Prince Harry Wanted to Leave the British Royal Family Long Before Meghan Markle

In a newly-unearthed interview, Prince Harry revealed that he wanted to leave the British royal family before Meghan Markle came into the picture.
He decided to stay for his grandmother’s benefit.
So why is the press excoriating Meghan Markle?

There is no shortage of op-eds claiming that Meghan Markle all but lured Prince Harry away from the British royal family.

If you hear certain “journalists” (a term used loosely, here) tell it, the young Windsor prince was whisked away from his happy home by the evil vixen. Markle’s alleged social-climbing ways have fooled the hapless young squire, and he dared go “Hollywood” to make his shrewish harpy of a wife happy—which, of course, she never seems to be.

So goes the headlines, anyway.

But these same journalists can’t explain why Prince Harry talked about leaving “The Firm” long before he and Markle crossed paths.

Prince Harry, The Reluctant Royal

Unlike his elder brother William, who was groomed for the role of King seemingly from birth, Harry always seemed skittish about his royal duties.

When Harry was born, his father Prince Charles—heir presumptive to the throne—joked that he now had “an heir and a spare.” Perhaps Harry always felt like he was “the spare,” because, in a recently-unearthed interview, the younger Windsor said he had wanted to leave royal life from when he was 21 years old.

In other words, he wanted out of “The Firm” long before he, or the rest of the world for that matter, ever heard the words “Meghan Markle.”

During his teen years, Prince Harry revealed that he felt “directionless” and didn’t want to grow up. As a result of feeling out of place, he engaged in heavy drinking, smoking, and partying—typical of the average college co-ed, but headline-worthy when one is a member of the British royal family.

Joining the army, he said, gave him a sense of purpose—and when he was forced to withdraw after his position leaked to the press in 2007, he felt bitter because the army provided him with the stability he craved.

Prince Harry said he yearned to be “a commoner” rather than a royal because he felt that his position as a “junior royal” would only earn him a celebrity spotlight without really “making a difference in the world.”

He said he ultimately decided to stay in “The Firm” for the benefit of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, whom he “loves very dearly.” He also said that he wasn’t planning on squandering his royal title, but using it to “make a difference” as his mother, Princess Diana, did.

Meghan Markle Didn’t “Make” Him Do Anything He Didn’t Want To Do

The revelations in this interview—taken straight from Prince Harry’s mouth, not from Fleet Street gossip—make the “evil Meghan Markle” narrative look as foolish as it has been from the beginning.

Even today, as headlines dare question why a royal would want to live in Los Angeles, one has to wonder about the true motivations of some of these journalists and gossip-mongers when they trash Markle.

And it doesn’t take long for their true selves to be revealed.

The most notable recent example of this is chick-lit author Emily Giffin, who wrote Something Borrowed back in the early 2000s.

Giffin, who recently made headlines when she trashed Markle’s parenting abilities, recently walked back on her statements. But it bears noting that she previously admitted that she was “obsessed” with Princess Diana, and even fantasized about being a princess when she was younger.

So Giffin wasn’t speaking out of “concern” for young Archie’s well-being when she trashed his mother for being “phony.” She wasn’t upholding British tradition as a self-proclaimed “Anglophile.”

Giffin was, in a word, just being a “Mean Girl.” Giffin was pissed that Meghan Markle dared to earn the affections of a man she’s been “obsessed” with since she was a child—a man who probably doesn’t even know she exists—and decided to take a swipe at her perceived rival.

Professional women don’t act this way. Obsessive celebrity fans act this way. And those fans are rightly met with restraining orders and cease & desist letters.

It’s exhausting, at this point, to hear these tired, jealous, petty narratives about “Hapless Harry” being lured away from his royal duties by the black widow Markle. Especially now that it’s been revealed, with incontrovertible evidence, that Harry’s wanted out all along.

At the absolute worst, the only thing Markle did—much like Yoko Oko did to John Lennon—was to give Harry the excuse to bounce he’d been looking for all along.

Sorry to burst your bubble, ladies, but no matter what you “dreamed about” as a little girl, Prince Harry will never marry you. You’d be well-served to focus on your own relationships—your own lives—instead of obsessing about a man who doesn’t know you exist, and spitting venom at the woman he clearly loves.