Meghan Markle And Prince Harry Reportedly Feel They Were ‘Driven Out’ Of Royal Family

After Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced that they were stepping away from their duties in the royal family, the rumor mill kicked into high gear to speculate exactly what drove the pair to make the momentous decision. Now, a source close to the couple says that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex didn’t make the choice because they wanted to — instead, they felt like they were being “driven out” of the royal family.

As People reports, Tom Bradby, a close friend of Meghan and Harry, says that the tension between the couple and the rest of the family reached a point where they felt compelled to act. After years of conflict behind the scenes, things apparently reached a boiling point.

“There’ve been a lot of fallouts; a lot of harsh things were said around the time of the wedding. And it’s gone a bit too far,” he said.

Tom says that the rest of the royal family thinks that the couple is hard to deal with and apparently they can sense it.

“And certainly the rest of the family find Harry and Meghan very difficult and, from Harry and Meghan’s point of view, they’re just being driven out as they see it. And it’s sad,” he said.

Things are probably only going to get worse, Tom argued.

“There are going to be so many complications, so many controversies. There needs to be a peace deal really soon because this is so toxic, there’s so much anger and, to be honest with you at the moment it looks like it might get worse, not better.”

The bottom line, he argues, is that Meghan and Harry decided to leave simply because of personal conflicts within the family.

However, the couple doesn’t seem to feel bad about their decision. Tom says that they believe that they’re pursuing independence and don’t feel like there is a place for them in the current monarchy. They want to live independently and are ready to start doing that.

He says that they’ve accepted the fact that the titles and their U.K. home — Frogmore Cottage — all rely on whether or not the royal family allows them to keep them. But it’s more important to them to work on their charities, though they understand that they no longer have the right to pursue the charities set up though the royal family.

Finally, he says, the royal couple didn’t want to play the game with the media any longer, which helped factor into their decision to step back from royal life.