Meghan Markle sat out an important royal family meeting about her future on Monday and Buckingham Palace claims that it was because her presence was deemed “unnecessary,” according to an official statement.
As Cosmopolitan reports, Monday saw one of the most important Windsor family meetings in the British monarchy’s recent history, as key players in the family sat down to hash out the future of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and her husband, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. However, the duchess herself was noticeably absent from the meeting. In fact, she was thousands of miles away in Canada.
British newspaper Daily Mail reported that Meghan was absent because the American actress was “barred” from the meeting about her own future in the family. Reporter Richard Kay even went so far as to say that Meghan had offered to participate in the discussion via telephone call, but the Palace negated the idea out of concerns about security.
“No one knew for sure who else might have been listening in,” Kay said, citing a source.
“This was a highly confidential family discussion, not a conference call.”
However, Buckingham Palace says that Meghan was in no way barred from the discussion about her future, but rather, she decided that the family could proceed without her.
“In the end, The Sussexes decided that it wasn’t necessary for The Duchess to join [the summit],” the Palace said in a statement.
Royal correspondent Emily Andrews, however, claims in a tweet that Meghan was in on parts of the call, but that it was the time difference that — at least in part — stymied her participation.
Meghan apparently joined the #SandringhamSummit for some of it today, but not all. She joined in for the end-understandably as the time difference meant she was 8 hours behind in Victoria.
— Emily Andrews (@byEmilyAndrews) January 13, 2020
The fallout from Meghan and Harry’s separation from the royal family continues to cause ripples amongst the Windsors and the community of reporters and fans who follow their every move.
Last week, as reported by The Inquisitr , Harry and Meghan made the shocking announcement that they were “stepping back” from their duties as senior members of the royal family. They stated they planned to split their time between Britain and Canada and become “financially independent.”
The Palace has been doing damage-control ever since, trying valiantly to stay ahead of the curve on rumors about the reasons for the breakup and any talk of a rift in the family. On Monday, Queen Elizabeth issued a statement that may put the matter to rest, giving her blessing to the young couple as they embark on this new phase of their lives.
