Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Kate Middleton and Prince William have gone their separate ways as future charity work is concerned. The royal couples are set to go their separate ways, as opposed to working together under the joint charity The Royal Foundation, The Sun reported.
A source close to the couples said the separation is a “natural progression,” and there is no bad blood, according to PEOPLE. The couples previously announced that The Royal Foundation would be breaking up. The separation is an effort by both couples to go their own ways.
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“A review of The Royal Foundation is something that had previously been announced,” the insider told PEOPLE. “This is part of [the couples’] diverging paths, which hastened a look at the foundation.”
Royal aides told The Sun it won’t be the end of the couples working together, though it may be less frequent.
This isn’t the first move the Duke and Duchess of Sussex or Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have made to move toward their own respective interests. Two months ago, the couples separated their joint “court” at Kensington Palace, creating two separate offices. Prince Harry and Markle’s office moved out of Kensington Palace — Queen Elizabeth II’s home — while Prince William and Middleton still conduct business there. The couple and their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, still live there.
Prince Harry and Markle, 37, meanwhile, moved to Windsor Castle’s Frogmore cottage. The couple now lives there with their son, Archie. The palace is located 25 miles outside London. They also launched their own Instagram account.
Sources told PEOPLE this separation is “a natural progression,” as Prince William, serving as Duke of Cambridge, is constitutionally bound to certain obligations. Prince Harry, on the other hand, “is now married, has started a family and is not constitutionally bound.”
What’s more, the couples are said to have different “stylistic” approaches to their charity work, PEOPLE said.
“The Cambridges take a very top-level approach. They have different roles and three small children,” an insider said.
Prince Harry, however, “has taken a very hands-on, in-the-weeds approach to the birth of Invictus.” The event centers around Paralympic games designed for wounded service members and veterans.
The Sun reported that there was a certain level of ugliness to the decision to split. Prince Harry and Prince William reportedly had a falling out after the royal wedding in May 2018.
“Certainly the animosity over status, money and Meghan meant that the split in their joint households had to be brought forward much more quickly than anticipated, so perhaps it was inevitable that their joint charity has to be split too,” a source said.
Prince Harry, Markle, Prince William and Middleton appeared at a Royal Foundation Forum event in February 2018, which was the first of several such events, together. Lorraine Heggessey, Royal Foundation Forum CEO, told PEOPLE the event summed up “the whole idea of family working together.”
“You saw the way they interact and how they bounce off each other and have a natural passion and commitment to the work and to making a difference,” she said.
“What’s important to all three of their royal highnesses at the moment and Ms. Meghan Markle is that this generation of the royal family is seen to work together collectively to make a difference and make a significant impact on the issues that matter to both of them as individuals and matter to them collectively and to society,” she continued. “I think for Ms. Markle, she just naturally had synergy and you know understood that idea, it resonated with her and we’re not researching, very early stages areas of interest and themes that might develop for her in the future.”
