On Monday, Tower Bridge Studio’s Instagram posted a couple of photos of Prince Harry. Harry visited the studio, signed the wall and looked mischievous. I can’t seem to find this Instagram post – was it deleted? Interesting. According to People Mag, Harry went to this studio last Friday, and he was accompanied by a few men. He spent most of Friday working on a “mystery project” and he was reportedly “very, very pleasant to everyone. And he was very pleased to sign our celebrity wall. It was all very relaxed.”
You know who is NOT relaxed? Every royal reporter, every courtier, and every single royal. On Monday, Buckingham Palace issued a clarifying statement about the Sussexes’ “private” status in the UK, basically emphasizing that Harry and Meghan will never be considered working royals in any way. Well, the Daily Mail’s Becky English claims that the clarifying statement came as a huge surprise to the Sussexes.
Harry and Meghan were ‘surprised’ by the King’s bombshell letter making it crystal clear they will be treated as ‘private citizens’ rather than working royals, it emerged today. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex claim they were given no advance warning that Charles would issue the diktat confirming they will not undertake any royal duties in the UK.
The couple, who returned to Britain a fortnight ago, are also understood to be concerned that the timing of the announcement may be linked to a crucial meeting over their security arrangements. Harry and Meghan are still pushing for 24/7 armed police protection now they are back in the UK with their children, Archie and Lilibet, with the couple reportedly worried about safety on the school run.
The Royal and VIP Executive Committee (Ravec), the Home Office committee responsible for making decisions about royal security, is reportedly meeting as early as today to discuss arrangements for the Sussexes. But last night the King ruled out any role for Harry and Meghan with the Royal Family on the eve of the crunch security meeting.
A spokesman for the Duke and Duchess said: ‘We were a little surprised not to have been told about this in advance.’
The couple’s spokesman apparently admitted the letter’s publication had taken them off guard. It is understood that while Harry and Meghan were told about the letter, they were not consulted on its contents.
A Buckingham Palace source told The Daily Telegraph that the release had nothing to do with the security issue or any meeting.
King Charles’s letter told more than 100 ‘senior stakeholders’ across the country that his son and daughter-in-law are not working royals with a reminder that their HRH titles remain on ice.
It comes after sources close to the couple repeatedly briefed select media about plans for their new life back in Britain. They include a resumption of public engagements with the media invited to attend. Some of the couple’s friends have even boasted that Harry has finally secured the ‘half-in, half-out’ deal he always wanted – with the freedom to mine lucrative commercial opportunities while undertaking limited official duties by the ‘back door’.That model was firmly rejected as unworkable by his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, at the so-called ‘Sandringham Summit’ of January 2020, which led to the Sussexes’ acrimoniously quitting, not only royal life, but also Britain while embarking on a series of very public attacks on the institution. Now the King has moved decisively to quash speculation over their return, and publicly re-enforce the boundaries laid down by his late mother. And he makes clear that Harry and Meghan’s public appearances should not be treated as royal engagements and no public money should be spent on them.
Publication of the letter came as Prince Harry conducted his first official outing on Monday since arriving back in Britain – and will be seen by many as particularly timely. He was pictured smiling at the Tower Bridge Studios in London and signing a mural on a wall during a pseudo-royal engagement.
This is the relevant part: “He was pictured smiling at the Tower Bridge Studios in London and signing a mural on a wall during a pseudo-royal engagement.” That’s how royal reporters frame everything Harry and Meghan do, even if they’re making a charity visit privately, even if they’re invited to visit a country via Invictus or what have you. It’s always “pseudo-royal” or “quasi-royal” or “they’re trying to do ROYAL WORK and that’s not allowed!” For Prince William in particular, anything Harry does is “royal work” and William is just furious about it. This is also how royal reporters justify covering Harry and Meghan to this day – they’re still royal, they’re still taking on “pseudo-royal engagements,” therefore we can talk about them, right? Anyway, I can’t believe the Sussex spox went on the record about their “surprise” over the clarification statement.
Photos courtesy of Tower Bridge Studios’ Instagram, social media.
She says the spokesperson said something but never clarifies or states what they said. It’s a lie. She only added that for validity because the DM has been called out as liars over and again
No, she directly quotes this from the spokesperson, BBC had the same quote:
‘We were a little surprised not to have been told about this in advance.’
Unless Charles had promised Harry something different, I can’t imagine the content would have been a surprise.
@Eurydice that’s my thought as well. They were probably taken aback by the letter itself, but not the contents unless something was said to them otherwise.
It’s been two weeks and I am still gobsmacked that they returned.
To stay on topic- idek if that letter was necessary? It seems to be a strong shot across the bows, as it were.
Me too!! I think the only reason why Harry would bring his family into this never-ending circus is that his “secret project “is that he is making a film about Diana.
no matter what I read about it, I can not understand why Harry willingly brought his family into this mess
“The trauma blender” as noted in the other post.
I’m the same. I’m still standing over here shaking my head slowly back and forth. Their coming back still has me feeling punked.
I think this will end in tears. She will have had enough of this mess by Christmas.
While I’m sure that Meghan has had the best legal advice money can but, it doesn’t change the fact that she (apparently willingly) brought her children under the protection of the Crown, and this is going to make any future custody arrangement extremely difficult and painful for her. I wonder how long she will tolerate this.
No protection of the crown. They’re not part of the crown. As private citizens, the crown has no say on their marriage or divorce and there’s not going to be one. Anything to distract from the fact the Wales are separated and married on paper only.
sadly, I agree. I’m not sure why they are doing this and if they both do it for the same reasons. But IF Harry is really pushing for this half in half out thing (seems so from where we are sitting) it makes no sense to upend everything they’ve built for this. As the Wales kids grow they will command more attention, which will direct more attention on Archie and Lilli. Once G and Charlotte have kids, and Louis can be branded as the hard partying princeling, the Sussexes will be even further down the food chain. While Meghan built a fantastic network around them to thrive and prosper in Cali.
They did say “extended stay”, and never clarified how long.
I don’t see the statement as altogether bad. They were private citizens involved in projects before and will continue being the same. It was social media speculating the half in- half out; this never came out if their mouth.
The only ones who can spend public money and live in luxury are the grifting royals!
Their comms continues not to be great. They don’t need to justify or rebut every single thing, it just adds legs to the story and gives the media an excuse to write more articles.
There’s a reason why the royals have (at least notionally) adhered to the ‘never complain, never explain’ mantra.
The issue for many of us is that they DON’T justify or rebut every single thing. They seem to pick and choose and I can’t figure out their strategy for how they choose.
Yeah, some of the more ridiculous stories that have recently been put out there since their return (ex: money issues and marriage problems, etc) have no official statement but this one does. Their PR is…..bad.
@Ginger I agree, just what I was thinking. Why is this issue important enough to elicit an official statement? It makes them look like “pseudo royal” is exactly what they were going for and they are sour about being called out. It might not be the case, but this comms strategy makes it seem that way.
Agree. What a bad statement.
I find this statement from their comms to be bizarre. There is NOTHING new in this Palace communication, it literally restates what Harry and Meghan have already agreed to and said that THEY want (private citizens, not working royals, able to carry out their own charitable and business endeavors, won’t use HRH, though they keep them, to not cause confusion). All the comms person had to say was that with Harry and Meghan returning to the UK, the Palace was simply restating the status quo and that H&M are pleased to be able to continue their charitable and business endeavors while living in the UK. If it were me, I’d throw in some shady comment about “in light of the media’s continued attempts to cause confusion about H&M’s status”, but that’s just me.
This whole thing is a nothing burger and I don’t even really think it was wrong for Charles to send it as an official communication. It’s literally what was agreed and is just being communicated to the media and government officials. It’s the usual media bad actors trying to make this into a “slam” or “put down” by Charles. It’s not. But, the comms statement makes it sound like there was something shady, when they should have just shrugged it off.
Cue Harry being surprised that his family took unilateral action to put him in his place. The Sussex spox said they couldn’t reach Harry and they weren’t given the opportunity to clarify one or two points in Charles’s letter. Complaining in the media and getting his family all worked up for no reason when this was very predictable. The Sussex pr should have just said this letter confirms what we have been saying, it’s nothing new, and kept their heads down. (I don’t care if the family gets all worked up in general but just that we know this means they will get the Daily Fails to go on more character assassination missions, which will make the Sussex’s lives harder and their kids’ lives harder.
It feels like Harry is not allowed to do anything, aside from maybe go on a ramble in the country or take his kids to the market, without it being considered encroaching on his family’s territory. He goes to Tower Bridge Studios and it’s “pseudo royal?” How? It’s a studio. It’s privately owned, isn’t it?
Is any place of business or worship, any arts organization or theater, any place where veterans or members of the royal family are buried, ALL Windsor territory? Is that why they need to “clarify” that he’s off their leash?
The thing is, Harry is royal. He’s Charles’ son. There’s nothing they can do about that. Which is why despite Charles’ statement, this is still just a weird situation. Because he is inextricably tied to his birth family, and they are completely enmeshed in the whole damned country. Their tentacles are everywhere.
But of course, it needs to be said. If William were out there doing engagements all the time the way the older generations were? It wouldn’t be a problem. There would be a clear distinction between the sort of work he was doing and how he was doing it, and what Harry is doing. Because all Harry is doing is showing up. That’s it.
If half in half out is officially available as an option, more people will try it and the royals lose their leverage over everyone in their orbit. Who would willingly be a full time royal and live in fancy penury otherwise? The royals would be giving up power over their gilded cage mates. Never going to happen.
As an aside – I saw a picture of Elizabeth dressed as a mechanic during WWII the other day and spent some time wondering “Did she actually do anything or just dressed up as a mechanic a few times for pictures?”
The royals’ close ties with gossip rags is not doing themselves any favors.
QE2 was born in 1926 so still quite young when WWII broke out in 1939 in Europe. She wanted to be involved in the war effort but it wasn’t until 1945 that her parents permitted her to join one of the women’s auxilliary services, and she trained as a mechanic and driver. Apparently she really did the work and enjoyed it, but the war ended not long after.
But was she actually allowed to repair dirty vehicles?
The Sussex spox needs to go on the record about Harry being a private citizen and charity work performed by private citizens does not qualify as “[pseudo-]royal work.” Putting it on the record means that the tabloids would have to publish it, at least once, and it could raise the issue of any charity work being perceived or promoted as a royal engagement.
Imagine a statement along the lines of “As confirmed by Buckingham Palace, Harry and Meghan are private citizens. As private citizens, they have extensive public records indicating both quality engagement with, and measurable impact on, the many causes to which they’ve lent support. The Sussexes, along with many other private citizens in the U.K., believe charitable work and support is not limited to the monarchy and encourage all U.K. citizens to locate and support the causes closes to their hearts and affecting their communities.”
The spox should have just said they agree with the BP statement. What they actually said sounds like the opposite.
I said it in the other article but there isn’t anything surprising in the letter. It’s very much a business as usual letter. To me at least.
So I’d be interested to know what exactly are H&M wanted to know in advance? Did they expect or want a change in status? Did they just want to know a letter would be going out?
I do agree with others that their comms is weak here. Either give a full statement or ignore requests for one.
I think they were just surprised that the letter was sent at all and that they were given very little notice about it. I dont think the contents of the letter were surprising to them or anything they would push back on. There’s a BBC article (or People maybe?) about the Sussex response that makes it clearer that they were surprised at the timing and how fast the letter went out after they were told about it. But not that they were surprised to find that they are not working royals now.
Doesn’t Harry retain royal patronages? It’s possible that the palace plans to remove those from him. As I keep saying, the royals regard any charity visits or appearances at events as “royal work”, especially in the UK. This is the only work they do. Now Harry, and possibly Meghan, is encroaching on that.
No, he doesn’t. I find it weird but he has patronages that he had while he was a working royal, and he has kept those, but he doesn’t have his royal patronages, which are the ones assigned by the queen, I think? For example the late queen gave meghan one or two royal patronages (maybe more?) and she doesnt have those anymore but she’s still involved with other charities that she was involved with when she lived there before.
Then the palace has no control over Harry’s charity events. That’s what has their underwear in a twist.
Two things:
I think we’d all agree that Harry is having the experience he needed to have.
Second:
The anger and boundary enforcement that we are seeing is going to devolve into something else. It’s too exhausting. In this aspect, I think Harry coming back home was a wise thing to do — estrangements like this morph (not saying for better or worse, they just do), especially with a new generation coming up.
I agree with you on both points. The return to the U.K. apparently needed to happen so Harry could witness, for himself at close range, the way his family treats him and his family. What he does or takes away from this experience is TBD.
Their move back was done IMO to get their kids acquainted with the royal system and people with whom Harry’s familiar (his father, extended family, various admins and courtiers, government officials) while Charles is alive. All of that will be tedious if not impossible when William is king and therefore the Sussex kids need to be seen and believed in England before Charles dies. This type of reasoning can also be extended to enrolling their kids in British schools, it is a means to get them acquainted with their peers and U.K. culture.
One does not have to agree with their decision to move in order to understand the timing and rationale behind the Sussex’s move. I think it’s ridiculous but if their goal is to maintain ties, with the royal system or with individual family members, then it makes sense to do it while Charles is alive.
Chris Ship on ITV news is reporting Harry was only given an hour’s notice of this letter being made public.
https://www.itv.com/news/2026-09-08/harrys-fury-as-palace-letter-comes-in-week-of-security-review
Feminegra states The King can circulate letters clarifying status. He can brief against his son’s security demands. But he cannot claim to care about family while leaving his son and grandchildren to fight for basic protection alone, all while publicly funding his disgraced brother, Andrew.
Andrew really is the sticking point for Charles – as long as he is funding him, including his security, it weakens any defense against the Sussexes not having security.
It’s clear to anyone with eyes and a functioning brain that Charles could not give a shit about Harry and his family or he won’t have taken away the security and house in the first place. I mean look he pays for Andy security, he pays Andy daughter’s rent . This is why I can’t wrap my head around why Harry took those children and Meghan to meet with Charles and cams over the summer . That man would never see my children because their lives don’t matter to him . When someone shows you who they are , believe them the first time.And I will say something in Charles defense, lord help me , he didn’t need to give Harry and Meghan a heads up about the contents of the letter because like he stated , they don’t work for him and like I said , he doesn’t give a flying f about them so i think it’s best he doesn’t pretend otherwise. Maybe now Harry will get the message loud and clear that his father will never care about what happens to him or his family and then Harry can close the door finally on his dog shit father and go live his life with his wife and children and only look forward to the future and not back on the past
“The Royal and VIP Executive Committee (RAVEC), the Home Office committee responsible for making decisions about royal security, is reportedly meeting as early as today to discuss arrangements for the Sussexes.”
Wow. I wonder if this is true. If so, the Sussexes could know their fate within the next few days.
I will be absolutely enraged if RAVEC denies them intelligence-based, armed security. And Harry will be devastated that his own father is willing to accept the possibility that something could happen to his young grandchildren. I don’t think the British public will react favorably either.
If I were Harry, I’d hope for the best but prepare for the worst.
@India agreed 💯. Sussex security assessment should be based on threat not whether they are “working” members of RF. BBC are now reporting committee is expected to meet this week NOT today. I think Harry can expect nothing from his father other than the occasional tepid 45 minute formal tea. Charles continues to be a disappointment and a disgrace as a leader, King, Head of CE father, father in law and grandfather. I wish the Sussexes well. However painful the truth of this is for Harry it really better to have no illusions. The Firm are a cult and it is all in or all out.
Man, they need a new team. How is this the response instead of we are happy to have it clarified, once again, we are private citizens and will continue to do our private citizen work and pay our own way. Instead they create more headlines, Harry is furious! Sussex’s blindsided! Complete shock ! Take the stupid letter and use it to your advantage.
I agree. They knew the terms. We all knew they would be private citizens. So should not express surprise. This letter was clearly pushed by insecure William.
100% agree. This should have been their response. It comes accross like this (what you just suugested) is not what they actually think.
Since when does anyone from Team Sussex ring up Becky, “I destroyed NOTW & I committed crimes against people that should have landed me in prison” English?
They literally named her in a lawsuit.
Becky lies about them like breathing, and the BBC loves to ‘filter up’ and legitimize lies told by bottom feeder media.
Sounds like absolute 🐴💩 to me.
Sky News are doing live updates on this story and reported the following
When were Harry and Meghan told about King’s letter?
We’re getting more details about what is said to have happened behind the scenes yesterday, when a Buckingham Palace letter about Harry and Meghan’s royal status came to light.
The couple’s “surprise” about the reiterated guidance from the King has already been noted.
More details from their side have revealed the apparent timeline of events on Monday, though…
It’s understood the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s representatives received the letter at 13:59 on Monday.
Harry and Meghan’s camp then apparently responded to the Palace 20 minutes later, asking whether the guidance had already been publicly released.
The Duke of Sussex himself was notified at 15:09, it’s understood.
Two minutes after that, sources say, the Sussexes were told the King’s guidance had already been distributed to the media.
We haven’t yet heard from Buckingham Palace sources with their side of the story.
But royal commentators are noting that the King appears to have “taken charge” of the issue – as we reported earlier…
Sorry here is link to Sky News live update page on this developing story.
Looks like Harry had all of two minutes notice!
https://news.sky.com/story/harry-and-meghan-security-latest-king-letter-surprised-duke-and-duchess-of-sussex-royal-family-schools-ravec-13574885#12396941
Well he wanted to come back, him being surprised says a lot of things doesn’t it?
Sigh , look I know this is none of my business but I have opinions 😀. I would say like I have said before, I would never have moved my family back to that country without that security in place that they are still fighting for. Not like I would trust any of these people to actually protect me so I guess I won’t have returned. I mean I can’t imagine being relaxed and at peace with my children in school and me going anywhere without that police protection. I can’t understand why Harry and Meghan decided this was the right thing to do for their family. Yes I know it’s their family but I would never have made this decision. I can only say what I would not have done
I thought their position was perfectly clear until I read this. Now I am confused, Charles seems to have downgraded their position that was given to them by his mother ambiguously. His mother only talked about commercial activities. “On ice” is not the same as commercial activities.
If RAVEC refuses security for Harry and his family again, he has to know it’s because that’s what Charles wants. Or at least, what William wants and is able to coerce Charles to demand. It’s ludicrous to make the decision based on their “role” and not the security risk, which is not Harry’s to control at this point. And let’s not forget that the RF’s own lies and public smear campaign is what has made the risk for them so severe. In fact, I’m shocked if Harry brought his family here with no assurance of their safety from KC. This wasn’t just Harry’s idea, coming back to England, I’m convinced Charles was involved.
If god forbid anything happens to them, the royals are finished because people are much wiser than they were in 1997.
Team Sussex is still naive if they believe that the Palace is going to treat them with respect. However the response to the letter should have been Harry and Meghan are private citizens. But I suspect that Harry doesn’t see it that way. Maybe he will start accepting that the Royal Family will never accept him as part of the working family. Perhaps he will stop deferring to the Palace.
Will also probably stop any chat about them showing up at Royal events too and Christmas. What a mess.
Besides very little contact with his father, he has no relationship with the rest of that family, so he shouldn’t care about them.