Turbulent year that led to Harry and Meghan splitting from royal family

Harry and Meghan’s wedding cheer turned to family splits, media rows and very public criticism.

Harry and Meghan have stepped down from royal duties after a fractious year of public scrutiny and media feuds. Picture: AFP.

A little more than a year ago everything was going so well for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. They had recently got married, and as they embarked on an autumn tour of Australia it was announced that the duchess was pregnant with their first child.

The tour was a success, and the duchess seemed to be bringing new and interesting ideas to how the royal family operated.

But all was not well. There was a spate of stories about the duchess’s father, Thomas Markle, who had not attended the couple’s wedding in May 2018 after he faked paparazzi pictures near his home in Mexico.

And, crucially, there was another family rift: between Harry and his brother, William. Initially this was billed as a falling-out between Meghan and Kate. But it later became apparent that the more important row – reported to be over the Duke of Cambridge’s failure to be sufficiently welcoming to Meghan when she became Harry’s girlfriend – was between the two brothers.

Those differences became painfully apparent when the Sussexes first moved out of Kensington Palace to Frogmore Cottage in the grounds of Windsor Castle, and then split from the Royal Foundation, which they and the Cambridges had been running together. The Sussexes set up their own household at Buckingham Palace with a separate head of communications and their own “Sussexroyal” Instagram account.

There was a window of happiness when Archie was born last May. But a year that started uncertainly for the couple soon became more turbulent. The duchess was criticised over her flight in a private jet to New York for a baby shower.

The couple chose not to tell the world where duchess had the baby, although the birth certificate later revealed that he was born at the Portland Hospital in west London. There was a further row with the media when the duke and duchess refused to reveal who Archie’s godparents were.

The couple faced other problems when it was revealed in financial accounts that the refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage had cost taxpayers £2.4 million (AUD $4.6 million). They were also criticised over their use of private jets after taking four flights in 11 days, despite championing environmental causes.

The couple’s tour to southern Africa, carried out at the request of the government, was overshadowed on the penultimate day. They announced that the duchess had begun a lawsuit against The Mail on Sunday over an alleged breach of copyright and privacy after it published a private letter between her and her estranged father. The newspaper said that it would defend its case vigorously.

Then the duke launched a scathing attack on the British tabloid press, accusing them of a “ruthless campaign” against his wife. He added: “I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces.”

In an ITV documentary filmed on their Africa tour the couple opened up about their struggles. The duchess said she had tried to cope with the pressures of her new royal life by putting on a “stiff upper lip” but that she was not prepared for the intensity of tabloid interest.

She admitted to feeling vulnerable, saying: “It’s not enough to just survive something, that’s not the point of life. You have got to thrive.”

The duke, questioned about an alleged rift with the Duke of Cambridge, said he loved his brother dearly but that they were “on different paths” and had good days and bad days in their relationship.

He described his mental health and the way he dealt with the pressures of his life as a matter of “constant management”.

It was announced that the couple would be taking Archie to spend Christmas with the duchess’s mother, Doria Ragland, and not at Sandringham with the Queen, who in her Christmas broadcast spoke of the “bumpy path” that her family and the nation had experienced.

The Times