Prince Harry Wanted to Work out Royal Exit Over Email, Book Says

TL;DR: 

• Prince Harry tried to negotiate royal exit terms via email, according to Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown.
• Author Valentine Low claims Prince Harry received a reply that it required “proper family conversation.”
• Later, according to the book, various “scenarios” were outlined in person. 

Prince Harry took to email to discuss his and Meghan Markle’s exit from royal life, according to a new book. Their leaving, announced in January 2020, is among the topics discussed in Valentine Low’s upcoming book. Ahead, learn about the reply to Harry’s email and how Queen Elizabeth II took compromise “off the table.” 

Prince Harry emailed King Charles about being ‘unhappy’ with royal life while in Canada, book says

The Duke of Sussex expressed how “unhappy” he and the Duchess of Sussex were with royal life during a 2019 trip to Canada, according to a Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown excerpt.

Before announcing their intention to “step back” from royal duties, Harry and Meghan went to Vancouver Island. There they stayed in a mansion award-winning music producer David Foster helped secure. Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, their now 3-year-old son, joined them. 

“Away from the rest of the family, Harry sent an email to his father, saying that they were unhappy,” Low wrote via the Times of London. “The current set-up was not working for them, and they wanted to go and live in North America.” 

“Harry seemed to be under the impression that they could just sort it out by email before he and Meghan got back to London on January 6,” the author continued. “The reply they got, however, was that this would require a proper family conversation.”

5 different plans were outlined before Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal exit, according to book

After the email exchange, Harry sat down for an in-person meeting with his father, brother Prince William, and grandmother Queen Elizabeth. Per Low, the four of them weren’t the only people present. Members of their respective royal households, or offices, were also there. 

Several options were discussed, according to Low. “The people sitting around the table went through five different scenarios,” she wrote. 

One idea involved “Harry and Meghan spending most of their time being working members of the royal family, but having a month a year to do their own thing.” Another included “spending most of their time privately, but doing a select number of royal activities.”

Following the talks, which some dubbed the “Sandringham Summit,” Harry spoke publicly about leaving royal life. “There really was no other option,” he remarked during a speech at a Sentebale charity event in January 2020. 

Queen Elizabeth took compromise ‘off the table’

Ultimately — after the email Harry sent, the reply, and negotiations — the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back from their roles altogether. They gave up their His and Her Royal Highness titles and patronages and relocated to Montecito, California. 

As Low wrote, it had been Queen Elizabeth who nixed the idea of “compromise.”

“Crucially, it was the queen who took the view that unless the couple were prepared to abide by the restrictions that applied to working members of the royal family, they could not be allowed to carry out official duties,” she said.

“One source said: ‘There was a very clear view: you can’t be in and out. And if you’ve got such clarity of view, it’s very difficult to say, ‘Why don’t we go 10 per cent this way instead of 20 per cent?’ Compromise was off the table, removed by the queen.’”

Low’s book, which drops in the U.K. on Oct. 6, is one in a string of recent titles about the British royal family.