While the very public royal rift in Britain’s ruling family has been ongoing for some time, further details always add yet more fuel to the fire. It seems that before Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made the difficult decision to split from the rest of the royal family as working royals, they may have already put a foot wrong and upset the Queen.
Elizabeth was reputedly left “hopping mad” as the couple moved to trademark their own brand, Sussex Royal, according to author, historian, and biographer Robert Lacey. Lacey makes clear that there’s nothing particularly wrong with this move except for how the couple went about it and what they were seeking to do with the name.
King Charles himself has a Duchy Originals line of merchandise that brings in some £3 million (almost $4 million) per year, and Buckingham Palace has a souvenir shop where visitors to the home of the sitting monarch can buy themselves something to commemorate their trip.
The issue for the Queen was two-fold. First, such ventures shouldn’t be started without discussion with Buckingham Palace, and the final say in all such efforts would rest with the Queen. Avoiding this conversation would certainly be enough to erode her support and was potentially just one more element that led to the now strained relationship between the couple and the royal family.
The second major issue appears to be exactly what type of services the couple may have been seeking to monetize.
Listed under Sussex Royal’s surprise June 2019 trademark applications were, for example, ‘social care services, namely organising and conducting emotional support groups; counselling services; emotional support services; provision of personal support services to help, care for and support persons in need . . . mentoring and personal care services.’
Per Lacey’s report, this led to a strained relationship with the Queen, who had been, to that point, been supportive of the couple and famously possessed a particular fondness for Harry. Unfortunately, Queen Elizabeth was a stickler for process and tradition, and this move to commercialize the royal name without permission was perceived as an attempt to ignore her authority.
Ultimately, things have proven to be very difficult for the couple as the estrangement from the royal family has made them a useful target for illwishers and those who seek to distract from the darker aspects of the modern royals as an institution.
Harry recently used the sad event of his uncle’s funeral as a reason to head home and visit family, potentially starting the long journey toward some form of healing of the rift. It’s never nice to see family, especially two brothers who so publicly shared the heartache of losing their mother at such a young age, end up on opposing sides of a family feud, so we hope that, in the long run, they can put it all behind them.
