The Queen's upset over Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's decision to part ways

Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand's Sussex biography Finding Freedom (opens in new tab) reveals yet another revelation--the Queen's Christmas Day 2019 speech played a key role in Meghan and Harry's decision to step down as senior royals played a key role in their decision to step down as senior royals. Specifically, Meghan and Harry (naturally!) hurt by the family photos on the Queen's desk during the speech. Kate Middleton, Prince William and their children, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, and the Queen's father, King George VI, were all in the picture. Princess Meghan, Harry, and their son Archie Harrison were not in the picture. This hurt my feelings too!

"Harry felt as if he and Meghan had long been abandoned by the institution and were not a fundamental part of its future," Scobie and Durand wrote in the Mirror (opens in new tab). They didn't need to see the family photos displayed in the Queen's Christmas Day speech to know that "the Queen's future is not based on the system.

"In the Green Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace, where the Queen gave her speech," the royal biographers continue, "viewers glimpsed black and white photos of the Cambridges and their children, Charles and Camilla, Prince Philip, and the monarch's father, King George VI." Notably absent were pictures of Harry and Meghan and their new baby, Archie."

"Palace officials insisted that the photos were chosen to represent direct succession," Scobie and Durand continue.

"But for Harry and Meghan, it was another sign that they needed to think their way out."