It’s been a year of monumental change for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and the shade they’re throwing in the direction of Buckingham Palace doesn’t look like halting anytime soon.
The couple announced their decision to ‘step back’ from the Royal Family early last year – a move few anticipated given the rarity that such a withdrawal occurs.
Yet no one could have foreseen the fallout of “Megxit”, nor how Harry and Meghan would dish the dirt on their former lives and virtually all associated with them. Dish it they most certainly have, and with each passing week it looks less and less likely that there is a scenario wherein which they will return to the British Royal Family in any capacity.
In their new skins as self-sufficient personalities no longer tied to the royal household and all its duties, Harry and Meghan have the freedom to say and reveal what they like about Queen Elizabeth and the rest of ‘The Firm’.
It would appear they’re keen on taking full advantage of that benefit.
In early 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle caused quite the stir when they announced that they would be stepping back from their official roles within the British Royal Family.
Having married in 2018, the pair appeared at first to be conforming to all expectations for a couple in their position. A storm, however, was brewing under the surface.
Speculation and rumours had followed Meghan since even before she and Harry tied the knot, with certain tabloids in the UK suggesting she could well be a disruptive influence. These claims, it must be said, were largely unfair, and rather indicative of a press infamous for hounding Princess Diana quite literally right up until the moment she died.
Needless to say, news of Harry and Meghan taking their ‘step back’ sent gossip rippling out over the world. Questions arose as to the true reasons behind their decision; questions that wouldn’t really be answered until the couple’s shock interview with Oprah Winfrey earlier this year (2021).
The sit-down with Oprah became a tell-all affair, one wherein Harry and Meghan presented their side of the story for the very first time. The explosive allegations made included Meghan revealing that she had felt suicidal during her time in England, and that the Royal Family had done little to help her all the same.
She also claimed that there had been questions posed as to the potential color of she and Harry’s then-unborn child Archie’s skin, as well as hitting out at the Palace for not making him a prince.
The response from Buckingham Palace was swift, if not a little discombobulated. Queen Elizabeth herself promised to investigate the more serious accusations herself, while Prince William vehemently denied the idea that the Royal Family were in the least bit racist.
“The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan,” read the statement from the Queen.
“The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.
“Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members.”
Then came the tragic passing – and subsequent funeral – of Prince Philip, which many had hoped would perhaps provide the stage upon which Harry and the rest of his family could rebuild some of the bridges that had been burned.
Alas, it was not to be.
Rather, Harry and brother William did not walk alongside each other during the procession to St. George’s Chapel, where their grandfather would be laid to rest.
According to Radar Online, Prince Charles and William then approached Harry for a two-hour sit down after the funeral, but that only left Harry feeling “ambushed”, and reportedly ultimately “outraged”.
“The meeting after the family laid Prince Philip to rest was not scheduled. Harry felt ambushed by his dad and brother which is no way to start a peace process,” a source told Radar Online.
Following the aforementioned Oprah interview, Harry and Meghan maintained an uneasy sort of silence. That silence, however, appears to now have been broken.
Harry has been increasingly vocal of late, appearing on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, as well as making another appearance alongside Oprah.
During these outings, he doubled down on his frustrations where the Royal Family are concerned, as well as leveling new allegations. One such accusation saw him accuse his father, Prince Charles, of passing on pain and suffering.
Harry told Dax Shepard: “When it comes to parenting, if I’ve experienced some form of pain or suffering because of the pain or suffering that perhaps my father or my parents had suffered, I’m going to make sure I break that cycle so that I don’t pass it on, basically.
“It’s a lot of genetic pain and suffering that gets passed on anyway so we as parents should be doing the most we can to try and say ‘you know what, that happened to me, I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen to you’.”
The newer comments are said to have left members of the Royal Family – Prince William amongst them – seething with Harry. As per the Daily Mirror, Queen Elizabeth is now “deeply upset” with her grandson’s attacks and has “taken them very personally”.
Yet it would seem as though Prince Harry is in no mood to back down. On the contrary, he further reaffirmed his stance to Oprah during a new Apple TV+ series titled The Me You Can’t See. Through that, he told how he refused to be “bullied into silence”.
“I thought my family would help, but every single ask, request, warning, whatever it is, just got met with total silence, total neglect,” he explained of his and Meghan’s troubles.
“We spent four years trying to make it work. We did everything that we possibly could to stay there and carry on doing the role and doing the job. But Meghan was struggling.”
He continued: “That feeling of being trapped within the family, there was no option to leave.
“Eventually, when I made that decision for my family, I was still told, ‘You can’t do this’. And it’s like, ‘Well how bad does it have to get until I am allowed to do this?’.
“She [Meghan] was going to end her life. It shouldn’t have to get to that.”
Not only that, but Harry also took the time to once more criticize his father’s parenting. He said: “My father used to say when I was younger, he used to say to William and I, ‘well it was like that for me so it’s going to be like that for you’. That doesn’t make sense.
“Just because you suffered it doesn’t mean your kids have to suffer. In fact it’s the opposite. If you suffered, do everything you can to make sure any negative experiences you had mean you can make it right for your kids.”
More claims made by Harry – we’re sure the stories are going to keep coming for a long while yet.
What do you think about the whole debacle regarding Harry and Meghan? Were they right to leave the royal life behind? Let us know your thoughts in the comments box on Facebook.
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