The reaction of Prince Harry and Meghan's office to a letter from King Charles's household reiterating their status as non-working royals was "utterly petty", according to Daily Mail royal editor Rebecca English.
The letter was written and sent on Monday by the Lord Chamberlain, the most senior official in the Royal Household, on the King's behalf. It went to government departments, the military and lord lieutenants across the country.
It stated plainly that despite the couple's return to the UK, their position remains "akin to private citizens with commercial and charitable interests", and that their HRH styles "remain in abeyance".
Speaking on the Daily Mail's Palace Confidential, English told host Luke Blackall that while the letter was a "pretty punchy" move from the Royal Household, it triggered an "extraordinary reaction" from the Sussexes' office that she found entitled.
"Their reaction after the letter emerged was to say we are surprised this has been done," English said. "Well actually, they first tried to say they didn't get any notice of it at all. That is not true. They did. Then they said they didn't get enough notice to make any amendments or clarifications."
Timeline of the letter
English said the Sussexes' team had gone as far as issuing the exact timings involved, revealing they had received notification of the letter's contents at 1.59pm and replied twenty minutes later to ask whether it had already gone out.
The letter was released to the media at 3.06pm. Harry himself was contactable only at 3.09pm, having spent the day at a studio in London.
"The only way I can describe the reaction of their office is pettifogging and utterly petty," English said. "The fact they were so needled that they wanted to set out this timing really speaks to the heart of the situation."
English said people she had spoken to were struck that the couple appeared to expect a say over the King's own correspondence. "People I have spoken to were like: 'This is the directive of a head of state. Not the head of a family, the head of a state. Why should these two private individuals feel that they have any bearing on what he says?'" she said.
"There's a lot of eyebrow raising at the fact that the Sussexes believe they should have had a chance to change what the King had written."
Accusations of hypocrisy
English said the reaction had struck many as hypocritical, pointing to the couple's own history of speaking publicly and critically about the Royal Family without warning the Palace in advance.
"What about Oprah? What about Spare? What about the Netflix series, what about the many interviews in which they've taken some really nasty pop shots at the institution as well as individual family members?" she asked. "Where was the notice that the palace got on those? None."
Harry and Meghan stepped back from royal duties in 2020 and have since given a televised interview with Oprah Winfrey, released a Netflix documentary series and published Harry's memoir, Spare, all of which included criticism of the Royal Family and its institutions.
"I don't think this was the palace's intention, but a lot of people will think, the Sussexes have got a taste of their own medicine," English said.
The RAVEC security claim
English also addressed a suggestion, briefed out by the Sussex camp, that the letter had been timed to influence an upcoming meeting of RAVEC, the Home Office committee that rules on entitlement to taxpayer-funded security in the UK.
She called the claim "pretty inflammatory", since it implies the Palace would attempt to sway a government committee over which it has no control.
"I have been told [the claim] is wrong on two counts," English said. "One, the Sussexes are actually wrong about the timings of the RAVEC meeting and two, the reason why it was put out on a Monday is because it's effectively the start of a new term for royal engagements."
English added that the Sussexes had made clear they had a busy programme of their own engagements, and felt they needed to get the record straight before that schedule began.
