‘Outrageous’ Meghan move sets William off

A simple Instagram post from the Duchess of Sussex could force the Prince of Wales to take “harsh” action when he becomes King one day.

Wood is the traditional five year anniversary gift so what better pressie for Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex than a whole set of handcrafted spoons?

The pot? They have just stirred it and stirred it good - and Prince William is reportedly already working on some just desserts.

We have just hit the half decade mark since that nasty flu-y thing from Wuhan ravaged the world and forced us inside to panic buy dried beans and to pretend to like Zoom trivia, so that also means it’s the five years since the Sussexes filed their HR paperwork with Buckingham Palace and became supposedly Regular Joes.

But the story is far from over with new claims this week that Crown Inc. could still have some moves left to play and could yet strip them of one of their few remaining royal possessions.

Meghan Markle on her new Netflix series. Picture: Supplied

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Wars have been readily started over territory, wives, stones, spices trade routes and that one time Helen got nicked by Paris, but now we might have the First Instagram War.

Prince William, when he finally gets the throne, could ‘harshly deal with’ the Sussexes, according to a new report, after an “outrageous” move by Meghan on the social media platform.

This week, the duchess posted a screenshot of a message she had received from Ukrainian’s vice prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko.

The issue - it was addressed to her as “Your Royal Highness”, despite the Sussexes having agreed to stop using their His/Her Royal Highness styling when they Megxited their way to California.

The view from the tweedier parts of the UK was that the professional royal turned TV cooking show host was doing something deliberate with her Insta move, that is her taking a step towards trying to defrost their frozen HRHs.

“It’s actually quite a clever way of testing the water,” a “friend of William” told The Daily

Beast’s Tom Sykes.

Meghan Markle posted a message addressed as "Your Royal Highness" to her social media. Picture: Instagram

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“You’d have to be an idiot to believe that she didn’t know exactly what she was doing when she posted that message, unedited, to her stories.

“It’s a step in the wrong direction, basically, away from the agreement”.

Nor were those in King Charles’ circle overly impressed with the “Your Royal Highness” post, with a friend of His Majesty telling Sykes, “it’s outrageous. Every time you think they can’t make it worse, they make it worse”.

While it’s something of an HRH stalemate there things will stay, everyone decidedly not amused and clucking away - but only for now.

The situation could look starkly different when William V gets his go at juggling an orb and sceptre.

When William becomes King, “the gloves will be off” a friend of his has told the Beast’s Sykes. “If [the Susssexes] started using the HRH titles on a regular basis, he would take them away for good.”

While the events of the last few years have brought Charles and William closer than ever, having had to deal with, in quick succession the traumatic split from the Sussexes, their couple’s repeated media eruptions, the death of Her Late Majesty and then both the King and Kate, the Princess of Wales’s cancer diagnoses, on the thorny subject those Montecito rate payers, they are split.

Prince William could favour a tougher stance. Picture: Jane Barlow - WPA Pool/Getty Images

While Charles’ strategy is to take a “softly-softly” approach, per the Beast, his son reportedly favours a tougher stance.

“It’s no secret William wants Harry more harshly dealt with. He thinks he has betrayed the family from top to bottom, which is the ultimate Windsor crime.

“It wouldn’t take much to provoke him to flex his muscles when he is king,” a Wales intimate told the Sykes.

And so peer down the track and the stage could be set for a new and painful clash - on one hand we have a duchess leaning into her commercial projects and needing to market herself and on the other a steely future King with little interest in pulling his punches and tiptoeing around the Sussexes.

For the time being though, as the Prince of Wales practices his Superman power poses in the mirror, the Duke of Sussex is being reportedly truly blanked by his father.

People, a generally Sussex-aligned outlet, has revealed that Charles has now entirely stopped answering Harry’s calls and letters.

Meghan’s move has sparked controversy. Picture: AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell

Consider that - the duke is actually bothering to sit down and putting pen to paper, even bothering to find a stamp (or to at least send his assistant’s assistant out to find this thing called ‘post office’) and his efforts are still being bluntly rejected by his father.

The 40-year-old has not seen the King since February 2024, despite having visited the UK on four occasions since then, each time the line being that His Majesty is supposedly too busy.

Such is the severity of their estrangement, per People, the now nearly unemployed duke found that his father was hospitalised briefly last month from news reports.

For the time being though, the great Ice Age continues. William can continue his huffing and puffing, Meghan her jam-selling and Harry? I suppose he must have a hell of a lot of free time these days to reflect on the past and to buy new rounds of stamps.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

Originally published as ‘Outrageous’ Meghan move sets William off