The royal family is tonight facing the biggest rupture to the firm in decades.
A royal announcement that is sure to rock the United Kingdom
and fans of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
What Harry Meghan have announced is that they are going to step back
from being senior royals, i.e., they're not going to be front line members
of the royal family anymore doing the public duties
that we have seen them doing thus far.
They're going to spend their time split between North America and the UK.
This is part of the progressive new role that they want to play and how they see
they can harness their brand and support the queen and the monarchy,
as well as causes that are very close to them as well.
We will firmly stand up for what we believe and we will do everything that we can
to play our part in building a better world.
I just can't understand it.
Not a very mature thing to do, just to issue a statement on your own
without discussing it with the family.
If they want to a private life, then yeah, let them live a private life.
That's their choice, isn't it?
As royals and as human beings.
I don't see William and Kate doing this, do you? So ...
I think in some quarters it's definitely being seen as trying to have their cake and eat it.
But they see this as a way of building on a brand they think can do real good
in the future.
And they feel they cannot do that within the structure, the very formal structures
that exist within the palaces at this time.
I think the clues have been there for some time.
When Harry and Meghan first announced their engagement,
there was so much positive coverage.
This was an amazing story.
It was a fairytale wedding that they had in Windsor.
The whole world looked on.
It really was positive, positive, positive.
– Bright looking, radiant.
But very quickly, it seemed to go sour.
It's clear that they weren't happy in the role that they had.
This has been very evident from the interviews that they have given themselves to media.
My British friend said to me,
'I'm sure he's great, but you shouldn't do it
because the British tabloids will destroy your life.'
Harry, in particular, he sees the mainstream media or elements of the mainstream media
as waging a war, a ruthless campaign of vilification against his wife.
But what they have to be careful about, really, is that they are not accused of tarnishing
the royal brand because that is their brand.
They are the Sussex says they are royals.
That is what has bought them the fame that they have on their international celebrity.
Whenever they're criticised in the media,
it is often in the context of the fact that they are publicly funded.
If they receive no more taxpayer funded money, that argument no longer holds.
We don't know how they're going to make money.
We have absolutely no idea how they're going to make money.
They haven't spelled it out in detail.
And I in fact, I do wonder themselves whether they have actually worked this out.
It has to be said that this is unprecedented in modern times.
The only real comparison that we have of somebody actually positively opting
out of a high profile role in the royal family is that of the Duke of Windsor who abdicated,
obviously leaving the throne to his younger brother.
But that was a long time ago, and the world has changed.
Quite how they will make it work in this modern day, we'll have to wait and see.