Best Reactions to Meghan Markle & Prince Harry Effectively Quitting the Royal Family

"Wait, how do I resign from MY family?"

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Announcement Of Prince Harry's Engagement To Meghan Markle
(Image credit: Karwai Tang)

In a shocking, if not entirely unsurprising, decision, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced on Wednesday that they are effectively quitting the royal family. In a statement, the duo—who had just returned from a six-week break spent on Vancouver Island, away from the cutthroat U.K. press—said: "We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent."

While the couple had made clear that they were unhappy—"Not many people have asked if I’m okay," Meghan had said tearfully in new documentary Harry and Meghan: An African Journey, and Harry and William had publicly fallen out—the news is still unprecedented. "Feels pretty damaging to the whole ethos and purpose of the royal family if you can just, like, quit being part of it," commented BuzzFeed reporter Rosie Gray.

And Twitter, of course, had a lot to say about the decision.

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There were some great jokes.

People flocked to support the newly independent family.

There were questions about whether Meghan would return to acting.

And questions about their new status.

Many people (rightly) blamed the British tabloids.

People think Diana would be proud.

Also? This is going to be a great plotline in The Crown.

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Meghan and Harry Step Down From Royal Family

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Jenny Hollander
Jenny Hollander
Digital Director

Jenny is the Digital Director at Marie Claire. A graduate of Leeds University, and a native of London, she moved to New York in 2012 to attend the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She was the first intern at Bustle when it launched in 2013 and spent five years building out its news and politics department. In 2018 she joined Marie Claire, where she held the roles of Deputy Digital Editor and Director of Content Strategy before becoming Digital Director. In her spare time, she writes fiction: her first novel EVERYONE WHO CAN FORGIVE ME IS DEAD was published in February 2024 and became a USA Today bestseller. She has also written extensively about developmental coordination disorder, or dyspraxia, which she was diagnosed with when she was nine.