A striking new assessment of the Sussexes' royal exit has turned the spotlight firmly back onto Prince Harry's role in the fallout. More than six years after the couple stepped back as senior working royals, attention has shifted towards Harry's own part in a decision that fundamentally changed his relationship with the monarchy.
Meghan 'not a deliberate disruptor'
Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine has argued that Meghan Markle did not deliberately set out to cause disruption and insisted Harry was just as responsible for what followed. She said: "For all her mistakes, I don't think Meghan deliberately set out to be a disruptor."
The columnist added: "And I don't think it's fair to hold her solely responsible for the shambles that followed. It's easy to always blame the woman, but the truth is [Prince] Harry was as much a part of Megxit as she was."
The Sussexes' departure and its aftermath
The couple announced in January 2020 that they intended to step back as senior members of the Royal Family before ultimately establishing a new life in California with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. What followed transformed Harry's relationship with his family.
The Sussexes gave their explosive interview to Oprah Winfrey in 2021, before their six-part Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan was released in December 2022. Harry then published his memoir Spare in January 2023, making a series of deeply personal revelations about royal life and his relationships with members of his family.
Royal family challenges and family ties
The consequences of the couple's departure became particularly apparent in 2024, when the Royal Family faced an extraordinary series of challenges. Buckingham Palace announced in February that King Charles had been diagnosed with cancer and would temporarily step back from public-facing duties while receiving treatment. Despite this, Harry travelled to Britain shortly afterwards and met his father following the announcement.
Just weeks later, Princess Catherine, 44, revealed that cancer had also been discovered following her abdominal surgery and that she was undergoing preventative chemotherapy. The simultaneous absence of the King and Catherine left an already slimmed-down group of working royals under increased pressure.
Harry's cousins Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie have also maintained their family relationships while the fallout from his departure has continued. Eugenie, in particular, remained publicly close to Harry after he left Britain. She travelled to California in 2022 and was photographed alongside her cousin at the Super Bowl in Los Angeles, becoming the first member of the Royal Family reported to have visited Harry and Meghan in California following their move to the US. Princess Eugenie, 36, subsequently appeared in the Sussexes' Netflix documentary, another public indication that their relationship had survived the wider royal rift.
At the same time, both York sisters continued appearing at major royal and family occasions in Britain, navigating relationships on both sides of one of the monarchy's most public family divisions. The backdrop became still more complicated as controversy continued to surround their father, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, whose association with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had already resulted in his withdrawal from public duties years earlier.
Against that turbulent history, Vine's intervention shifts the focus back to Harry's own role in the events of 2020. Meghan has frequently been portrayed as the driving force behind the Sussexes' decision to leave Britain, but Harry has repeatedly spoken about his own dissatisfaction with royal life and defended their decision to step away.
