It’s been said that the straw that broke the camel’s back was the late Queen Elizabeth’s 2019 message, where she opted to display pictures of certain family members and neglected Prince Harry and Meghan altogether.
According to sources close to the Sussex camp, it was at that moment that they knew it was better to leave behind the institution to try their luck at distant lands.
Five years and a lot of grievances aired later, we’re apparently returning to the crux of the matter.
Prince William Feared Queen Elizabeth’s 2019 Christmas Message Move Would Lead To A “Category 5 Tantrum”
The Queen’s annual Christmas message was one of the highlights of her royal calendar, and every year, thousands, if not millions, tune in to watch.
However in 2019, she did something that ticked Harry and Meghan off. If you can remember, Harry and Meghan tied the knot in 2018, before quickly going on to embark on a flurry of royal activities in the following months.
Regardless, their picture was nowhere to be seen on Queen Elizabeth’s highly curated table, which featured her late husband Prince Philip, the then-Prince Charles and Camilla, and the current Prince and Princess of Wales. Harry, Meghan and the newborn Archie were nowhere in sight.
When the message was aired to the world, Prince William reportedly knew some thin-skinned royals would find it deeply offensive.
“William was said to have been appalled when he saw the Sussexes had been edited out,” the former editor of Vanity Fair, Tina Brown, wrote, adding, “He knew his brother well enough to predict a Category 5 tantrum brewing.”
“The Sussexes had evaporated, their image excised as skillfully as Stalin would have done to an apparatchik out of favour,” Brown noted.
Prior to the Christmas message, the couple has already shown signs that they’re no longer completely comfortable in their roles within the Monarchy.
In October 2019, Harry and Meghan announced that they’d be going on a break for some “much-needed family time.” Shortly after, it was discovered that the couple were in Canada.
That same Christmas, they opted to forego Sandringham Castle to spend it with Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland in Vancouver instead.
Upon their return, they would reportedly try to negotiate a half-in half-out strategy, which the Queen flat-out rejected.
When all is said and done, it’s been hinted that the Sussexes might not have pushed through with their exit strategy if the Christmas message hadn’t ruffled their feathers quite badly.
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