Princess Anne supports Harry and Meghan over Megxit, says 'it was the right thing to do'
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's much-publicized split from the royal family ruffled a few feathers in the UK, however, it appears that the controversial couple has at least one secret ally backing them in their decision being Princess Anne, the second child of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip.
The royal couple, this year on January 8, had announced that they would step down from being senior members of the royal family and work to become financially independent. The pair, who had initially begun to settle in Canada, recently shifted base to Los Angeles, California.
Although the couple's split from the UK has reportedly soured ties between the royal members, it appears that Princess Royal is lending her support to the former senior royals.
A month after Harry and Meghan announced that they were giving up their HRH titles, 69-year-old Princess Anne, while speaking to Vanity Fair, suggested that she understand why the pair made the drastic decision. Reports state that Princess Anne and her first husband Mark Phillips had also chosen to not follow royal tradition for the birth of their children, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, and had rejected the HRH title, which was offered to them by the Queen.
"I think it was probably easier for them, and I think most people would argue that there are downsides to having titles," Princess Anne explained. "So I think that was probably the right thing to do."
Harry and Meghan reportedly also rejected the Queen's offer to give a royal title to their son Archie and preferred that he lived as a regular child. Archie, who is set to be a year old next month, will be known as Master Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor and will likely be raised in California.
Princess Anne, during the interview, also talked about her disgraced brother Prince Andrew, who has been forced into early retirement by the Queen after his Newsnight interview where he detailed his relationship with the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Multiple sexual assault allegations have been made against Prince Andrew, and he has, so far, refused to cooperate with the FBI over allegations made by former teen sex slave Virginia Roberts.
Roberts has claimed that Epstein paid her £10,000 to engage in sexual intercourse with Prince Andrew. The Queen's son, however, has denied all allegations.
When asked about her own busy royal schedule and a prospective retirement, Princess Anne, said, "I don't think retirement is quite the same [for me]. Most people would say we're very lucky not to be in that situation because you wouldn't want to just stop."
"It is, to a large extent, the choice of the organizations you're involved with and whether they feel you're still relevant," she added. "But I think, both my father and my mother have, quite rightly, made decisions about, you know, 'I can't spend enough time doing this and we need to find somebody else to do it' because it makes sense. I have to admit they continued being there for a lot longer than I had in mind, but we'll see."