Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan began a new life Sunday as somewhat ordinary people with financial worries and security concerns after being stripped of their royal titles and public funding by the Queen.   

The settlement announced by Buckingham Palace on Saturday saw the 93-year-old monarch assume her painfully familiar role of managing a family crisis that threatened the very foundations of one of Britain’s oldest institutions.   

The “Megxit” mess began when the young couple gave up their font-line family duties and announced plans to chart a “progressive new role” in North America on January 8. The couple lost their right to be called “his and her royal highness” (HRH) -- much as Harry’s late mother Princess Diana did when she divorced Prince Charles in another family drama that upset the Queen in 1996.   

They further agreed to repay 2.4 million ($3.1 million) of taxpayer’s money spent on renovating their Frogmore Cottage home near Windsor Castle. Harry was also stripped of the military titles and patronages he was awarded after serving two tours in Afghanistan with the British Army and rising to the rank of captain.   
LONDON AFP, 19 Jan, 2020

Meghan’s father accuses daughter of ‘cheapening’ UK’s royal family

LONDON REUTERS Jan 19-  Meghan Markle’s estranged father, Thomas Markle, accused his daughter of “cheapening” the British royal family in part of an interview released a day after Buckingham Palace said Prince Harry and his wife would no longer be working members of the monarchy. Thomas Markle told Channel 5 news in a documentary that he believed Meghan was tossing away “every girl’s dream”. 

 “This is like one of the greatest long-living institutions ever,” he  said. “They are destroying it, they are cheapening it, they’re making  it shabby ... They are turning it into a Walmart with a crown of it now.  It is something that is ridiculous, they shouldn’t be doing this.”