Harry and Meghan's Royal Exit Forced Two Royals to Take on More Responsibility: Palace Butler

A former royal butler, Grant Harrold, has opened up about a shift within the royal family. He claimed that two senior members of the royal family, Prince Edward and his wife, Duchess Sophie, are being forced to take on additional responsibilities following Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's royal exit. Although Prince William and Kate Middleton’s workload also increased, Harrold claims that it was Edward and Sophie who had to immediately take on much more responsibility than they were initially allotted.

Their workload, the butler explained, grew even more challenging given Prince Andrew's distancing from the Firm, and both King Charles and Middleton's cancer diagnoses. As reported by the Daily Express, he said, “If Harry and Meghan had remained part of the working royal family, I think they absolutely would have been sharing a lot of this responsibility too, alongside William and Catherine. But given that situation, the focus now naturally falls more on Sophie and Edward, who I believe will continue to play a larger and more visible role going forward.”

He added, “I think it’s pretty clear that the King isn’t at his best, there’s no real secret about that. That said, we did see him carry out a successful tour in Italy, which shows he's still very much active when he can be.” Harrold revealed that with Charles' ill health and the path ahead is unclear, and the monarch is beginning to think realistically about what’s next. He shared that this is exactly where Sophie comes in. “She has always been very close to him and to Queen Elizabeth as well. Both Sophie and Edward have long had strong ties within the family, and the late Queen was reportedly keen for Sophie to take on a more prominent role in royal life.”

However, there's also some relief. Middleton, having completed a round of preventative chemotherapy, shared that she is now in remission. But for the King, earlier on March 27, he was briefly admitted to The London Clinic over cancer treatment side effects, as reported by The New York Magazine.

As for Markle and Harry's step down from royal duties, it was a long time coming. On February 18, 2021, Buckingham Palace released a statement sharing that the Sussexes told the Queen they wouldn’t return as working royals—a year after the couple first shared plans for a new journey. The first sign of their royal exit came in October 2019, when the couple said that they were taking six weeks off to spend time with their son, Prince Archie, who was born in May that year. They spent the end of that year on Vancouver Island in Canada.