royal family, starting with Elizabeth II herself, was not at program.
Harry has always supported his wife in the heart of several controversies since she tried to integrate the House of Windsor. On the other hand, he never hid that their departure and their choice to live on the other side of the Atlantic had been accelerated by their fear of having to endure the unspoken for years. Harry insisted on his fear that “history will repeat itself”, in reference to the death of his mother. “I had three conversations with my grandmother, and two conversations with my father before he stopped taking my calls”, he had justified himself, denying having broken the dialogue of himself with his family.
“I was stuck in a system, as are my father and my brother as well. And I have a lot of compassion for that”, he however nuanced. The exchanges however resumed between the prince and his father, Harry having assured: “I will always love him” but recognizing then that it will take time and work to improve relations.
Read also
Relations between Diana and Charles’ two sons, William and Harry, have also taken a stormy turn in recent years. If Harry was content to say that he and his brother had followed “different trajectories”, he would blame his brother for not having supported him enough when his couple needed it. William, like his father Prince Charles, for his part was “saddened” by the behavior and media messages of Harry and Meghan. A palace source recently told the Mirror that there was “a distinct feeling inside the camp that there must be a better way to solve problems by coming together, rather than the nuclear decision that resulted in this let it all be discussed so publicly and for no reason.”
While the royal family seems to be reuniting around the queen, the British press recalls that Harry and William have not really spoken to each other for over a year, two joint appearances having taken place without any real exchange between the two men. The unpacking that seems to be continuing around Meghan and Harry did not seem to announce any warming in their relationship so far. Especially since for certain gossips, the latter would be fed by the couple himself. In mid-July 2022, a shocking book by Tom Bower “Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the war between the Windsors”, recounting Meghan and Harry’s break with the royal family, made headlines for several days. And the rest is coming since the couple’s biographer would in turn prepare a book filled with “exclusive revelations”.