Meghan Markle and Harry: Expert discusses couple’s plans
Controversy surrounding Meghan and Harry furthered this weekend after the Duchess claimed that Buckingham Palace forced her to change her name on her child’s birth certificate. She described the alteration as being “dictated” by the Palace. On Sunday, it emerged the Duchess’ given first names “Rachel Meghan” were removed from Archie’s birth certificate in June 2019, a month after he was born.
Meghan said it was “offensive” to suggest she wanted to be “nameless” on her first son’s birth certificate.
The Duchess, archived reports suggest, has previously voiced her annoyance over being shut-out by the Firm.
In 2019, shortly after the annual Trooping the Colour parade, royal commentator Rob Shuter claimed Meghan was “planning” on moving Harry and Archie to the US to dodge the “shadow” cast by Kate Middleton, future Queen consort and wife of Prince William.
Mr Shuter’s words proved prophetic as just seven months later, the pair announced that they would depart the UK for Canada, later moving to the US in what was dubbed “Megxit”.
Meghan Markle: The Duchess wanted to get away from Kate Middleton’s ‘shadow’, according to reports (Image: GETTY)
Megxit: The pair leaving the Canadian Embassy in London shortly before their momentous move (Image: GETTY)
The commentator cited several “royal sources” who claimed, at the time, that Meghan was “not happy coming in second place” behind her in-laws.
Speaking during his iHeart Radio programme, Mr Shuter said: “Meghan Markle is leaving Britain with her prince and baby.
“Meghan Markle refuses to move to Africa, she wants to come to the USA.
“Sources tell me within the Royal Family there’s been a lot of talk about Prince Harry and Meghan temporarily moving to Africa but that isn’t going to happen because Meghan is planning to return to America with her baby and her prince.
JUST IN: Meghan Markle hits out at claims over birth certificate name change
Kate Middleton: Reports suggest Meghan struggled to come to terms with being below her in-laws (Image: GETTY)
“Sources add moving away from William and Kate Middleton is the goal.”
He added: “Meghan knows if she stays in Britain, this will always mean living in their shadow.
“Meghan is not the type of girl who is happy coming in second place.”
Royal watchers previously predicted that Meghan and Harry were looking to move to a Commonwealth nation in Africa after their first child was born.
The pair have a close affinity to the continent, after Harry took Meghan on a surprise trip to Botswana on their third date.
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Africa: Meghan and Harry pictured during their tour of South Africa in 2019 (Image: GETTY)
Royal wedding: The pair married in 2018, just two years after meeting each other (Image: GETTY)
According to reports, they spent the majority of their trip in a deluxe tent costing nearly £1,500 a night.
At the time, Buckingham Palace was said to have been keen on seeking ways to “harness Harry and Meghan and this tremendous global attention they get”.
The plans were shelved, according to Mr Shuter, when Meghan saw how Archie’s baby shower sparked backlash among the British public.
While many stand by Meghan and Harry’s reason for moving as being a result of the Royal Family’s “slimming down”, others maintain that the couple simply wanted a private life – a rare commodity for members of the Firm.
In a documentary released shortly after Megxit, Robert Johnson, a royal reporter, rubbished the privacy claims, refusing to accept that the pair had been hounded by the media.
Royal romance: Meghan and Harry met on a blind date arranged by a mutual friend in 2016 (Image: Express Newspapers)
He told Amazon Prime’s ‘Harry and Meghan: The Next Step’: “Obviously claims they feel, ‘We’ve been hounded by the media’.
“But in reality there’s been nothing like that.
“The royal rota system works, I think it’s given them an awful lot of publicity.
“It’s been going since the Fifties.
Royal commentator: Robert Johnson said the couple hadn’t been hounded by the media (Image: Amazon Prime)
“And one must remember that this is an unelected institution that relies upon media, publicity, the public support for its life’s blood.”
Despite this, Harry and Meghan have moved to further recluse themselves, having last month deleted all of their social media profiles.
Many cite the action as a result of their online bullying, with Meghan previously claiming to have been 2019’s “most trolled person in the entire world – male or female”.
Their new Spotify exclusive podcast, ‘Archewell Audio’, released its first episode in December, and with it further privacy controversy.
This time, however, charges were made against the pair, after they allowed Archie, a one-year-old, speak in what would have been listened to by millions of people around the world.
