A heartwarming video shared by the Royal Family was the last straw for Prince Harry and led to his decision to step down, says a royal expert.
Harry and his wife Meghan Markle announced their exit from the Royal Family in January 2020, just weeks after Buckingham Palace posted a sweet video of the late Queen Elizabeth II with her three heirs - Prince George, Prince William, and Prince Charles - gathered at the palace on Christmas Eve.
Hours after the clip was shared, the late monarch recorded her annual Christmas TV address. Notably absent from the background were photographs of Meghan and Harry, despite there being pictures of Prince William and Kate Middleton .
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According to royal expert Daniela Elser, the exclusion of Harry and Meghan's pictures was a last-minute change. "The excising of Harry and Meghan from the tableau had been a last-minute change, according to Christopher Andersen's Brothers And Wives," she told news.com.au .
"According to Andersen, just before Her late Majesty was due to begin filming, she looked over the table where the photographs she had so lovingly selected were arranged. 'That one,' said the Queen, surveying the other images of past and future monarchs and their families. 'I suppose we don't need that one'."
Royal commentator Omid Scobie and co-author Carolyn Durand also wrote in their book Finding Freedom that "for Harry and Meghan, [the video] was yet another sign that they needed to consider their own path". Elser added: "The message coming out of the SW1 postcode crystal clear: Harry did not matter, all of these instances dangerously pointed reminders of his hierarchical irrelevance. The takeaway: The Sussexes were unneeded, peripheral, secondary."
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Harry and Meghan's relationship with the Royal Family is now almost non-existent, with the couple said to only have ties to Princesses Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. Relations dramatically worsened following the release of the couple's Netflix docuseries, in which Harry detailed the breakdown of his relationship with his brother Prince William and claimed he left him terrified after he screamed and shouted at him during the Sandringham summit.
Harry also alleged members of Kensington Palace had then "lied to protect my brother". The Duke of Sussex went on to take aim at his father, King Charles, and discussed the tense Megxit crisis meeting held with the Queen in January 2020. Harry then further hit out at his family with the release of his explosive debut memoir, Spare.
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