Last fall, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex returned from their wildly successful South Pacific tour. They barely had time to catch their breath before they were being attacked and smeared in the British tabloids. One of the big stories, in that moment, was actually based on a real thing: the Sussexes announced their move to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, and they announced that they would be separating their staff from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s staff. While the British papers were in a tizzy about how these moves were evidence that Meghan and Kate hated each other, it always felt to me like it was an issue between the brothers. It also felt like the separation was needed for a long time, before Meghan even came around. Harry has always needed his own dedicated staff, especially in communications. It just took his marriage to Meghan to really make that happen. Anyway, royal reporter Omid Scobie – one of the few reporters who isn’t a racist mess about Meg – says much of the same thing, that the staff split up was always in the cards:
A royal experts has slammed reports that Meghan is ‘changing’ Harry amid rumours the Cambridges and the Sussexes are splitting households. Royal correspondent Omid Scobie has revealed that the two brothers had always planned to split staff once they were both married, explaining that it makes sense for expectant parents Harry, 34, and Meghan, 37, to do this ahead of the birth of their firstborn next month.
Speaking about the couple’s impending move from Kensington Palace to Frogmore House in the grounds of Windsor Castle, Omid also told how Harry had always intended to forge his own path and live separately from his older brother. Speaking to Yahoo, Omid said: ‘I’ve had aides at Kensington Palace say to me that long before Meghan even came on the scene, they always knew that when he got married and wasn’t sort of the spare wheel, that he would go off and do his own thing with his partner and they would very much live under their household with their own staff.’
‘A lot of people expected this to be a divide which happened a lot further down the line but baby Sussex is just around the corner and there’s a lot to do before then, so this split of the households will be the most important thing. It’s very easy or maybe I should say lazy, to allow this to play into that narrative of ‘oh, they’re at each other’s throats. It [the split] sounds dramatic but they will still have the same staff, it’s just that some will be working on the Sussexes and some on the Cambridges as they have very different staff.’
Scobie is right about this always being the general timeline – generally, the Queen doesn’t believe in an unmarried prince readying a home and gathering a staff years before marriage. The change or shift was always going to happen once Harry married, because that’s the way the Queen believes things should be done. Now, that being said, Scobie admits that this split seems to have been fast-tracked. And so I think it’s fine to say “the separate courts thing was always going to happen” AND say “but I think it’s happened so fast because William and Harry aren’t getting along right now.”
Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red.
I know it’s totally superficial but… Harry in his uniform 💦 😍
Yeah I never understood why the split was such a big deal. It makes perfect sense and Omid’s points make sense too. I do think that it was fast-tracked for two important reasons: Baby Sussex AND that William has been such a wanker lol.
Harry and Meg will be based in Windsor, but their staff will stay at KP. It’s a lot easier to manage a transition in person rather than long distance, especially when one member of the team will be on maternity leave. It makes perfect sense to fast track the split.
I thought it was always a given that separate staffs would happen when Harry got married. I agree, it should have been sooner. And the way they’ve all thrown Meghan under the bus, it can’t come soon enough.
Omid is pal with Markus Anderson, the SOHO guy who helped Meg get places. He is a reliable inside source unlike the gender bending writer.
gender bending indeed. katie nicholl has become a joke wonder why vanity fair keep her on their payroll?! she just writes her own fanfiction.
She isn’t a joke she just is telling the truth but you don’t like it so she becomes a joke for you well I think that Scobie is a joke and he is a PR person and not a true reporter for that matter but I never said that before now because I am a respectful person.
This is a real non-story.
I agree that in and of itself it’s a non-story. But it’s one of the few stories out there that counters the idea that Meghan is the Yoko Ono of the BRF.
Yeah, this split is not surprising but judging from the body language at the Prince Charles event, the Sussexes and Cambridges are having serious issues.
Yup, and it was stupid to go out of their way to deny the rift, it just attracted more attention and made it look more suspicious. Now everybody is analyzing how they breathe when in the same room.
Ok so it’s not just me!! Agreed.
I hope no one jumps on me for this, and I know its just casual speculation, but watching some of the videos from today’s event, it looks fairly obvious that there is tension somewhere between the 4 of them, which is unfortunate. I would just fake it to make this narrative stop!! When they are entering the large room to view that gear that’s out, they seem to take special care not to connect. OK, I know, I’m reading into it, but I think something is going on. I do think its Harry and William who have beef. lol.
Ditto others – the split isn’t surprising in itself, and was always going to happen, but two things can be true at once, and here I think its that the split was inevitable AND that it is being fast tracked for several reasons, including William and Harrys relationship.
I think everyone realizes that the press fanned the flames of discord too much and now are having to slow their roll with this whole “Feuding Families” bit they were trying to run into the ground, because people are like–WHATEVER.
Harry gets the short shrift in that the press treats him like he’s still a very, very young man like in his late teens or early twenties. They seem to forget he’s almost 35–a real, grown-ass man, who can make his own decisions and who can care for HIS family.
Now that both are married with families, the separate staffs just makes sense. I mean William has 3 kids which the public is enthralled with, and the public seems enthralled with Harry’s not born child too. I would think to give all the kids some privacy you would want your staff focused on one family. As far as the tension if it really exists, well I guess I don’t get all the stories. I mean siblings have disagreements, especially when they work together, which essentially is what the royal family is. Is that news to people? Doesn’t mean they hate each other.
Total speculation… I wonder if William kind of takes after his father in being a bit socially awkward and lacking charisma, while Harry takes after Diana and is just more of a natural in being able to connect w people and champion causes that matter and appeal. William chose a wife who poss by design doesn’t outshine him, but maybe the jealousy toward his brother is growing as he sees Harry mature into the role so gracefully.
I’m sure I’m in the minority, but this whole “oh, this was always going to happen” feels like spin to me. The “Fab Four” narrative wasn’t just media created, it was something they actively leaned into including when they went on stage at that Royal Foundation meeting this time last year and said something to the effect of yes, we have disagreements but we are going to be together forever so we have to work them out. Now they’ve discovered that they actually can’t work together, but admitting they have to split their offices because they can’t get along makes them all look like spoiled brats so they have to say oh no, no, this was always the plan and our jobs are actually SO different, so we HAVE to is the new narrative.
If the brothers do have a beef, and I am using a big if, it would be interesting to know why. I doubt we ever will.
Will thought Harry was moving too fast with Meghan and the fact that Meghan is capable and willing is a problem for him as well, for some reason.
It will be better for harry and meghan. I hope they get their own social media platform, I know probably not. But I still laugh at how much KP followers skyrocketed after Meghan came around.
I know I’ll get yelled at, and I just want to remind y’all I’m Team Meg! BUT, for me it always comes back to the reality of…Harry and Meg, while shiny and new right now as Andrew and Fergie and their girls were, are minor royals. If anything, if they can’t share an office with Will and Kate, they should be sharing an office with the York sisters, etc. The offices and professional staff are expensive, and taxpayer funded. They shouldn’t be handed their own office and staff ju t because they’re all squabbling. They can have separate families, separate personal staffs, etc, but their jobs should be to the public and under one budget. I feel bad for Meg and think she and Harry should damn well have their separate lives and households, but All this just makes all four of them (mostly the bros) look like spoilt unprofessional brats.
Except H and M are working royals and will be for decades to come, and the York sisters are not.
So no they shouldn’t be combined with the York’s
I get what you’re saying, but you have to consider the future with this I think. The Yorks, unfortunately, are only going to get shifted more to the side as the years go by. I think this will eventually happen to the Sussexes as well, the same way it has happened to the Kents, the Gloucesters etc, but it’s not what’s happening now, and you can only look at the here and the now for the moment when it comes to meeting people’s needs, not what you think will eventually happen down the line. And what the Sussexes need right now, given their popularity and their needs, is a separate staff that can manage their interests apart from the Cambridges. Because while I do think there’s an element of it that comes down to squabbling, I also think that the KP staff have been spread really thin with everything that’s happening with Meghan. I doubt they anticipated the amount of challenges they would face, and they’re not dealing with them adequately in the way they need to be met. And they’re letting Meg hang out to dry, and that’s just not done. They need the added help here, so I don’t think it’s a waste, personally. I think it’s in the interest of everyone to make sure that royals have their PR well managed tbh.