Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s regal-style trip to Nigeria is a ‘a bold statement that they refuse to accept they are no longer working royals’, an expert has claimed.
Speaking to The Mirror, author Tom Quinn remarked that the whistlestop 72-hour visit ‘confirmed the worst fears’ for the Duke of Sussex‘s family, and has left the King and Prince of Wales ‘absolutely furious’.
‘Everything you might expect from an official royal visit was there – the receptions, the visits to schools and charities, to wounded soldiers and the disabled,’ he explained.
‘Meghan and Harry’s speeches and their whole attitude has been designed to give the impression that they are still fully paid-up royals and William and his father King Charles don’t like it one bit.’
Tom said that Harry and Meghan appear to have ‘gone rogue’ – and alleged that the Firm has been worried they would ‘try to pull a fast one’.
‘For Charles and William, it’s as if Meghan and Harry are saying, “We don’t need your permission to be working royals – we will do it on our own terms whenever and wherever we like”,’ he added.
Much about the Sussexes’ visit seemed like a royal tour.
However, the Duke and Duchess set foot in the West African nation very much on their own terms after being invited by its military for the three-day trip.
Sources within the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office have confirmed to MailOnline that Harry and Meghan were ‘visiting Nigeria in a private capacity’, with the UK Government ‘not involved in arranging or facilitating their programme’.
But while Harry and Meghan quit as senior royals in 2020, their visit had various similarities to foreign trips undertaken by working members of the Royal Family.
Royal expert Michael Cole told MailOnline that although the couple were on ‘a private visit by two royal personages’, they ‘exploited their royal status to the very limit and in every way, trying to give the impression that it was the real thing’.
He said that although the Sussexes’ trip ‘wasn’t a state visit, an official visit or a royal tour’, it seemed like a ‘tour proposed by Buckingham Palace and sanctioned by the British government’.
He added that the couple ‘succeeded to such an extent that they will return to California well satisfied with their three days in Nigeria’.
The Sussexes also enjoyed cultural events, a trip to a polo club, meeting injured soldiers at a military hospital and playing adaptive sports.
Former Mail On Sunday royal correspondent Charlotte Wace wrote in The Times: ‘Despite similarities to their tours before stepping back as working royals in 2020, there were key differences.
‘The press pack had been replaced by one reporter and one photographer. Most significantly they were representing themselves rather than the monarch and were free to choose their schedule.
‘There appeared to be fewer formalities and more selfies compared with trips from the past.’
Others pointed out the fashion nods in outfits worn by Meghan, including an eye-catching backless dress by US designer Heidi Merrick called ‘The Windsor’.
The California-based label’s dress was also released as part of a collection in 2018, which is the year Harry and Meghan married at Windsor Castle.
