Megxit

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Part of a series on Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. [View Related Entries]

Overview

Megxit refers to the announcement made by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, that they would be "stepping back" as "senior members" of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent. The move caused controversy, as some criticized the pair for their actions while others praised the bold decision.

Background

On January 8th, 2020, Markle and Prince Harry released a statement saying they would "step back" as senior members of the Royal Family and become financially independent while continuing to support the Queen.^[1]^[2] They will be splitting their time between North America and the UK. They also launched a website, sussexroyal.com,^[1] outlining some new areas of their life, particularly community work.

Prior to the announcement, the pair had had a publically difficult time as members of the Royal Family, particularly the way they were treated in the press.^[3] Harry drew parallels to the way his wife had been treated by the press to the way the press treated his mother, Princess Diana, writing in October of 2019, "I’ve seen what happens when someone I love is commoditised to the point that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person. I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces." Markle had also been open about her struggle during the transition, telling a BBC reporter "Not many people have asked if I'm okay" the same month.^[4]

Apparently, the pair had not informed the Royal Family before the announcement.^[5]

Developments

After the announcement drew strong opinions both in criticism and support of the couple's decision. Celebrity Jameela Jamil^[6] tweeted, "this is what power looks like" in support of the couple (shown below, left). Piers Morgan^[7] tweeted that he felt Markle was "breaking up our royal family after fleecing the public purse."

Others made jokes about the development, dubbing it "Megxit."^[6] Twitter user @eve_ettinger used the Cancelling Plans Is OK format to joke about the departure, gaining over 30,000 retweets and 172,000 likes (shown below, left). User @Agriking joked it all may be an elaborate ruse to steal Canada (shown below, right).