Six years ago, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle quit their royal roles and relocated to America – and as Meghan finished her last outing, she made a telling comment to her loyal aides
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attended their last official royal engagement six years ago(Image: Getty Images)
The Royal Family will be out in force tomorrow as King Charles, the Prince and Princess of Wales, Princess Anne and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester will attend the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey: the first major event in the royal calendar to honour both the Commonwealth and the King in a colourful and moving ceremony.
When the service took place in 2020, it proved to be Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s last official engagement as senior working royals before quitting their duties and relocated to California. Just weeks earlier, they made the bombshell announcement that they were leaving the UK and stepping back from their senior roles within the Firm.
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Prince Harry and Meghan on Commonwealth Day in 2020(Image: PA)
The morning before the Commonwealth Day service, Meghan also carried out her last solo engagement by meeting with scholars from across the Commonwealth at Buckingham Palace in her then-role as patron of the Association of Commonwealth Universities.
And when the engagement ended, Meghan bid an emotional farewell to staff and her trusted aides who gathered before making a telling parting comment, a book claims.
In the Harry and Meghan biography Finding Freedom, authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand described seeing several of Meghan’s staff saying their goodbyes.
They write: “Staff who had been with the couple from day one were mourning the end of what was supposed to be a happy story: two people fall in love, get married, have a baby, serve the Queen, the end. Instead, they were leaving the country.”
The Duchess met scholars from 11 countries as her final solo royal engagement in 2020(Image: PA)
And then he described Meghan’s comment to him as the engagement came to an end. He added: “As Meghan gave me a final hug goodbye, she said, ‘It didn’t have to be this way’.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex then attended the service alongside other members of the Firm – and many remarked on the tension between the family members. And according to a book, Harry appeared to be “fighting back the tears” at the huge event.
In his book Battle of Brothers, royal author and historian Robert Lacey says even though Meghan had a “megawatt” smile, Harry was more gloomy. He writes: “Observers also noted that Harry’s face was ‘quite tense and unsmiling’ – and that when William sat down close to him, he barely greeted his brother.
“Throughout the service, Meghan megawatted away with her best TV smile but, as the ceremony progressed, Harry appeared to grow gloomier. According to one observer, ‘his accelerated blinking even suggested he might have been fighting back tears.'”
Later that day, after attending the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey, Harry and Meghan left the UK for Canada, where they were reunited with their young son Archie, before settling in California a few months later.
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