On January 15, Marie Claire reported that King Charles was “angry and outraged” that Prince Harry had attacked King Charles’ wife, Queen Consort Camilla, in Harry’s memoir Spare, which had been released only five days before on January 10.
What were we unaware of at the time? Apparently, on January 11, just one day after the book was released Charles started legal proceedings to evict Harry and Meghan Markle from Frogmore Cottage, their home in the U.K. He couldn’t stand it when Harry went after Camilla.
According to the Daily Mail, Charles believes Harry went too far with his comments about Camilla in the tell-all and subsequent interviews to promote it. In one interview, Harry referred to his stepmother as “the villain,” which, expectedly, irritated Charles. According to the outlet, the King’s decision to evict Harry and Meghan was painful and difficult, but it was necessary for his opinion.
Charles began the eviction proceedings the day after the memoir was released, with the support of Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales, and after reading a dossier of findings from aides about the contents of Spare. “It was the last straw,” a source says. “Harry was well aware how Camilla would be a red line for his father, and he crossed with flagrant disregard anyway. The King felt without a doubt it crossed a line—it was the ultimate sign of disrespect.”
As if there wasn’t already enough supposition about whether or not Harry and Meghan will attend Charles’ Coronation on May 6, the Frogmore eviction complicates matters even more: if the Sussexes do attend, where will they stay? The Sussexes are expected to leave the country by early summer, making the Coronation trip, if they choose to visit, one of their last hurrahs in the United Kingdom, according to The Daily Mail.
According to the outlet, Harry and Meghan were initially asked to leave when their lease was up for renewal next month. Despite this, a source says “It was felt that it would be like ripping off a Band-Aid. Painful, but once it’s done, it’s done.”
Though rattled by jabs at himself and other members of his family, it appears that the disparaging of Camilla in particular was too much for Charles. The King’s friend Arthur Edwards says, per OK, “They could criticize the King, but to accuse Camilla of leaking stories—which nobody seems to believe is true—would not be forgiven.”
According to the Mirror, Harry and Meghan are “stunned” and “appalled” by their eviction. Royal expert Dr. Tessa Dunlop told the outlet that Charles’ actions directly fly in the face of Her late Majesty’s wishes to keep Harry and Meghan in the fold, calling the eviction a “big mistake. The optics are terrible.”
The Daily Mail reports that it has been offered to Prince Andrew, who is reportedly reluctant to leave his home at Royal Lodge, where he has lived for 20 years, in the midst of Harry and Meghan’s eviction from Frogmore. Speaking to The Mirror, Dunlop says “by conflating the separate issues of Harry and Andrew through the prism of Frogmore Cottage, it looks like our King cares more for his disgraced brother than his conflicted son and foreign daughter-in-law.
The court of mainstream public opinion may currently be on the King’s side, but internationally, this move diminishes our monarchy just weeks before invitations go out to Britain’s biggest state ceremony of 2023, the Coronation. An event where you can now look forward to seeing Prince Andrew, but possibly not the Sussexes.” The Mirror further reports that any expectation the Sussexes will attend the Coronation has now “drastically changed.”