Queen Elizabeth has been fairly permissive when it comes to allowing the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to do their own thing, but she is now showing that even that has limits. The monarch is vetoing the idea that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle want to start their own philanthropic brand without oversight. The final word is that if you want to use royal family funds, you require a watchful eye.
PageSix says that Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan wanted to step away from Buckingham Palace with complete autonomy, but the queen said no, and Prince Charles agreed. As a compromise, the duke and duchess will be allowed to have their own staff in Buckingham Palace for their own endeavors, separate from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
A royal source says that there is no such thing as totally doing your own thing in the royal family.
“They wanted their household to be entirely independent of Buckingham Palace, but were told ‘no.’ They can’t just go off and do their own thing.”
Up until now, Prince Harry shared staff with Prince William, but now that both brothers are married, it’s not working. When Prince Harry was single, he had his own projects, but tended to go along with his brother and Kate Middleton, but now that Duchess Meghan is weighing in, they are each going their own ways.
Queen vetoes Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s philanthropy plans https://t.co/CfQdopUggv pic.twitter.com/ZCnia0uU1W
— Page Six (@PageSix) March 16, 2019
But even though this new compromise seems to be working for all parties, this doesn’t mean that there isn’t still some competition afoot. At the Chelsea flower show this week, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have sponsored an ecologically friendly African garden, while Kate Middleton did a child-friendly “back to nature” garden, and some feathers have allegedly been ruffled by the Sussex garden taking attention away from Duchess Kate’s plot. The royal family is said to have stepped in to make sure that the Duchess of Cambridge’s garden gets top billing and is photographed first.
Time will tell whether the split in staff is for the best after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex make their household move down to Windsor and their baby is born in the next month, says The Inquisitr . Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will move out of their current digs and move into Frogmore Cottage on the grounds of Windsor Castle where the couple married last year (and Prince Philip has been making his home base since his hip surgery.)
