Safe to say not everyone was happy on January of 2020 when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced they’d be leaving their senior royal roles, especially the royal family. In the second volume of the couple’s hit Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, Harry shared his family’s reaction to the news and it wasn’t pretty.
“I sent an email to the three most senior private secretaries saying, ‘Let’s have a meeting, let’s get together and have a meeting and talk about this,’ ” Harry recalled, per People. “Because what was happening, what was playing out in public was crazy and that meeting was rejected.”
After Markle left to Canada, however, the meeting was not-so-coincidentally accepted. “It was only once Meg had left and gone back to Canada that it was then arranged that there was going to be a meeting at Sandringham on the following Monday,” Harry said.
For Markle, being left out really stung. “Imagine a conversation, a roundtable discussion about the future of your life when the stakes are this high,” she said. “And you as the mom and the wife and the target, in many regards, aren’t invited to have a seat at the table.” A truly disappointing move on their part.
“It was clear to me that they planned out so that you weren’t in the room,” Harry added, confirming his suspicions of the timing.
As for the meeting itself, things didn’t get any better. “I went in with the same proposal that we’d already made publicly. But once I got there, I was given five options: One being all in, no change, five being all out,” Harry recalled.
Hearing his options, the royal chose option three, or as he described it “half in, half out.” He explained, “Have our own jobs but also work in support of the Queen.”
Though this felt like a good compromise, Prince William and then-Prince Charles‘ reaction proved quite the opposite. “It became very clear very quickly that that goal was not up for discussion or debate,” he said. “It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me, and my father say things that simply weren’t true and my grandmother quietly sit there and sort of take it all in.” That’s right, even though Charles and William were furious at Harry, Queen Elizabeth remained quiet and neutral in the corner. Such a vivid yet eerie scene!
Though Harry has made himself heard since, it couldn’t have been easy to stand up for himself against his family (and the monarch!). We’re just glad that moment is behind him now.
Click here to see a complete timeline of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s feud with the royal family.
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