As she sat in front of her TV watching An African Journey, Elizabeth II must have been delighted by the uplift and hope that her grandson and his wife had brought to the township of Nyanga in the name of her Queen’s Commonwealth Trust. Meghan’s leap onto the tree stump to speak out as a ‘woman of colour’ was brave and visionary. But then to start emoting against the backdrop of one of the most blighted corners of the planet to complain about the distressing problems you are experiencing adjusting to life inside a palace – Meghan’s litany of grievance had suggested indifference bordering on contempt for the true concerns of the human beings among whom she had been smiling. It also demonstrated a bizarre tone-deafness as to how miserably self-indulgent her self-pity must appear.
This was unquestionably the view of a powerful constituency inside Buckingham Palace, headed by Sir Edward Young. When it came to any Sussex matter, the royal private secretary’s authority was now being disputed by the Sunshine Sachs channels through which both Harry and Meghan had insisted on running their outreach activities since early September. If Sir Edward judged ‘no comment’ the best answer to some tricky question about Harry, Sunshine Sachs would propose to give out an answer – and Sunshine Sachs usually won.
The three huge law cases against the British media establishment launched by Harry and Meghan while they were in Africa were the supreme examples of this – pure insubordination, not just to Young and his staff, who would have to process the implications as they affected the crown, but ultimately to the Queen. It was absolutely unknown for one, let alone three, such major conflicts with the outside world to be initiated by any member of the family without the Queen’s blessing – which Harry and Meghan had neither asked for nor received.
So, somehow, somewhere, in some royal setting or other in the autumn of 2019, there must have been the most godawful explosion over what Harry had done – and let his wife do – without the courtesy of consulting the boss. Was the whole issue delegated to Prince Charles to try to talk some sense into his rebellious son? William could hardly help, no longer enjoying the trust to argue things out with his younger brother. So perhaps it was just handed over to Sir Edward Young …
These are some of the possible developments – but sorry, folks, once again we are confronted by that challenge of credible evidence. It is not easy to establish the key ingredients in the Windsor winter of discontent that followed the Sussex tour of Africa and would culminate in the spring of 2020 with Meghan and Harry kicking the dust of Britain – along with their entire royal status – from their shoes.
The couple themselves have let slip a few details via Finding Freedom, a semi-authorised book by Scottish-Iranian Omid Scobie, royal editor for Harper’s Bazaar, and US TV journalist Carolyn Durand, published in August 2020. But the rest of the family – whom we must now define as ‘the other side’ – have stayed resolutely ‘mum’. The Queen, Prince Charles and brother William have all strictly observed the precautionary practice that we have already noted between the two brothers – ‘the less said, the safer’. Yet silence can only hide so much of the truth.
A month after Archie’s birth in May 2019, just at the time that their new separate identity from ‘Kensington Royal’ was getting started, Harry and Meghan decided to trademark a range of items that they would like to sell under the name of Sussex Royal – from bookmarks to pyjamas, from bandanas to hoodies. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were planning to set up shop.
When the Queen, Charles and William got a glimpse of this selection of a hundred or more products, registered for all to see on 21 June with the UK Intellectual Property Office at 10 Victoria Street, just round the corner from Buckingham Palace, the extent of royal fury at Sussex impertinence rose to even higher levels. ‘Hopping’ was a mild description of how mad the family was – and you should have seen Sir Edward Young! Once again Harry had totally failed to consult the Queen about a major initiative affecting his royal work and image – and the image of the crown as a whole.
There was nothing intrinsically taboo about royals selling something in order to generate funds – it was one of the royal steps forward that had been introduced by Queen Elizabeth II. For decades there had been a highly successful souvenir shop at Buckingham Palace which over the years had opened regional branches in sites like Sandringham and Balmoral, and had developed an Internet business offering a wide range of items from Buckingham Palace Green Tea with Lemon and Elderflower to a Windsor Castle Wooden Spoon. Only that summer of 2020, the Queen’s own, personal favourite Buckingham Palace Gin, priced at £40, and flavoured with twelve botanicals including mulberry leaves handpicked from the palace gardens, sold out in eight hours after it was advertised via Instagram.
January 2020: The royal family meet at Sandringham to discuss the terms of Harry and Meghan’s departure
Prince Charles had taken this commercial idea further with his Duchy Originals line of products, derived but separate from his private Duchy of Cornwall estate. Set
