Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were driven to resign as “senior members” of the Royal Family, limit their royal duties, and live in Canada part-time due, at least in part, to a controversial Instagram photo the Windsors posted, according to The Times of London . The photo shows the “Line of Succession” to the British throne, and doesn’t include Harry or Archie.
Earlier this week, as reported by The Inquisitr , the Duke and Duchess of Sussex shocked the royal-watching world when they announced that they were “stepping back” from their royal duties. While they didn’t give an official reason, the couple has been bedeviled by rumors of a rift between their family and the rest of the Windsors, to say nothing of Meghan’s souring relationship with her subjects back in Old Blighty.
However, The Times of London posits that the final straw for Harry and Meghan came when the Royal Family’s official Instagram account posted a photo of Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, Prince William, and Prince George.
Those four people are the current monarch and the three who will almost certainly succeed her on the throne, barring any abdications or early deaths. The photo is symbolic, says the Times , of Prince Charles’ vision of a “slimmed down” and “less expensive” monarchy.
Neither Prince Harry nor Prince Archie was in the photo. Both are far enough down the line of succession that the odds of either of them every occupying the throne are vanishingly small.
Still, it was their absence from the photo, as well as the absence of any photos of Harry’s corner of the family on Queen Elizabeth’s desk in her televised Christmas message, that caused the Sussexes to feel as if they were being excluded from the family.
Public relations expert Nick Ede said that there’s no reason for Harry and Meghan to feel excluded. In the light of the family’s PR nightmare concerning Prince Andrew, it should not be surprising that Prince Charles, who will almost certainly be king in the next few years, is keen to present a Royal Family free of people so far removed from the throne.
“I think it was a direct way of showing they are streamlining, they are thinking about what do do about taxpayers’ money. When the Queen goes, it is going to change, no matter what anyone says,” Ede says.
Meanwhile, Megxit, as its being called on Twitter, is moving quickly. Madam Toussad’s Wax Museum has removed the figures of Harry and Meghan. On Friday it was reported that Meghan had already arrived in Canada.
