Why Meghan & Harry announced their 'stepping back' news earlier than planned
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex made international headlines this week when they announced their plans to take a step back as 'senior' members of the royal family.
A follow-up statement from Buckingham Palace, referring to the issues as "complicated", plus a BBC report claiming that the royal family were "disappointed" by the announcement, prompted much speculation that Meghan and Harry had simply charged ahead with their plans, defying the wishes of the Queen.
However, it seems as though the Sussexes may have been forced to make the announcement earlier than planned. According to royal reporter Omid Scobie, conversations about their plans had been taking place "across all levels" within the family for months, and they intended to wait to inform the press until the logistics had been ironed out between households. Scobie, via Harpersbazaar.com, explains that their agenda was unfortunately leaked to The Sun, who planned to publish the news - forcing them to go public with their plans sooner than intended. "It was a case of act now or lose control of something they had spent a long time working on," a source close to the couple told Scobie.
He goes on to detail how the royal response was far from the drama reported in the tabloids - "no one was incandescent with rage" - and that they are all now working on a solution to support the couple. While the speed at which they now have to deal with it is not ideal, it's by no means the disaster that it's been made out to be, he claims.
A Buckingham Palace official confirmed to Scobie that the plans are expected to be ironed out "in a matter of days".
"The Queen, Prince Charles, and Prince William made calls on Thursday to direct their teams to liaise with governments and the Sussex household to find workable solutions—fast," he writes. "The couple’s vision remains ambitious but achievable: create a new working model that allows them to blend a balanced mix of official duties in the name of the queen and their own independently funded philanthropic interests, which will be anchored by the forthcoming Sussex Royal foundation."
The Sussexes have laid out their intentions clearly via their website, Sussexroyal.com, which goes into detail about their current funding and how they plan to change this going forward, plus their decision to no longer take part in the 'Royal Rota' media system.
The slick website, which also features details about all their royal patronages and charitable initiatives, was designed by Made by Article, the same Toronto-based company that produced Meghan's now-defunct lifestyle blog, The Tig. Unsurprisingly, their new website has already received millions of visitors from all over the world.
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