Four years have passed since March 31, 2020, the moment in which the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, made their decision to stop belonging to the British crown official. The news generated an enormous media stir that lasted months, even years, and created a gap between the couple and the rest of the family that still, to this day, seems irremediable. The so-called ‘Megxit’ had several keys and consequences that the couple did not imagine at that time. And even today, they pay the price.
After several negotiations, in which the will of the deceased Queen Elizabeth II was imposed, the departure of Enrique and Meghan from the royal family was made official. An emotional distance with the rest of the Windsors that would end up becoming a real distance with the couple’s move to California. Since then, nothing has ever been the same between them. And not even the cancer of his father, now king of the United Kingdom, has served to bring the couple closer to the rest of the members of the royal family.
It was on January 8, 2020 when the couple announced a change in the way they work with the Royal House, a completely unilateral announcement that the crown had no idea about. The dukes announced that they would assume their own commitments, those related to the causes that interested them, and would stop working with the ‘Royal Rota’, the system by which the palace rotates photographers to cover their official appearances.
As expected, Casa Real did not like the decision at all. A tug of war then began with the reign of Elizabeth II. The rest of the members agreed with the idea that Enrique and Meghan could not just be ‘royals’ when it interested them. Finally, the couple left, and Charles III decided to eliminate the monthly allowance that Henry received from the Duchy of Cornwall, a source of income that the couple initially counted on. That would be the first measure of all those that would come.
The terms of ‘Megxit’ were reviewed a year after the couple left, and the measures that would end up arriving did not please Enrique and his wife. One of the most negative consequences for the prince is that he would have to renounce his military titles, something that, emotionally, was a great setback for the youngest son of Charles III and Lady Di. Nor would they assume commitments that depended on the Crown.
It was then that the idea that the Sussexes’ departure from the institution was a purely economic strategy began to be discussed in the British press. At that time, the couple could not combine business activities with their royal work, so many thought that the decision was made from the perspective that they could earn much more money with their own businesses than within the monarchy.
It was never possible to confirm that this theory was true, but the movements of the couple after their departure from the United Kingdom drew attention. It didn’t take long for the couple to announce a million-dollar deal with Netflix (from which the Enrique and Meghan documentary would come out) and another with Spotify, in addition to the controversial memoirs that the prince released at the beginning of 2023, and which left his relationship with the rest of The family was very battered, especially with his brother Guillermo. The interview given to Oprah Winfrey, in which they did not leave the British monarchy in a very good light, did not help either. The rest is history.
After all this, the couple does not maintain solid ties with the rest of the family, not even at this time, in which the monarchy has received two severe blows: the king’s cancer diagnosis and that of Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales. A sign that the relationship has been more than tense have been the few occasions on which the couple has visited the United Kingdom since then, with Enrique being the one who has traveled on the most occasions totally alone. Meghan only accompanied him on two occasions: the last one, for the funeral of Elizabeth II, and the previous one, three months before and on the occasion of the monarch’s jubilee.
Now, four years later, it seems that everything is the same. Neither one party nor the other has bothered to conceal this evident distance, which with the passage of time continues to be evident. We will have to wait and see if the delicate situation that the Windsors are currently going through will help them come closer. However, ‘Megxit’ is still present in the memories of many, that moment that changed everything in the family.
