It's revolution at Buckingham Palace. Wednesday evening January 8, Prince Harry, second son of Diana and Prince Charles, and his wife Meghan, announced that they were going to give up the main part of their public commitments and that they would now seek "To become financially independent". The young couple had just returned from Canada where they had offered themselves a Six-week "break" with his baby Archie (8 months), far from the British tabloids who hounded him until then tirelessly.
In a statement, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said that after " After many months of internal reflection and discussion, we have chosen to make a transition this year, and to gradually build a new role within the institution. We intend to give up our role as members "senior" of the royal family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to wholeheartedly support Her Majesty the Queen. ” The Duke and Duchess, respectively 35 and 38, say they want to share their time between the United Kingdom and North America, "While continuing to honor the Queen, the Commonwealth, and their charities ".
Shocking or simply modern? If the marriage, in May 2018, of the youngest son of Diana with the American actress had been greeted by the British, the press has since been very critical and on social networks, Meghan, mestizo and divorced, made the subject to numerous attacks.
Harassment of British tabloids
Critics intensified last summer when the couple began to take a stand in the fight against climate change, while continuing to travel by private jet. In the fall, Harry and Meghan caused a sensation for the first time, by filing a complaint against the biggest draws in the British popular press: the Mail on Sunday, the Sun and the Daily Mirror. Harry, sixth in succession, known for his dislike of the paparazzi, whom he still considers partly responsible for the accidental death of his mother, had then accused the newspapers of " bullying ".
Already, the couple had seemed on the verge of "burnout": Harry had also confided that his relationship with his older brother, William, knew good but also "Bad days", totally out of the usual reserve respected by members of the royal family. How to interpret this last radical decision? Buckingham Palace specialists were talking about "Unprecedented crisis" Wednesday evening, especially since, in an official statement, the rest of the royal family said they "Comprises" but there was "Complicated matters that will take time to be resolved".
"The queen was not even warned in advance, nor William", assured Jonny Dymond, the specialist of the monarchy at the BBC, finding only a precedent for the announcement of the Sussexes: the abdication of the short-lived King Edward VIII, in 1936 (he had renounced the crown to marry the American Wallis Simpson). "There is a real internal civil war in the family", for his part thought he knew Dan Wootton, journalist at Sun, which revealed the couple's intentions in the columns of this tabloid on Wednesday morning.
Make way for heirs "in a direct line"
Times are in any case troubled for the British crown, which must also manage the very damaging consequences for its image of the allegations of sexual assaults on minors against Prince Andrew (the second son of the Queen), ex-grand friend of the sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein (the latter committed suicide in prison last summer).
What if this partial withdrawal of the Sussexes (the duke and the duchess still did not give up their titles) went in a direction desired by the future King Charles? To mark the new year, Buckingham Palace has released an amazing photo of the queen, 93, surrounded by the three future kings: Charles, 71, William, 37, and George (the latter's eldest son), 6 and a half years. For Christmas, a similar, but less stuffy, photograph also circulated. We see the sovereign and her three heirs in a direct line, the adults framing George in the process of touching, in an immaculate shirt, a preparation for the famous christmas pudding. A future royal institution reduced to its essential members: exit the princes, dukes, princesses and duchesses of second rank?
