Prince Harry Made First Public Appearance after the Royal Split

Prince Harry of Britain made his first public appearance on Thursday after Queen Elizabeth agreed to the wishes of her grandson Prince Harry and his American wife Meghan Markle to step down from their senior royal roles and to go ahead with a more independent future.

Prince Harry, who is sixth in line to the throne, is going to host the draws for next year’s Rugby League World Cup at Buckingham Palace. This would be his last scheduled engagement as Royal, before he and Meghan are going to start their ‘period of transition’ to their new roles.

Last week, 35-year-old Prince Harry and his wife, former American actress 38-year-old Meghan sparked the crisis, when they announced that they wanted to reduce their royal duties and spend more time in North America, leading a more financially independent life.

The announcement by the royal couple, which was made public last week, surprised the rest of the royal family and left the queen and other senior royals at Windsors disappointed and hurt, according to royal sources. Though a friend of Harry and Meghan said the couple felt they had been driven out from the royal circle.

On Monday after a family summit at the Sandringham estate of the Royals, which was attended by Queen Elizabeth, Prince Harry, his elder brother Prince William and their father and heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, it was agreed that the young royal couple would split their time between Canada and Britain.

Later the 93-year-old monarch Queen Elizabeth said in a rare, highly personal statement, “Although we would have preferred them to remain full-time working members of the Royal Family, we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life as a family while remaining a valued part of my family”.

At present Meghan is in Canada with the couple’s baby Archie and Prince Harry is expected to join her this week.

The couple has said in their statement, that they want a progressive new role for themselves, which will also allow them to fund themselves. At present they are not allowed to seek private income as most of their money comes from the private estate of Harry’s father Prince Charles.

The couple has to struggle intense media scrutiny, as one of the world’s most glamorous couples, with Harry describing some of the media coverage of Meghan as bullying, which are akin to the treatment his mother Princess Diana had to endure before her death in a 1997 car crash.

Some observers have also criticised British media for being racist in its coverage of Meghan, whose mother is African-American.