{"id":635971,"date":"2026-10-20T05:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T05:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/635971\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T05:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T05:28:07","slug":"harry-and-meghan-feel-they-have-a-right-to-rival-prince-william-and-princess-kate-royal-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/635971\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry and Meghan ‘feel they have a right’ to rival Prince William and Princess Kate | Royal | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle faced some criticism after their first joint appearance last week since moving back to the UK due to the similarities it held to their previous royal engagements<\/a>. However, the Sussexes “feel they have a right” to continue to carry out visits of their choosing, rivaling those conducted by senior working royals, including William and Kate, according to reports.<\/a><\/p>\n

The couple have been slammed for attempting to become \u201cquasi-royals by stealth”<\/a> by one royal biographer. Harry and Meghan stepped back as working royals in 2020 and moved to the US, before relocating back to the UK in August. A close friend of Harry’s told Hello! the pair feel \u201cthey have a right to\u201d live \u201cindependent lives\u201d including making public appearances for causes they care about.<\/p>\n

The insider told the outlet: “They want to have their independent lives in the way they think they should, and they feel they have a right to, like anybody. I don\u2019t think they are going to do things in a different way just because they\u2019re back in the UK.”<\/p>\n

The visit to Nottingham came just over a month after a strongly worded letter written on behalf of the King made the role of Harry and Meghan clear, and positioned them as \u201cprivate citizens with commercial and charitable interests.\u201d The communication, which came as a shock to the couple, further stated that any work they undertake \u201cis a personal matter for them both and undertaken in a private capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter reiterated the decision of the late Queen Elizabeth that Harry and Meghan could not be ‘half-in, half-out’ royals. The friend continued to add that criticism about their engagements \u201cdoesn\u2019t trouble them”.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey never agreed that they wouldn\u2019t be half-in, half-out. That was what was decided and was foisted upon them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just living their lives, and they can do it because they\u2019re financially independent,\u201d the friend added.<\/p>\n

Following the Nottingham visit, a spokesperson for Harry and Meghan told People<\/a>, \u201cEveryone came away feeling really positive and genuinely thrilled by the love and support they received.\u201d At the time of the visit, Meghan told fans: “It’s great to be back.”<\/p>\n

Although there has been a mixed reception following the visit, the Sussexes are thought to continue carrying out royal-like visits for causes they care about, competing with the likes of Will and Kate, who have been standing strong as a unit since the return of his brother amid their fued. Prince William<\/a>, reportedly viewed the quasi-royal Nottingham expedition as “distateful”<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prince Harry and Meghan Markle faced some criticism after their first joint appearance last week since moving back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[156,311739,4866,111,139,69,3578,4289,4290,17823,3164,311738],"class_list":["post-635971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-independent-lives","tag-meghan-markle","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-prince-harry","tag-prince-william","tag-princess-catherine","tag-princess-of-wales","tag-royal-family","tag-royal-rivalry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}