Royal family deny ‘driving out’ Harry and Meghan

Palace in damage control as friends say Duke and Duchess of Sussex ‘felt ignored, isolated’.

Royal aides have denied the Sussexes have been driven out. Picture: AFP

Palace aides have been forced to deny that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are being “driven out” of the royal family after a friend of the couple said they felt ignored and isolated.

In a move that shows how sensitive the Palace is to accusations that Harry and Meghan have been treated badly, they have sought to reassure the couple about their standing in the institution.

Just when relations between the Sussexes and the rest of the royal family were settling down after the events of Wednesday night, the temperature was raised once more by the broadcaster Tom Bradby, who has known Prince Harry for more than 20 years.

Bradby referred to the “toxic” relations between the Sussexes and other members of the family, in particular the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and said that the Palace had made clear to them that “there was going to be a slimmed-down monarchy and they weren’t really a part of it”.

Tom and Claudia Bradby at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding. Picture: Getty Images

He added that there had been a lot of arguments and that “certainly the rest of the family find Harry and Meghan very difficult and, from Harry and Meghan’s point of view, they’re just being driven out as they see it”.

He said that there needed to be a peace deal. “There’s so much anger and to be honest with you at the moment it looks like it might get worse, not better.”

Bradby, the ITV News at Ten anchor who interviewed the couple in Africa, is the journalist who knows them best and was invited to their wedding. His analysis of how they came to announce that they were going to step back from their roles as senior royals is assumed by many to be an accurate reflection of Harry’s thinking.

Palace officials moved swiftly after the interview to extend an olive branch to Harry and Meghan, saying that they had always been central to the monarchy’s plans. One aide said: “It is strongly disputed that the Sussexes are not at the centre of any future slimmed-down monarchy.”

The attempt to calm the row came as:

■ It was revealed that the duchess had already flown back to Canada, where her eight-month-old son, Archie, had remained with a nanny.

■ Palace aides were set to continue negotiations through the weekend.

■ The country’s most senior civil servant, Sir Mark Sedwill, was dragged into the urgent talks over Harry and Meghan’s future.

■ A cabinet minister warned that if the couple stepped back from royal duties there would be “consequences” for the public’s willingness to fund their lifestyle.

Speaking on ITV, Bradby said that the couple’s fears about their future within the royal family developed while they were taking their extended break in Canada around Christmas. The duke was asked by the family to put down his suggestions on paper but initially declined to do so for fear of a press leak. “They were very insistent in order to go forward and discuss it properly it had to be put in writing,” Bradby said. “He did put it in writing and it did leak.”

However, one royal aide said: “I don’t think you could point to any evidence of them being forced out, or made to feel unwelcome. The future of the monarchy always had the Sussexes very much at the heart of it, and perhaps still will depending on what structures they arrive at.”

The source pointed out that as young, attractive and popular members of the royal family they would always be considered as an asset. Prince Charles’s belief that the monarchy should be limited to its essentials — the sovereign, their heirs and the immediate family — has been discussed since the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012. Even on that analysis Harry would remain part of the slimmed-down monarchy for the foreseeable future.

The couple were seemingly upset about a photograph that showed the Queen with Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince George. The release of the picture is said to have made them feel excluded.

In April 2016 the same four generations took part in a Royal Mail photoshoot for a stamp sheet to mark the Queen’s 90th birthday. “I don’t remember there being any argument then,” a source said.

Sources close to Harry and Meghan questioned the accuracy of Bradby’s claims, or that the Sussexes were upset about the picture of the Queen with Charles, William and George. “That is nonsense,” one said.

The Times