It’s final: Harry and Meghan won’t return as working royals
LONDON – Buckingham Palace confirmed on Friday that Prince Harry and his wife Meghan will not return to royal duties, and Harry will hand over his honorary military titles – a decision that will formally, and ultimately, separate the couple from the family royal.
When Harry and Meghan retired from full-time royal life in March 2020, dissatisfied with the media scrutiny and the tightness of their careers, it was agreed that the situation would be reviewed after a year.
Now it is on, and the palace said in a statement that the couple, also known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have confirmed “that they will not return as working members of the Royal Family.”
She said that Queen Elizabeth II had spoken to 36-year-old Harry and confirmed that “by stepping away from the work of the Royal Family, it is impossible to continue the duties and responsibilities of come to the life of public service. “
The palace said Harry’s appointment as general captain of the Royal Marines and titles with other armed groups would be returned to the queen before being distributed to other family members.
Harry served in the British army for ten years, serving on the front line in Afghanistan and has close ties to the army. He founded the Invictus Games competition for wounded soldiers, first held in 2014 at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.
He is also required to retire as a supporter of the Rugby Football Union, the Rugby Football League and the London Marathon Charitable Trust.
Meghan, 39, will be removed as a supporter of the British National Theater and the Commonwealth Universities Association.
“While they are all saddened by their decision, the Duke and Duchess hold the family in high esteem,” the palace statement said.
American actress Meghan Markle, a former star of the legal TV drama “Suits,” married Queen Harry’s granddaughter at Windsor Castle in May 2018. Their son, Archie, was born a year later.
In early 2020, Meghan and Harry announced their cessation of royal duties and relocated to North America, citing what they described as the inaccessible pressures and racist views of the British media regarding the duchess, which is recognized as a bio-chia.
The couple agreed not to use the title “royal heights” or receive public funding for their work, although it was not clear at the time whether these decisions would stand.
They retain their titles of duke and duchess, and Harry remains sixth in the British throne. Harry and Meghan now live in Santa Barbara, California and are expecting their second child. The couple recently announced that they will be speaking to Oprah Winfrey for a TV special broadcast next month.
They still have close ties to sections of the British media. Earlier this month, Meghan won legal action in a lawsuit against the publisher of the Mail on Sunday, when a British judge ruled the newspaper invaded its privacy by published part of a letter she wrote to her father who had fallen.
News of their break-up with the palace comes as Harry’s grandfather, Prince Philip, 99, is in hospital in London, where he was admitted on Tuesday after feeling ill. .
A spokesman for the couple came back at suggestions that Meghan and Harry had not been taken to duty.
“As can be seen from their work over the past year, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex remain committed to their role and service to the UK and around the world, and have supported them. offer an ongoing role to the organizations they represent regardless of their official role, “the spokesperson said in a statement.
“We can all have a service life. Service is universal.”