Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, culminated months of publicly moaning about the woes of the monarchy with a bombshell announcement that they would be stepping down from their position as "senior royals," splitting their time between their U.K. residence in Frogmore Cottage and North America. They clearly couldn't handle the actual responsibilities of royalty, so their decision to quit would be the eminently correct one — if they weren't trying to have their cake and eat it too.

As it turns out, the Sussexes not only disrespected future kings Prince Charles and Prince William by warning them of their announcement just 10 minutes before the fact, but they also outright defied Queen Elizabeth II, who had explicitly told Harry not to go forward with any announcement or even debate the details until he had negotiated them with Charles. Buckingham Palace published a statement attempting to backtrack the Sussex's declaration as "complicated" and described discussions as still at "an early stage," but the message became clear enough overnight. Meghan and Harry declared war on the House of Windsor, and that means it's time for them not to merely "step back" but abdicate entirely.

What Meghan and Harry want is evident enough. Meghan successfully leveraged her beauty and brains into a B-list acting role and then into a circle of Soho socialites who married her into the monarchy. She and Harry are now powerful, rich, famous, and bored with the responsibilities required of public servitude. They reckon they can keep their taxpayer-funded Windsor estate while summering in Bel Air and socializing with celebrities, and more importantly, they can shed the political and publicity confines of royalty while retaining the veneer that they still "support" the queen as "members of the Royal Family."

So they think.

For starters, their claim that they can become completely financially independent is a lie, and they know it. As implied by the last entry of their "Funding" page on their newly launched website, they will still require taxpayer-funded security, which costs a reported $1 million per year. They would still use taxpayer money to fund travel for royal duties, whatever they think those will actually entail, and they would still maintain the Frogmore Cottage residence, which taxpayers just spent millions of pounds to refurbish for their use.

But more importantly, they broke the No. 1 rule of royal life: They crossed the queen. She fired her favorite son, the credibly accused predator Prince Andrew, for giving one dreadful interview without her consent. If Harry and Meghan believe that the queen will let them represent the Commonwealth, let alone remain on speaking terms with the family, after deliberating defying her and making a mockery of the monarchy, they're even dumber than they seem.

All of this is made all the more pathetic when you realize that the Sussex's source of "financial independence" is just a way for Meghan to reap the reward of all washed-up actresses these days: retiring as an "influencer."



Harry and Meghan prepare to flood the world with Sussex merch. Lots of trademark applications: T-shirts, hats, pajamas, everything... https://t.co/izMytyGMY5 pic.twitter.com/mM7WSG1UAD — Byron York (@ByronYork) January 9, 2020



They functionally cannot represent the monarchy, an apolitical and historic body, while waxing poetic about their woke passions and making personal profit from their royal brand. They went nuclear with a half-baked plan, and they'll likely be forced to abdicate. Unlike in the States, the British press is unusually obsequious to palace demands. The queen has forced them to conceal everything from photos of royal children to Harry's naked bum. It's the Sussexes who declared war, so who could fault the palace from using everything at their disposal to force their hands into abdication?

If you come at the queen, you best not miss. Harry and Meghan ought to watch their backs and hope they don't have any skeletons in their closets for a newly weaponized press to find. They're better off abdicating now, leaving whatever remains of their reputations intact.