Harry & Meghan step back from Royals - seeking financial independence

Good on him and her. Have always liked Harry.

His relationship with William seems to have totally broken down.

Think it creates for massive issues for future popularity and relevance of Royal Family, especially after the Queen dies, which will be quite soon.

Is that a threat?
 
Fantastic news.

I'm a fan of seeing the 'Royal Family' falter in any & every way possible.
& the press have treated Meghan in an absolutely disgusting manner.

As a side note, the general british public are confusing as feck.

I totally agree.
 
What are they giving up? Just the title? Or charity commitments? Or all wealth that he has inherited as a prince? Fair fecks to him if he is giving up all his wealth back to the royalty / Britain. If he's keeping the money and the castle and just the title, I don't understand but good on him

This is what I want to know too.
 
Good on them. Never had much time for the Royal Family but can definitely respect them wanting to stand on their own two feet.

I predict William will be the last monarch anyway.
 
What are they giving up? Just the title? Or charity commitments? Or all wealth that he has inherited as a prince? Fair fecks to him if he is giving up all his wealth back to the royalty / Britain. If he's keeping the money and the castle and just the title, I don't understand but good on him

It seems the crux of it is that they want more control over their independence and privacy at the cost of giving up the tax payer funding of their lives. They want to keep their titles and will remain as ambassadors for the Royal family through charitable endeavours and so on but don't want to be beholden to Royal duties. It appears that they want to split their time half and half between Britain and North America.

Supposedly they do want to keep their English residence which belongs to the Queen privately. There's no way he is going to renounce all his worldly possessions and go and get a job in a factory somewhere. Being independent of the royal family he'll be able to monetise his name and status and earn vast sums quite easily. He gets about £2m a year from the tax payer plus massive expenses. I think he'll be able to match that earning easily. The big question is his security detail because he'd still be a prize scalp for Islamic terrorists and he needs the really elite level kind of security that the Royal family have. I'd be surprised if the tax payer doesn't continue to fund that, as an example.

If you were a cynic (I am) you'd see this as a power play to redefine their roles rather them 'leaving' the Royal family.
 
Mad decision. He was only 6th in the line of succession. Why give up the throne?
Because as a part of the Royal Family he has his whole life built around it, full of restrictions and pointless traditional stuff?
 
What the hell is 'Frogmore'?
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It's their little country pad, on the Frogmore House estate.
 
What I find it difficult to understand is why people give a single shit about stuff like this.
 
What I find it difficult to understand is why people give a single shit about stuff like this.
Looking at some comments made by those that are in anger, it's stuff like that they've just had a £2.4m refurbishment project at their home, paid for by the tax payer.
 
Looking at some comments made by those that are in anger, it's stuff like that they've just had a £2.4m refurbishment project at their home, paid for by the tax payer.

Which is one of the only reasons I think it's a bit cheeky and annoying. Also the fact they claim to be eco warriors but will be splitting their time flying across the Atlantic half the year (plus any other things they do).

Otherwise I am all for it, especially as it pisses off the Royalists, DM, Sun and Piers Morgan
 
Looking at some comments made by those that are in anger, it's stuff like that they've just had a £2.4m refurbishment project at their home, paid for by the tax payer.

Yeah but that's just standard fare for the Royals and has been for centuries. I couldn't care less to be honest, the rich will always take the piss because they can.
 
As long as he gets zero tax payer's money and royal benefits then I guess that's fair enough but I very much doubt it.
 
Probably the first time a grandmother is pissed off that grandson moved out on his own with his wife.
 
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It's their little country pad, on the Frogmore House estate.

I'd love to know how it cost 2.4m to refurbish that. You could build it new about 10 times over.
 
I'd love to know how it cost 2.4m to refurbish that. You could build it new about 10 times over.

What you can't see is the underground dungeon structure that is more than 4 acres large full of splendid gold and silver chains.
 
I'd love to know how it cost 2.4m to refurbish that. You could build it new about 10 times over.
It was evidently divided into 5 separate apartments, so there was a lot of building work to make it back into one house. I read an article about it when I found the pic - it had to be rewired, new heating system, beams replaced, that kind of thing.

Having said that, it seems ridiculously expensive even for a big structural refurb. Mind you, they won't be using Bob the builder, will they? It says the couple paid for their own interior design and furnishings, but who knows.
 
Let's face it, none of us know really what their lives and jobs entail as 'senior' members of the royal family. So what do they do? Get up at 6am or 11am? Go and wave at a few people in Australia, enjoy a safari in South Africa? Go to church on Christmas Day and hold a few babies.

So if the Queen tells them to they go and open a new B&Q, their lives must be so hard they need to 'step back'. Could they have been much more 'stepped back already'?

I don't have much sympathy for them but by all means tell me how tough it must all be.
 
Let me guess. Daily mail readers are more upset over this than Randy Andy the paedo?
 
They earn enough for average joes standard. But the amount of maintenance they'd need they'll be running on deficits pretty soon.

I dont think they can financially be independent anyway. Securities, protocols, royal shenagigans arent cheap and markel isnt a top a hollywood actress, even if she actively sought job i doubt hollywood would cast the queen of england (even if he's not the actual kings in line) in a movies where she need to show some skin, or indulge in some on screen romance.

How much does a military man make? I doubt it's that much for royals standard.

i'm pretty sure they'll be fine. they could make enough to live off just by doing speaking engagements or whateva.
 
Let me guess. Daily mail readers are more upset over this than Randy Andy the paedo?
Daily Mail readers would be upset for the Queen. They're all raging Monarchists.

Guardian readers like myself just find it all so ridiculous, the whole lot of them should have been consigned to a landfill decades ago.
 
Having said that, it seems ridiculously expensive even for a big structural refurb. Mind you, they won't be using Bob the builder, will they? It says the couple paid for their own interior design and furnishings, but who knows.

His main income is £2m a year from the taxpayer anyway. Copper baths are not cheap either.


Let's face it, none of us know really what their lives and jobs entail as 'senior' members of the royal family. So what do they do? Get up at 6am or 11am? Go and wave at a few people in Australia, enjoy a safari in South Africa? Go to church on Christmas Day and hold a few babies.

So if the Queen tells them to they go and open a new B&Q, their lives must be so hard they need to 'step back'. Could they have been much more 'stepped back already'?

I don't have much sympathy for them but by all means tell me how tough it must all be.

I think they work pretty hard in fairness and it is a unique kind of pressure they're under.

Let me guess. Daily mail readers are more upset over this than Randy Andy the paedo?

Defintely, by several orders of magnitude. Randy Andy sex pest articles had very few comments when I looked at the time, the main article relating to this story had a 12000 when I scanned it yesterday.
 
If something can simultaneously piss off The Sun, the Mail and Piers Morgan it must be a good thing. As for the Royal Family as an institution while I quite like the constitutional monarchy we have as opposed to electing a head of state/ commander in chief-type, I'm dead against members of that family both ruling over and living off us purely by virtue of their birth.

Harry has been privileged since birth and handed an array of leg-ups and contacts so his stated aim to be 'financially independent' rings hollow to me, but equally he didn't ask to be born into this archaic circus and seems to be trying to make a break with the institution in the best way he can. Personally I could very much do without him, Meghan and his boy in public life and would perhaps have more respect for them if they'd decamped to a lumbering cabin in the Canadian wilderness never to be seen again but as a shot against an outmoded institution and the backward, jingoistic wankers in the tabloid press this is a decent move.
 
Good for them. The British tabloid filth have been on her case ever since they announced they were getting married. Clearly didn't want a black member of the Royal Family. They'll have plenty of success, and will live a comfortable life away from the British gutter press.

It seems the crux of it is that they want more control over their independence and privacy at the cost of giving up the tax payer funding of their lives. They want to keep their titles and will remain as ambassadors for the Royal family through charitable endeavours and so on but don't want to be beholden to Royal duties. It appears that they want to split their time half and half between Britain and North America.

Supposedly they do want to keep their English residence which belongs to the Queen privately. There's no way he is going to renounce all his worldly possessions and go and get a job in a factory somewhere. Being independent of the royal family he'll be able to monetise his name and status and earn vast sums quite easily. He gets about £2m a year from the tax payer plus massive expenses. I think he'll be able to match that earning easily. The big question is his security detail because he'd still be a prize scalp for Islamic terrorists and he needs the really elite level kind of security that the Royal family have. I'd be surprised if the tax payer doesn't continue to fund that, as an example.

If you were a cynic (I am) you'd see this as a power play to redefine their roles rather them 'leaving' the Royal family.

It's certainly won't be a Pakistani terrorist. He's Diana's son, Princess Di is more adored by Pakistani's than even the Daily Express. They've even forgiven him his racism i bet. :lol:
 
Good for them. Who gives a feck? Newspapers predictably losing their shit over it like weirdos.
 
Can they keep all the free money they got so far? Sounds like an ideal job, waving at people for a few years then saying, feck it, I'm taking all my waving money, tata.