Prince Harry and his wife Meghan originally announced that they would step back from senior roles in Britain's royal family and spend more time in North America, they said on Wednesday, an announcement that appears to have taken his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, by surprise.
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However, on Saturday we learned that they will no longer be working members of Britain's royal family at all and will not use their "royal highness" titles as they embark on a more independent future, Buckingham Palace said on Saturday.
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"Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved members of my family," Queen Elizabeth said in a statement, referring to the couple's baby son. "I recognise the challenges they have experienced as a result of intense scrutiny over the last two years and support their wish for a more independent life." The queen added that she was "particularly proud" of how Meghan became one of the family.
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The couple agreed to drop his-and-her "royal highness" from their Duke and Duchess of Sussex names because they are no longer working members of the family. They plan to repay taxpayers for renovations made to their home near Windsor Castle, and give up public financial support.
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They plan to repay the estimated 2.4 million pounds ($3.1 million) from taxpayer funds spent to refurbish Frogmore Cottage, which will remain their U.K. family home. They moved into the house nine months ago, according to the U.K. Press Association. As part of the agreement, the couple will step back from royal duties, including official military appointments. They will no longer receive public funds for royal duties, according to the statement.
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She was too bold, too outspoken, too difficult, too American, too multicultural the critics said. She should not have alienated the news media by refusing to join in their celebrity games. She should not have spent so much money renovating the house the royal family was kind enough to bestow upon her and her husband. And most of all, they said, Meghan Markle, aka the Duchess of Sussex, should not have inserted herself, Yoko Ono-like, into the once-close relationship between Prince Harry, her iconoclastic husband, and Prince William, his towing-the-line older brother and a future heir to the British throne.
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After a turbulent year which saw a widening rift with the media and a falling-out with elder brother Prince William, Harry said the couple hoped to become financially independent and set up a new charity, while continuing some royal duties. "After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution," said Harry, sixth in line to the throne, and former actress Meghan in a statement.
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"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." The couple said they would share full details of "this exciting next step" as soon as they had discussed the move with the queen, Harry's father Prince Charles and William. But the timing of the announcement appeared to have wrong footed family members, including the queen, a senior royal source told Reuters.
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"Other members of the family were not consulted on the content," the source said. Buckingham Palace said discussions with Harry and Meghan were 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 said.
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Harry, 35, and Meghan, 38, a divorcee whose mother is African-American and father is white, married in May 2018 in a lavish ceremony in Windsor Castle, and at the time it was heralded as a sign of a more modern monarchy.
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Last year, Meghan gave birth to their first child, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. But their relationship with the media turned sour as they struggled to deal with the intense scrutiny it brought.
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There have been negative stories criticising their use of private jets while promoting environmental causes and the 2.4 million pound ($3.08 million) taxpayer-funded renovation of their new home.
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The couple, whose titles are the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, began legal action against some tabloid newspapers in October over phone-hacking and invasion of privacy.
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Harry described the treatment of his wife as "bullying", and likened it to that of his mother, Princess Diana, before her death in a Paris car accident in 1997, when her limousine crashed as it sped away from chasing paparazzi.
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"I never thought that this would be easy, but I thought it would be fair, and that is the part that is really hard to reconcile," a tearful Meghan said in a TV interview as she described the difficulty of being a new mother and dealing with incessant scrutiny.
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Harry also admitted to disagreements with William, who is second in line to the throne.
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Reactions to the news in Australia, a constitutional monarchy whose head of state is the British monarch, was generally supportive. "I think it's good what they've done," said Sydney marketing researcher Janani Venkat. "Kudos to them to actually saying 'We're going to do our own thing and be independent.'"
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Harry and Meghan did not spell out what they were planning or where in North America they might live. Last year, it was reported that Harry would be executive producer of a documentary on mental health with U.S. television mogul Oprah Winfrey for Apple's video streaming service.
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They said splitting time between Britain and North America "would enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter." Harry and William received more than 5 million pounds from their father, Prince Charles, last year and it was not immediately clear how Harry and Meghan would achieve financial independence.
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Royal biographer Penny Junor said it was possible Meghan, who starred in TV legal drama "Suits", might revive her acting career, given the demand and fees she could command.
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"Perhaps she'd have to be careful about what roles she'd do, because she is a member of the royal family," Junor said. Last year was one of the hardest of Queen Elizabeth's record-breaking 67-year reign, culminating in her second son Andrew stepping down from royal duties over his association with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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Other royals have left the family before, in various ways. Diana, the Princess of Wales, lost her royal title in 1996 after divorcing Prince Charles.
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King Edward VIII gave up his right to the throne in 1936 by announcing that he wanted to marry Wallis Simpson, an unacceptably divorced American.
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And Prince Andrew was all but banished from the family last year after his association with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein came to light.
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As the second son of Charles, who has spent his whole life waiting to become king and is himself now a formidable 71, Harry has virtually no chance of ever becoming king himself. While William, as the elder brother, has been tethered to the notion that he will succeed his father on the throne, Harry has had to find another path.
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In recent days, the queen and her family have been working out with officials how this stepping back will work in practice. The palace said Harry and Meghan will no longer receive public funds and they will repay money spent on the refurbishment of their cottage at Windsor, west of London. The changes will come into effect in the spring of this year, the palace said.
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If there's one thing the British tabloids hate more than an ungrateful royal bride, it's an ungrateful royal bride who doesn't even want to live in Britain.
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