The Royal family have responded to claims that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were being ‘driven out’ of the monarchy.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex shocked the world earlier this week, when they announced their plans to step back as ‘senior’ members of the royal family.
After the news hit headlines, Prince Harry’s pal Tom Bradby claimed the Palace had told the couple that there were plans for a “slimmed down monarchy” and they “weren’t really a part of it.”
However, a palace aide has since told The Times: “It is strongly disputed that the Sussexes are not at the centre of any future slimmed-down monarchy.”
Tom Bradby famously interviewed the couple during an ITV documentary following the couple’s trip to Africa last year.
The ITV News presenter has known Prince Harry for 20 years, and appeared on Good Morning Britain this week to chat about Harry and Meghan’s controversial decision.
During the interview, Tom dismissed early reports that the Royal family were blindsided by the couple’s decision.
He said: “It’s certainly not true to say the Palace were blindsided by this. The couple’s view was they came back and wanted to talk to the family about their plans.”
“It had been made clear to them in their absence there was going to be a slimmed down monarchy and they weren’t really a part of it.”
“Harry has been talking to his family for some weeks at least about all this and certainly my understanding of what happened is he was asked by some members of the family or at least their officials to put some of these ideas in writing.”
“He said, ‘I really don’t want to do that because it normally leaks,’ and they were very insistent in order to go forward and discuss it properly it had to be put in writing.”
“He did put it in writing and it did leak. So I don’t think they got much heads up as to the actual announcement but they certainly knew what was going on.”
Tom added: “There needs to be a peace deal really soon, this is so toxic, there is so much anger, it looks like it might get worse not better.”
