Harry and Meghan begin a new life, PM wishes them the very best
LONDON: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday said he believed that the whole of Britain would want to wish the very best to Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, after they decided to step back from being working members of the monarchy.
“I think the whole country will want to join in wishing them the very best for the future,” Johnson told Sky News in Berlin where he is attending a summit on Libya.
“As I said before ... I was sure that the royal family, which has been around a very long time, will find a way forward.”
The couple and their son Archie began a new life on Sunday as somewhat ordinary people with financial worries and security concerns after being stripped of their royal titles and public funding by the Queen.
The settlement announced by Buckingham Palace on Saturday saw the couple lose their right to be called “his and her royal highness” (HRH) - much as Harry’s late mother Princess Diana did when she divorced Prince Charles in another family drama that upset the Queen in 1996.
They further agreed to repay £2.4 million ($3.1 million) of taxpayer’s money spent on renovating their Frogmore Cottage home near Windsor Castle.
Harry was also stripped of the military titles and patronages he was awarded after serving two tours in Afghanistan with the British Army.
Meanwhile, Meghan Markle’s father, Thomas Markle, has accused his daughter of “cheapening” the British royal family, in part of an interview released a day on Sunday.
Thomas Markle, who is estranged from his daughter, told Channel 5 news in a documentary that he believed Meghan, 38, was tossing away “every girl’s dream”. “It’s disappointing because she actually got every girl’s dream,” Markle said.
The interview was filmed after the couple’s announcement that they would step back as senior members of the royal family. Channel 5 released part of the interview on Sunday and said the full documentary would air “in the coming weeks”.
Thomas Markle described the royal family as “one of the greatest long-living institutions ever”, saying that when Meghan married Harry in May 2018 they took an obligation “to be part of the royals and to represent the royals”.
“This is like one of the greatest long-living institutions ever,” he said. “They are destroying it, they are cheapening it, they’re making it shabby”.