Some things aren’t meant to last, and while Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s marriage is still going strong (despite all the rumors to the contrary), the duo’s time as senior Royals apparently wasn’t to be. There are a myriad reasons why the Sussexes just couldn’t fit into the family, but it probably didn’t help that the couple’s very first announcement caused controversy within the clan.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been together for eight years at this point, having started their relationship back in July 2016. Initially, the pair delighted in keeping their romance a secret, which allowed them to avoid any unwanted media scrutiny — even if it did once lead to them nearly getting caught canoodling in a hotel room. Come November that year, however, Harry elected to publicly confirm their partnership for the first time.
Unfortunately, the timing of this announcement was not without its flaws. It seems Harry and Meghan’s relationship started just as it was meant to go on: by angering King Charles.
King Charles had a surprising reaction to Harry announcing he was dating Meghan
By November 2016, it was already widely reported in the press that Harry and Meghan were an item, and the intense speculation that would come to typify the media’s response to their relationship was already in full swing. It got so bad, in fact, that the prince elected to confirm he and Meghan were dating in a statement, but only so he could criticize the press for their conduct. The statement noted that Harry was “worried” for Meghan’s safety and “deeply disappointed” at her treatment.
These days, we’re used to Harry speaking his mind but back then it was almost unheard of for a Royal to hit back at the media like this. Naturally, it became the biggest talking point to do with the Royals at that time. This was too bad for then-Prince Charles, as the future king was embarking on a critical diplomatic meeting with the King of Bahrain right when the announcement dropped.
As per Royal biography Finding Freedom, from author Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, Charles was “crushed” and taken aback when he received word that Harry’s statement was about to release just 20 minutes before it happened. Charles’ tour of the Persian Gulf was supposed to be a major, headline-grabbing moment for him and his son’s decision to drop this Meghan bombshell at that specific time left him feeling “overshadowed” and “sidelined.”
“It was a pivotal moment that had been months in the making,” the authors note in Finding Freedom. stressing that weeks and weeks of planning from Charles and his team, in the hopes of achieving as much widespread media attention was possible, were immediately flushed down the drain upon Harry’s statement going live.
Clearly, Charles was never a fan of that statement, which might explain why the palace officially erased all presence of it from the Royal family’s website this past spring. Even all these years later, maybe that much-publicized dent to his pride still stings.
