by Omid Scobie
As their Air Canada flight made its early morning touchdown at Heathrow Airport, and still with no appointment to see Her Majesty, Harry and Meghan toyed with the idea of driving straight from the terminal to see the Queen. Not wanting to cause problems for themselves (arriving unannounced would have ruffled feathers), the couple instead called for a team meeting at Frogmore Cottage. With senior aides Sara and private secretary Fiona Mcilwham in front of them, Harry and Meghan revealed for the first time details of their plans to the team. Whether their speedy approach was right or not, Harry and Meghan were more determined than ever. “At this point they felt like they had brought up the subject enough times with family members over the past year and they were fed up of not being taken seriously,” a source close to the couple said. “Everyone had their chance to help but no one did.”
Few things remain secret between Royal Households and it didn’t take long after Harry’s initial email for the Sussexes’ grand plans to be the topic of conversation among most of the aides and family members. Worried about losing control of the situation, Harry contacted his grandmother to explain his concerns, and she signed off on putting together a jointly agreed statement. The couple hesitated about involving the other Households, not knowing if everyone involved would have their best intentions, but agreed for aides to meet up the next day and get on the same page.
With a plan in place, Harry and Meghan put on big smiles the following day as they chatted to dignitaries and tasted Nanaimo bars at an engagement with Janice Charette, high commissioner in Canada to the UK. But as they thanked her and her staff for the warm reception they received during their stay in Canada, privately they were both nervous about what was about to happen. They had already seen a draft of what Buckingham Palace planned to put out in a statement that would follow theirs and the “lack of warmth” in the response that was being prepared was a clear sign that not everyone supported their decision.
But there was little time to dwell, just a few hours after leaving Canada House, a story about their plans to stay in Canada broke on The Sun’s website. Details were missing, but it was clear that someone within the Palace had briefed the tabloid. A royal source absolutely denied the charge, blaming the couple themselves for the leak, “because they were frustrated at the Palace in the talks that were going on . . . They wanted to force the decision, to break it open.” The couple deny this claim.
With the news out there and almost every major media organization in the world now contacting the Palace for comment, a statement needed to be issued fast. On January 8, the couple took to Instagram to share their news with the world.
“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. 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. “It is with your encouragement, particularly over the last few years, that we feel prepared to make this adjustment. We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to The Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages.”
Alongside their announcement, they launched their website, SussexRoyal.com, which was now no longer a landing page for their new foundation but a detailed roadmap of the “new working model” they hoped to espouse. The website offered clarity on their decision to be financially independent, which was not only to have more freedom in their work but also to remove the tabloids’ justification in having access to their lives. Public money means you are public property.
The website took everyone, even their communications team, by surprise. Aides and family members knew the couple wanted to step back, but the public website, which laid out the details of their new half-in-half-out model as if it were a done deal, put the Queen in a difficult position.
Flustered Buckingham Palace aides ditched their original statement and put out a short media release fifteen minutes after the Sussexes released theirs: “Discussions with The Duke and Duchess of Sussex 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 aides, including the Queen’s private secretary, Edward Young, were furious. “The private offices don’t like that type of behavior,” a source familiar with the negotiations said. “It is deeply unhealthy and unwelcome.”
More unsettling however, was the reaction from the family to the website they had launched. “The element of surprise, the blindsiding of the Queen, for the other principals who are all very mindful of this rightfully, it was deeply upsetting” according to a senior member of the Household. Several in the family shared that both the Queen and Prince Philip were “devastated.”
“The family is very private and bringing it into the public domain, when they were told not to, hurt the Queen,” the source continued. “It was laying out what the Sussexes wanted in a statement without consulting with Her Majesty first—and she’s the head of the institution.”
The Palace scrambled to figure out if all of the requirements in the couple’s roadmap could even work logistically, including having the “future financial autonomy to work externally.” This was very different from the simple idea of spending more time abroad that had originally been presented. There were security and funding issues, tax implications, and visas. How could they legally take on commercial endeavors and still represent the Queen? “It was a huge headache,” said an exasperated aide.
Even a source close to the couple admitted that while Harry and Meghan had put a lot of thought into this immense transition, they could also be “impatient and impulsive.”
“They run hot in a way,” the source said. “The reactions in individual moments are definitely not the same, a month, a few weeks, down the line.”
The Queen was anything but fevered. Despite her sadness at the thought of losing the Sussexes as working royals, she could see it was necessary for the couple to completely separate from the institution. No one should be forced into something they don’t want to do. But if Harry thought that their public proposal would result in their getting exactly what they wanted, “he was sorely mistaken,” said a senior courtier. “The Queen understood the difficulties they faced, but the rules don’t bend for anyone.” Buckingham Palace issued a further statement stating that a solution to Harry and Meghan’s requests would be reached “within days, not weeks.”
After three days of discussions between the royal households and government officials, including the Canadian government, the Queen requested that Harry travel up to Sandringham to meet with herself, Charles, and William.
At the “Sandringham Summit,” as the press dubbed it, the four of them would sort out the future once and for all.
23
The Family Meeting
As the Range Rover pulled up the driveway to Sandringham House, Harry felt himself getting nervous. The estate, where the Queen was currently in residence and so many Christmas memories had been made, was now the setting for the most important meeting of Harry’s royal life.
It was also the hardest. In trying to find a sustainable way of life for him and Meghan, he found himself more at odds with his family than ever. It wasn’t an easy decision to stand up to the age-old rules of the monarchy, but for Harry, this was his only option in “making things right for his own little family,” a source close to the couple said. “This is tearing him apart. He loves the Queen, but his wife feels aggrieved, and he adores his son. Harry’s whole world is Archie. He’s the most amazing father.”
Meghan wasn’t there for the January 13 meeting, having returned to Canada, where Archie had remained with Jessica and his nanny. He did have by his side his private secretary, Fiona, and Samantha Cohen, or “Sam” as Harry called her. Although Samantha had left the Palace in October after two decades of service to become Chief Executive of the Commonweal
th Enterprise & Investment Council and co-chair of the board of trustees at Cool Earth, she remained a trusted voice inside the institution after her service as one of the Queens closest aides and running the Sussexes’ office. Harry needed her support for this. She was one of the few people who knew all parties, and he had always been able to trust her for sound advice.
The three had spent the morning going over all the points Harry wanted to bring up in the meeting. He hoped that by allowing only private secretaries (chiefs of staff) from the Queen, Prince Charles, and Prince William’s offices, it would prevent information from being leaked. Although it was a business matter for the Firm, it was also a private one Harry wanted to keep in the family.
Harry was still facing the Queen, Charles, and William for the first time since he and Meghan had released their full plans to the world. (Although Prince Philip had been widely expected to participate in the meeting, he left for his farmhouse located on the estate shortly before discussions got underway.)
In the days since launching SussexRoyal.com, Buckingham Palace’s dismay had turned to resolve in repairing the situation by finding an appropriate structure and moving on as quickly as possible. While the hybrid model of royalty that Harry and Meghan suggested posed a huge challenge that few thought could be overcome, one source said, “The drama and division is doing the most damage.”
Prior to the meeting, aides had assured Harry that the Queen wanted to help the Sussexes find a resolution, even if they might not get everything they wanted. Despite the reassurances, Harry wasn’t sure who to believe anymore. But he took some comfort in the fact that his grandmother would be sensitive to his concerns.
Charles, William, and Harry joined the Queen in the library, one of the more relaxed spaces at the property. The cozy room had been converted from a bowling alley in 1901, a change which Queen Alexandra (who called Sandringham home until her death in 1925) had always regretted. Meghan was on standby in Vancouver, ready to join the meeting via conference call. But when Harry offered to call her, it was deemed unnecessary.
What a source described as a “practical workmanlike approach” permeated the room as the royals set out to form a deal. Harry felt as though he and Meghan had long been sidelined by the institution and were not a fundamental part of its future. One didn’t have to look further than the family photos displayed during the Queen’s Speech on Christmas Day. In the Green Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace, where the Queen delivered her address, viewers glimpsed photos of the Cambridges and their children, Charles and Camilla, Prince Philip, and a black-and-white image of the sovereign’s father, King George VI. Noticeably absent was a photo of Harry, Meghan, and their new baby, Archie. Palace sources insisted that the photos were chosen to represent the direct line of succession, but for Harry and Meghan, it was yet another sign that they needed consider their own path.
Charles made it clear to Harry that he and Meghan were very much part of the future for the royal family despite calls for a “slimmed down monarchy” with fewer senior working royals. “The Prince of Wales vision always included Harry as part of slimmed down monarchy,” a source close to the family shared. “His vision included both his sons. William will always be more important than Harry but that’s a fact only because of birthright.”
Though William had not taken the original news of his brother’s plan well, his fate was up to the Queen, and she was very aware that the outcome of the meeting would set the standard for generations to come.
Finally, she made it clear that their quasi-royal vision would not work. “It was untenable,” a Palace source said. “If Harry and Meghan had been semi-working royals, there would have had to have been oversight in everything they did in their independent sphere, a committee to approve events and deals.”
When the meeting was over, Harry immediately debriefed Sussex aides before sending a text message to Meghan. Later that evening, the Queen put out an exceptionally candid and personal statement. “My family and I are entirely supportive of Harry and Meghan’s desire to create a new life as a young family,” the statement read. “Although we would have preferred them to remain full-time working Members of the Royal Family, we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life as a family while remaining a valued part of my family.”
The official communication also announced that Harry and Meghan no longer wanted to rely on public money during the coming period of transition, during which time the couple would live in both Canada and the UK.
“These are complex matters for my family to resolve, and there is some more work to be done,” the Queen stated, “but I have asked for final decisions to be reached in the coming days.”
“More work” was an understatement. Harry spent the next several days holed up in intense meetings and conference calls with top aides from all three Royal Households, Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, and Kensington Palace, which were led by Charles’s private secretary Clive Alderton. William was more than happy to leave the matter up to staffers.” The Sunday Times quoted the Duke of Cambridge telling a friend, “I’ve put my arm around my brother all our lives and I can’t do that anymore; we’re separate entities.”
That held true for Meghan and Kate as well. The two duchesses’ relationship had struggled to move past the distant politeness of when they first met. Their cordial but distant rapport was apparent when the pair appeared alongside each other at the King Power Royal Charity Polo Day the previous summer. While the doting mothers were photographed next to each other with their children, the two appeared to barely exchange a word. However, a few final memories were made after it was suggested by aides that the two women attend Wimbledon together three days later. Both had plans to go to the tennis tournament. Meghan was going to support her friend Serena Williams in the Ladies’ Final, while Kate is patron of the All England Lawn Tennis Club. At the match, which Kate’s sister Pippa also joined, the women laughed and chatted in the Royal Box on the Centre Court together. Kate even rubbed Meghan’s back in consolation when Serena lost. “They had a wonderful time,” a source close to the Duchess of Cambridge said. “The whole day was lovely.”
The state of affairs between the two women was just an offshoot of the real issue at hand: the conflict between Harry and the instituion. Harry likened his meetings throughout the week to standing in front of a firing squad. “There was a lot of finger pointing in both directions with things leaking,” an aide said. “It was all very unhealthy.”
When Harry described how he didn’t feel supported by his family, this was what he was referring to. They did their bit in the family meeting at Sandringham, and then they left him to defend himself against and negotiate with their aides, which is exactly what he didn’t want to happen. “He feels that there were so many occasions when the institution and his family could have helped them, stood up for them, backed them up, and never did,” a source said.
Courtiers viewed Harry’s position as completely unrealistic. While it was easy to say they wouldn’t take money from the Sovereign Grant, it was quite another thing to follow through. “The biggest row was over money, because it always is,” a source familiar with the negotiations said. One aide made a catty joke about Meghan launching a line of beauty products.
More accurately, the couple hoped to earn a living through smart speaking engagements, production deals, and other commercial endeavors that had social impact. Still, there were some difficult calculations to be made. If Harry and Meghan did some official work, they would have to figure out how much of their expenses—such as office-related costs and money for security or clothes—were private rather than subject to tax relief. “They’ve created a complete headache for everyone,” an exhausted aide complained on the fifth day of meetings.
More difficult than challenging tax formulas were the hurt feelings on both sides. Even sources close to Harry and Meghan had to admit that the way the couple were forced to approach the situation (mainly in the act of keeping the family and their team in the dark a
bout their website) “created a lot of ill will in the household and especially in the family.”
“Harry and Meghan would have reached a more beneficial agreement to allow them to live the life they wanted if they had handled things in a private, dignified way,” explained a senior Buckingham Palace aide. Added another courtier, “They oversimplified what they were asking for. They thought they’d give Charles their rider, negotiate over email, rock up to London, give three months notice and fly back to Canada.”
Harry and Meghan, however, felt that they had been patronized by other family and staff members for too long. People had humored them when they brought up their grievances, never thinking the couple would actually do anything drastic. The explosive reaction was a direct result of their growing impatience. If other members of the family and those working with the Households had taken their requests more seriously, it wouldn’t have reached that point.
Either way, the source said, “The courtiers blame Meghan, and some family do.”
The media speculated that Meghan was behind the decision for the couple to step back, but few knew how much she sacrificed to try and make it work. As Meghan tearfully told a friend in March, “I gave up my entire life for this family. I was willing to do whatever it takes. But here we are. It’s very sad.”
While the British media often blamed royal wives, in Harry’s case, he was very much on board with distancing himself from the public eye. It’s why he gravitated toward the military, avoided the pomp as much as he could, and didn’t give his child a title. He long craved a life away from the prying eyes of the media. Meghan simply emboldened him to make the change. She supported him no matter what. “Fundamentally, Harry wanted out,” a source close to the couple said. “Deep down, he was always struggling within that world. She’s opened the door for him on that.”
In the evenings, after hours of meetings, Harry was drained. Back in Canada, Meghan did her best to stay busy, even boarding a seaplane on January 14 to visit the Downtown Eastside Women’s Center in Vancouver, a shelter for women and children in one of Canada’s poorest areas. Work kept her preoccupied, and she was eager to get to know some of the women’s charities close to their new home. Deep down she felt helpless as she received occasional updates from an exhausted Harry back in England. She regularly tried to lift his spirits with photos of Archie, including a video of the first time he saw snow.
