The Duchess of Sussex is said to be furious after reports claimed Prince William and Kate pushed for the letter King Charles sent in mid-September, which reminded officials that she and Prince Harry are no longer working royals. If the claims are right, the document that went out in the King’s name was, in effect, a Prince William letter.
None of this has been confirmed on the record. The accounts come from unnamed sources who spoke to showbiz journalist Rob Shuter, writing on his Substack, and to the UK celebrity magazine Heat World.
A letter meant to end the guessing
The letter went out from the Lord Chamberlain, the most senior official in the Royal Household. It was sent to senior figures across government, the armed forces and the Lord Lieutenancies, the network of officials who represent the monarch in each county.
The palace said it had received a number of requests for guidance after Harry and Meghan moved back to Britain. The King wanted to clear up any doubt. The letter restated that the couple stepped back from representing the sovereign in January 2020 and are not working members of the Royal Family.
It also said their independence would continue to be respected, both in how they earn their money and in how they protect their privacy. It confirmed that they will not use the styles His Royal Highness and Her Royal Highness.
That last point is not new. When the terms of the couple’s exit were announced in January 2020, Buckingham Palace said they would stop using their HRH styles. Putting it in writing again, six years later and to this audience, is what caught attention.
The Sussexes did not hide their reaction. A spokesperson for the couple said they were “surprised” by the letter.
Was it really a Prince William letter?
According to Shuter’s source, William had lost patience with the confusion over his brother’s position. Lord Lieutenancies had been asking how the couple should be treated. The source claimed William’s view was that nothing had changed and that Harry and Meghan remain outside the institution. The same source said the Prince of Wales helped shape the letter.
Heat World’s source went further and named Kate as a driving force alongside her husband. That source claimed Meghan knows the Waleses were behind the statement.
The same account says William and Kate felt blindsided by the way the Sussexes announced their return to the UK, and that years of public disputes have left them without any trust in the couple. The source conceded that the statement contained nothing new. The aim, it claimed, was to make the boundaries clear before anything happened.
According to that source, Meghan has no intention of being pushed aside by the palace, and least of all by William and Kate.
Why officials needed an answer
The Lord Lieutenancies were the right audience for this letter. Lord Lieutenants help organise royal visits in their counties and handle the protocol around them. With Harry and Meghan now living in Britain, a local official could plausibly face an invitation, an appearance or a request involving the couple and not know how to handle it.
The letter gives those officials a clear answer. The Sussexes are private citizens with royal connections, not representatives of the Crown. It leaves the couple free to run their own affairs, but it does not open a route back into public royal life.
A rocky homecoming
The move itself surprised royal watchers. Harry and Meghan left their home in Montecito, California, where they had lived since leaving royal life, and brought Archie and Lilibet with them to the UK.
The return has not been smooth. The couple took their children out of school after just two days, citing security concerns. Archie and Lilibet have since started at a new school, and the decision drew plenty of criticism.
Relations with the rest of the family remain frozen. The Prince and Princess of Wales are reported to have cut off contact with the Sussexes, and the two brothers are said not to have spoken in several years.
That rift did not appear overnight. Since leaving, Harry and Meghan have made their grievances public in their 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, their 2022 Netflix series and Harry’s 2023 memoir, Spare. The King, Queen Camilla, William and Kate have all featured in those accounts.
What comes next
The palace has now stated its position formally, and the Sussexes have been clear that they did not expect it. The only on-the-record reaction from the couple’s side is still that one word from their spokesperson. No public comment from Kensington Palace on its reported role has been published.
With the couple now living a short drive from the family they left, it may not be long before their UK plans test how firmly the palace means to hold that line.
