The most consequential thing to happen yesterday happened in the rarefied pages of Hello!
The most consequential thing to happen yesterday happened in the rarefied pages of Hello! magazine, where a “friend” of the Sussexes was put up, with impeccable timing, to announce that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex do not consider themselves bound by the Sandringham agreement, the settlement the late Queen hammered out in January 2020 to let them leave, because they never agreed to it in the first place.
Here is the quote, as given to Hello!’s royal editor Emily Nash: “It doesn’t trouble them. They never agreed they wouldn’t be half in half out. That was what was decided and foisted upon them. They’re just living their lives and they can, because they’re financially independent.”
The “half in, half out” model was the thing Queen Elizabeth II ruled out at Sandringham. It was the central tenet of Megxit: you are either a working royal or you are not. It was the basis on which Harry and Meghan left this country, and the basis on which the entire post-Megxit structure (the HRHs held in abeyance, the loss of the military appointments, the end of public funding, the private patronages they were allowed to keep) was built. And the Sussexes’ position, six years on, is that none of it counts, because nobody made the Queen sign a contract with her grandson.
The statement (let’s be honest, this has been spoon-fed by their office) has gone down spectacularly badly with my sources this morning.
One friend of the late Queen, who is also close to the wider family, told me: “It’s unforgivable.”
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