{"id":636337,"date":"2026-10-20T13:52:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/636337\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T13:52:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:52:23","slug":"william-king-at-odds-as-harry-meghan-leave-palace-in-state-of-dismay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/636337\/","title":{"rendered":"William, King at odds as Harry, Meghan leave Palace in \u2018state of dismay\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

To all intents and purposes, it was a roaring success. When Prince Harry<\/a> and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex<\/a>, stepped out in Nottingham on October 15, the photos showed them being greeted by adoring fans.<\/p>\n

Granted, the gathered crowds weren\u2019t of the size they had enjoyed back in 2017 when they visited the city shortly after announcing their engagement, but the photo opp still delivered a stark message: that the Sussexes are determined to be public figures, no matter the wishes of King Charles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no denying that the reaction from the crowds when Meghan and Harry were doing their walkabout was incredibly positive, and there are a growing number of courtiers who are telling the King he\u2019d be foolish not to take advantage of that goodwill and find a way to bring them back to serve the Crown,\u201d an insider tells Woman\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

And yet, Harry and Meghan\u2019s royal-style visit to a community recording studio and community kitchen leaves Charles with a very real dilemma.<\/p>\n

\"Meghan,Meghan appeared thrilled with the reception she received in Nottingham. (Credit; Getty)<\/p>\n

For it flies in the face of the ruling made by his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth<\/a>, who declared in no uncertain terms that there could be no \u201chalf-in, half-out\u201d arrangement for Harry and his former Suits actress wife.<\/p>\n

It could also be perceived, as royal expert Tom Sykes writes in his substack The Royalist, as a \u201cdefiant rejection\u201d of the letter \u2013 written by the King himself \u2013 that informed senior stakeholders in the UK that his youngest son and his wife were \u201cakin to private citizens with commercial and charitable interests\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Indeed, Sykes says the question of whether the Sussexes should be described as \u201cworking royals\u201d had become a \u201cstrange new battleground\u201d in their campaign to be public figures.<\/p>\n

A source close to the couple expressed how much they dislike the phrase in comments to the Sunday Times.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Working members of the royal family\u2019 is a really lazy phrase. He hates it, she hates it. They are not \u2018working\u2019 for the institution, but they are members of the royal family, and they work. Their days are built around their family life and their work. She\u2019s running a business seven days a week,\u201d the source told the outlet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings like Nottingham aren\u2019t done in the name of the institution or the crown, but Harry is the son of the King, he is still a member of the royal family, he\u2019s just not a member of the institution. It\u2019s misleading to call them \u2018former royals\u2019. It has an impact on how they\u2019re perceived and the way people talk about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PrinceHarry and Meghan\u2019s Nottingham visit had all the hallmarks of a royal engagement. (Credit: Getty)<\/p>\n

Harry and Meghan, Sykes claims, are \u201cdetermined\u201d to go about reestablishing themselves as \u201ccurrent members\u201d of the royal family, \u201cwhich is precisely what the Palace does not want\u201d, he writes, \u201cbecause it leads to the establishment of a rival court\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they are going to insist on going around doing public events, presenting themselves as members of the royal family, when the King has specifically asked them not to represent themselves in that way, that is a pretty serious problem,\u201d Sykes goes on, adding that the Palace, from what he has heard, is in \u201ca state of dismay\u201d.<\/p>\n

And Harry\u2019s estranged brother Prince William<\/a>, it appears, is among the most dismayed at the turn of events.<\/p>\n

\u201cWilliam and his supporters are telling the King that this has to be the absolute last straw,\u201d an insider tells Woman\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can\u2019t believe his father is allowing them to bulldoze their way around Britain doing whatever they please.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s every reason to believe they\u2019ve got more of these appearances planned, so it\u2019s not a problem that\u2019s going to go away and William is saying it\u2019s time his father put a stop to it by finally stripping them of their titles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the King is very reluctant to go that far, it would almost certainly trigger an all-out war with them and that\u2019s the last thing he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PrincePrince William, pictured on October 14, is said to be dismayed. (Credit: Getty)<\/p>\n

Sykes says that those at the Palace simply \u201cdo not know what to do\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feeling is that there is nothing further they can do without the King giving the authority to come down harder, to let it be known to the Sussexes that they are risking their titles,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the Palace is very nervous about even modest steps such as removing them from the royal website, because they do not want to look vindictive, and they are worried that it will stoke the flames and make things worse.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Profile\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tProfile
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tKatherine Davison\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Katherine is an experienced writer and editor who has spent more than two decades working with some of the best-known media outlets in Australia and the UK. Before becoming a freelance contributor for Woman’s Day, Katherine was Editor of trusted Australian entertainment title WHO, and she is the former Managing Editor of Lifestyle, Entertainment and Commercial for 7NEWS.com.au. She has a wide interest in topics spanning celebrity, lifestyle, shopping, travel, real life and more – and when she\u2019s not researching her next story or crafting a compelling headline you\u2019ll likely find her cycling around Sydney with her beloved dog, Pickle, in a backpack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To all intents and purposes, it was a roaring success. When Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[156,11018,4866,111,139,69,3578,4289],"class_list":["post-636337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-king-charles","tag-meghan-markle","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-prince-harry","tag-prince-william"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636337","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=636337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}