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- The Queen's office has responded to the bombshell news that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be resigning (opens in new tab) as senior members of the Royal Family.
- The royal family were reportedly not notified, and they seem to be indicating their "disappointment" about the decision, as well as the fact that it's going to take time to sort everything through.
The Royal Family has officially just responded to the bombshell news that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are, in effect, resigning as senior members of the Royal Family. And by the looks of it, they are very unhappy.
The statement from the Queen's office reads, "Discussions with The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are at an early stage. We understand their desire to take a different approach, but these are complicated issues that will take time to work through." It also just broke that no one in the Royal Family was consulted about the break and they are apparently "disappointed."
In other words, if I'm understanding correctly, 1) this is a massive shock, 2) they don't agree with it, and 3) this is going to be a big old mess to try and sift through. Reading into it a bit further, it's almost as though they're urging Harry and Meghan to have caution about what they're doing—like a "hold on, don't be too hasty, stop what you're doing" kind of thing.
In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, Harry and Meghan just released a bombshell announcement that read, in part, "We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen."
"We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to The Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages," they added.
Here's the statement from the Royal Family so you can see it for yourself:
Statement from the Queen’s office at Buckingham Palace: “Discussions with The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are at an early stage. We understand their desire to take a different approach, but these are complicated issues that will take time to work through.”January 8, 2020
And here's the scoop from the BBC:
BREAKING. BBC Understands that no other member of the Royal Family was consulted before Harry and Meghan issued their personal statement tonight, the Palace is understood to be ‘disappointed’.January 8, 2020
Apparently they only knew the idea of this for a couple days:
NEW: Statement from Buckingham Palace. (Basically, they haven’t worked any of this stuff out yet.) pic.twitter.com/IGhGImAlYJJanuary 8, 2020
Wow. Just wow.
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Katherine’s a Boston-based contributor at Marie Claire who covers fashion, culture, and lifestyle—from “Clueless” to Everlane to news about Lizzo. She’s been a freelancer for 11 years and has had roles with Cosmopolitan and Bustle, with bylines in Parents, Seventeen, and elsewhere. It’s “I go to dinner,” not “Her huge ego,” but she responds to both.
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