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Prince Harry and his wife Meghan’s unilateral decision to walk away from front-line royal duties leaves the British monarchy’s future wobbling.<\/p>\n
It also piles the pressure on his brother Prince William, who, along with his wife Kate, will have to shoulder more of the burden of representing the institution to a younger generation.<\/p>\n
Harry, 35, and Meghan, 38, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, were set to become an increasingly important cornerstone of the monarchy in the decades to come.<\/p>\n
But their shock decision to step back from being senior royals throws all that up in the air.<\/p>\n
Queen Elizabeth II is 93 and it has long been signalled that when her eldest son Prince Charles inherits the throne, he wants a slimmed-down monarchy tightly focused on him, his wife Camilla, his sons William and Harry and their children.<\/p>\n
Harry’s role was meant to be as a rock of support to William as he in turn becomes heir to the throne, prince of Wales and eventually king.<\/p>\n
The two brothers were exceptionally close growing up, together coming through the death of their mother Diana, princess of Wales, in a 1997 car crash when William was 15 and Harry 12.<\/p>\n
But Harry’s determination to go his own way with Meghan has seen the brothers — at Harry’s own admission — drift apart.<\/p>\n
– Kneejerk decisions –<\/p>\n
While William is a cautious character, Harry is combustible and prone to impulse.<\/p>\n
Harry’s announcement that he and Meghan will step back, rip up relations with the media, partially relocate to North America and seek a private income — without having consulted Queen Elizabeth or Charles first — will have done little to diminish his hothead reputation.<\/p>\n
And the monarchy has traditionally been ruthless in cutting loose rogue royals to ensure the institution’s survival.<\/p>\n
King Edward VIII chose to abdicate in 1936 in order to marry twice-divorced US socialite Wallis Simpson. They lived the rest of their lives in exile in France.<\/p>\n
In 1996, Diana was stripped of the title “her royal highness” when she divorced Charles, as was Sarah when she divorced Prince Andrew, Queen Elizabeth’s second son.<\/p>\n
Andrew himself was forced to cut all royal duties for the for the foreseeable future in November last year, following a bungled television interview on his relationship with convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n
During Queen Elizabeth’s long reign, she ran affairs of state while her husband Prince Philip, the royal patriarch, ran the family.<\/p>\n
But he retired in 2017 and at 98 now spends most of his time at Sandringham, the sovereign’s private estate in eastern England.<\/p>\n
A naval officer, he liked to run a tight ship and the Windsors might be missing his pragmatic, no-nonsense approach to ironing out the family’s problems.<\/p>\n
– Gilded straightjacket –<\/p>\n
A successful television actress and activist, Meghan was initially seen as a breath of fresh air for the royal family when her engagement to Harry was announced in November 2017.<\/p>\n
Mixed race and with a career of her own behind her, she was seen as someone who could modernise the monarchy and represent it to a new generation in multi-cultural 21st-century Britain.<\/p>\n
It was assumed that unlike Diana, who was 19 when she got engaged to Charles, Meghan — who married Harry aged 36 in May 2018 — was old enough and wise enough to know what she was letting herself in for.<\/p>\n
However, the gilded straightjacket of life within the British royal family — governed by centuries of precedent — seem to have left the Los Angeles former TV star cold.<\/p>\n
“I never thought this would be easy but I thought it would be fair,” she told ITV television in October, admitting that life as a new mother had been hard.<\/p>\n
Talking of “complicated issues”, Buckingham Palace’s rushed brief statement on their shock announcement hinted at sympathy for their position.<\/p>\n
But it remains to be seen whether the Sussexes’ attempt to be half-in, half-out of the royal family will last long.<\/p>\n
The track record of royals trying to earn money outside the family firm is not good.<\/p>\n
Harry and Meghan might eventually find their pre-destined life inside the royal circle much easier than going it alone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n