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Thursday March 28, 2024

Prince Harry voices ‘great sadness’ at royal split

By AFP
January 21, 2020

LONDON: Prince Harry voiced his “great sadness” at bowing out entirely from representing the British monarchy as newspapers said Monday it was the best viable compromise on his desire to step back. Harry said he and his wife Meghan did not want to quit their royal duties but reluctantly accepted there “really was no other option” if they wanted to cut loose from public funding and seek their own income. His emotional remarks late Sunday were his first on the royal crisis that has shaken Britain´s monarchy, after the couple announced their wish to step back as front-line royals. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will no longer represent his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II, must give up their honorary military appointments and will no longer receive public funds. Under their agreement with the queen, the couple will no longer be referred to as his or her royal highness. “It brings me great sadness that it has come to this,” Harry told a London dinner for his Sentebale charity, which helps AIDS orphans in Lesotho. The prince and his US former actress wife have struggled with the scrutiny since their wedding in May 2018 and the 35-year-old said there was no alternative way to achieve “a more peaceful life” with their baby son Archie. “I haven´t always got it right, but as far as this goes there really was no other option,” he said in prepared remarks. “Our hope was to continue serving the Queen, the Commonwealth and my military associations, but without public funding. Unfortunately that wasn´t possible. Harry also confessed to some trepidation at taking the momentous step of leaving daily duties and charting a new life in Canada. “We are taking a leap of faith,” he said.

Harry attended the UK-Africa Investment Summit in London on Monday, seeming in good spirits as he met the presidents of Malawi and Mozambique, and the Moroccan prime minister. Meghan, 38, and their son Archie born in May last year, are already in Canada, staying on Vancouver Island on the Pacific west coast. The “Megxit” crisis began on January 8 when the couple announced their plans to seek a “progressive new role” in North America — without having finalised the plans with Queen Elizabeth.

That wish for a hybrid role is starkly different from Saturday´s announcement following emergency negotiations between the senior royals and their households. The couple agreed to repay £2.4 million ($3.1 million) of taxpayers´ money spent on renovating their new Frogmore Cottage home on the Windsor Castle estate.