Harry and Meghan to leave the Royal Foundation
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have left the Royal Foundation which William and Harry had set up for their charity work.
The Foundation will continue to operate – but only with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
It follows the separation of the two couples’ households earlier this year.
A little over a year ago, all four royals sat together on stage to talk about the future of the Royal Foundation.
At the time, they were dubbed the ‘Fab Four’.
The decision to split has left the royal household once again having to deny speculation about a rift.
Yesterday, William and Harry were at the meeting which signed off the split.Neither Kate nor Meghan were present.
Now Buckingham Palace, which looks after Prince Harry and Meghan, and Kensington Palace, which looks after Prince William and Kate, say the two couples are now on different paths – and it was necessary to have a new set up for their charity work.
The Royal Foundation was best known for setting up and supporting the Heads Together mental health campaign and the Invictus Games which organises the tournament for injured and sick military personnel and veterans.
William and Kate will continue to use the Foundation to support their own mental health initiatives such as Heads Up and their environment initiatives such as United for Wildlife.
They will announce new programmes soon on the environment and young people.
Royal aides say both couples are very proud of their work and will continue to support each other.
The Sussexes will set up a new vehicle for their charity work.
The move reflects the ‘divergent paths’ the two couples are now on.
Sources said the Sussexes have more flexibility in their role whereas William will be the next Prince of Wales and, at some point, the King.
Aides in the Sussex household pointed to the way Harry and Meghan were able to embark on an the Apple TV series on mental health with Oprah Winfrey – which was announced earlier this year.
The Palaces say both royal couples have been involved throughout the process and the couples will still ‘continue to work together’.
But they also struggled to fully explain the reasons why the Royal Foundation could not continue with both the Cambridges and Sussexes.
It is, said Kensignton Palace, a ‘natural consequence’ of the recent split of their households.
The Sussexes have only just begun process of establishing their own charitable foundation – and no details have been given of their plans or when they might announce them.
There will be a small number of redundancies at the Foundation as a result of the changes.
Whilst the status quo was one of the options considered, it was decided the split was the best way forward for the future.