UK Queen to meet Harry, Meghan over royal couple's future roles

January 13, 2020 11:40

Queen Elizabeth II will meet her grandson Prince Harry for face-to-face talks on Monday to discuss the future roles for him and his wife Meghan Markle following the couple's bombshell announcement that they want to "step back" from Britain's royal duties.

Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, his brother William, the Duke of Cambridge, and their father Charles, the Prince of Wales, have all been invited to the emergency meeting at the Queen's Sandringham estate in Norfolk, while Meghan, who is in Canada with the couple's eight-month-old son Archie, is expected to join the discussion over phone.

The meeting will be the first time the 93-year-old monarch has come face-to-face with Harry since the Sussex crisis exploded. It will determine the couple's future roles and decide if they will retain their royal titles as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

The couple made their bombshell announcement on Wednesday that they intend to "step back" from being frontline royals, split their time between the UK and North America, and work towards becoming "financially independent".

According to royal insiders, the so-called Sandringham Summit is expected to thrash out some of the key details, but a complete resolution to the couple's expressed wish to split their time between the UK and North America and become financially independent is unlikely to be achieved at the end of Monday's meeting.

There are likely to be tax implications as a result of such unprecedented changes to their residential and financial status as royals.

A concrete plan is expected to be broadly agreed and publicly announced some time in the coming week, with details left to be fleshed out over time.

Some of the issues to be discussed at the crisis talks would include how much "official" royal work Harry, 35, and Meghan, 38, will do in the UK and overseas on behalf of the royal family and the government.

It will also discuss Harry and Meghan's His and Her Royal Highness titles, and how they will be styled; how much money they might receive from the Queen and Prince Charles once their Sovereign Grant public funding is cut; and what commercial deals the couple might be allowed to strike.

The crunch meeting presided over by the 93-year-old monarch, being dubbed a family showdown, will present Harry with a range of draft written proposals compiled by a team of aides and private secretaries. -- PTI

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