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Prince William was right in labeling Meghan Markle as a disruptor.

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Updated on June 22, 2021

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William apparently had doubts about Meghan fitting into the royal family, but when it became apparent that Harry wanted to marry her, he ‘rolled out the red carpet’ for her.

According to legend, Prince William sensed right away that Meghan Markle would not fit into the House of Windsor’s “never complain, never explain” royal style.

“This appears to be moving quite quickly,” the future king reportedly said after Prince Harry reportedly introduced William to the American TV actress and told his big brother that he intended to marry her. “Are you certain?”

According to the Daily Beast, some claim Williams’ “tactless but well-intentioned” response to Meghan is the cause for the royal family’s latest historic moment, with Harry and Meghan surprising the world by declaring their “Megxit” from the royal family on Wednesday.

According to the Daily Beast, after William’s remark, Harry “flew into a rage” and never got over the fact that Meghan — and he with her — will never be completely welcomed into the family.

In the aftermath of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s announcement, there has been no shortage of speculation over who is to blame for the monarchy’s unexpected loss of two of its brightest stars, according to some. People are also debating whether Harry and Meghan were rude in not informing William, the queen, or Prince Charles before going public with their plans, according to the BBC.

But, if nothing else, William was right to be worried about Meghan’s desire to fit in, as it turned out that she either couldn’t or didn’t want to. Of course, Meghan entered the marriage as a woman with a successful career, wealth, and her own opinions, according to the Atlantic. But, whether William knew it at the time or not, Meghan was the trigger for his brother to recognize that he wasn’t satisfied with the status quo and that he wanted to make changes for himself.

As a result, Harry and Meghan are calling for the royal family to take on a “progressive new role” that defies decades of tradition. However, there are contradictory reports as to who in the marriage is the driving force behind the couple’s disruptive moves, as they are known in the tech world.

It’s likely that William and his royal courtiers will point the finger at Meghan. Meghan has “taken total control” of Harry’s life, according to the Sun, citing palace sources. In this version of events, Meghan, like her new friends Oprah Winfrey and George and Amal Clooney, has long aspired to be a global philanthropist and enjoy A-list popularity.

So she agreed to marry Harry, and according to The Daily Beast, she has turned the apparently easygoing, one-time Las Vegas party boy into a “neurotic, faux-woke millionaire.”

“A lot of his old friends and the old boys at the palace say they now just find both of them to be a complete pain in the arse,” the source said. “To be honest, I don’t think anyone will be too upset if they see a little less of them.”

A counter-narrative is that Harry, William’s “spare,” had been searching for a meaningful purpose in life for a long time. He may have realized, thanks to Meghan, that working outside the royal family would better serve his intent.

After all, according to the Atlantic, Harry was “always a royal rebel.” According to the Atlantic, he still seemed to chafe under the unwritten rules of being a senior member of the royal family, which involve not discussing one’s private problems and personal convictions. Harry was also known to hate being exposed to royal correspondents and the shrill tabloid news. Harry holds the latter accountable for torturing his mother, Princess Diana, before her death, and he and others argue that some of the coverage of his wife was racist.

The royal family and the British media appeared enthusiastic about the match and what it could mean in the months after Harry and Meghan declared their engagement and in the months leading up to the wedding. Many hoped Meghan, a biracial feminist from Los Angeles, would bring a fresh perspective to the 1,000-year-old monarchy.

Whatever reservations William had about Meghan, he put them aside until it became apparent that Harry was planning to marry her, according to the Daily Beast. According to the Daily Beast, he and his wife Kate Middleton “rolled out the red carpet” for Harry and Meghan when they visited the queen’s nearby Sandringham estate for Christmas in 2017.

According to the Daily Beast, William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan became “the Fab Four” during their first months of acquaintance and worked out plans for how they could all work together.

Meanwhile, Prince Charles walked Meghan down the aisle at her internationally televised May 2018 wedding, showing how the royal family had accepted her into “The Firm.” This came after her American father became entangled in the kind of sleazy, nasty tabloid saga that the royals tend to avoid.

The Fab Four, however, fell apart somewhere along the way, according to the Daily Beast. According to the tabloids, it was because Meghan had made Kate cry during a dress fitting or had been too demanding about a tiara for her wedding. Or maybe it was because both she and Harry had reportedly become difficult to work with — though the Daily Beast added that this would seem to be common practice for royals, particularly the infamously arrogant Prince Andrew.

In their ITV documentary interviews, Harry and Meghan indicated that Meghan didn’t get the kind of help she needed to move into royal life or to combat what they claim were fake, misleading stories about her in the British media. When she was pregnant with their son, Archie, she said things became more difficult.

According to other news, the pair felt they had creative ideas about how to use their power to encourage worthy causes and advance British interests, but they didn’t think they got the help they thought they received from the royal family, according to sources close to the couple.

With their exit announcement and the unveiling of their new SussexRoyal.com website on Wednesday, the couple made several of their grievances apparent.

They said they wanted to “transition to a progressive new role” within the royal family and spend part of their time in North America, probably in Canada, in their announcement.

They claimed that under this new model, they would become “financially independent,” meaning that they would no longer allow taxpayer funding through the Sovereign Grant to finance their work. They would remove the rationale for public inquiry into their lives if they declined to accept taxpayer funding.

However, according to Harry and Meghan’s website, the grant money only covered about 5% of their office expenses, with the rest of their costs covered by the Duchy of Cornwall estate of Prince Charles. This dependence on other people’s resources led to their other major annoyance: their failure to earn their own money as royals.

According to The Sun, by being financially independent, Harry and Meghan could theoretically “earn millions,” raking in massive amounts “on the international celebrity circuit.” According to The Sun, both could demand six-figure speaking fees on subjects like climate change and women’s empowerment, and make even more money by selling goods they recently trademarked under the Sussex Royal name. Meanwhile, there could be future TV and film production deals; Harry is already working on a mental health series for Apple TV with Oprah Winfrey.

Harry and Meghan, according to their website, see financial freedom as a way to overcome their greatest frustration: a loss of influence over their media coverage. They claim that since they are no longer senior royals, they are no longer subject to the “royal rota,” a long-standing agreement among UK news outlets to pool coverage of royal events.

“By opting out of the royal rota, Harry and Meghan are pursuing a media strategy more akin to Hollywood A-listers than the royal family’s grin-and-bear-it universalism,” the Atlantic wrote. According to their website, the couple will interact directly with their fans via social media and will only allow reporters who do not report rumors and only participate in “objective news reporting” access.

Meghan’s ability to travel around the world like Hollywood A-listers, benefit from their celebrity, and exercise global control on issues she cares for supports the claim that her aspirations were always greater than the royal family. It may also clarify William’s stated concerns about Meghan’s willingness to integrate into the monarchy.

In any case, Meghan showed up and gave Harry the push he needed to make his own exit. She has emboldened her royal husband to break away from his family, similar to another American divorcee, Wallis Simpson, according to the Atlantic.