When they announced their intention to step down from their royal duties in January 2020, Meghan and Harry hoped to regain control. But Queen Elizabeth, in a few well-chosen words, put them in their place.
Meghan and Harry took everyone by surprise when they announced in January that they were stepping down from a prominent role in the Royal Family. The Sussexes, determined to stand on their own two feet, then issued an unequivocal statement on their Instagram account.
A shock to the British, but also to Queen Elizabeth. “She knew they were unhappy, she knew they were in talks with her advisers but she didn’t know they were going to issue their own statement,” recalls Royal Publisher Ingrid Seward in the Channel 5 documentary “The Queen: In Her Own Words”.
But the Sovereign finally regained the advantage over Meghan and Harry, beating them to a pulp on their own turf. “Although the Queen was caught off guard, a brief and concise tweet a few hours later revealed that the discussions were at an early stage,” recalls Andrew Scarborough, the narrator of the documentary.
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“In just 34 friendly words, the Queen had regained control of the situation,” he said. A veritable war of words that the Queen won hands down, forcing her grandson and his wife to gnaw at their brakes.
“We understand their desire to take a different path, but these are complicated matters and it will take time to resolve them,” Queen Elizabeth wrote at the time. A tweet that called for no response from Sussex.
No affectation, no procrastination, for Royal Commentator Charles Crawford, the queen settled for “a very short, business-like statement that this is where things stand.” At 94 years of age, 68 of them spent on the throne of England, Queen Elizabeth saw more.
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