It’s two weeks after Christmas and you’re stewing. There were so many slights, so many muttered asides, insufferable uncles and snide sisters-in-law. You were forced to go to church. You got presents you didn’t like. Again! To top it off, your relatives took and shared a family photo without you. There’s your brother and his son, and your dad and his mum, and where are you?

But that’s OK – because today you tweeted that you are divorcing them. Well, not divorcing them – but you’re stepping aside. You’re going to move to another continent (north America) and you are going to be financially independent!

Yeah OK, so you’re married, and you have a kid, and you’re like … 35. But after spending Christmas an ocean away from your family not having to go through the same stuff you do every year, you know you can’t do another family Christmas.

This week, reportedly without consulting the royal family, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex released a statement saying: “We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the royal family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty the Queen … We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and north America, continuing to honour our duty to the Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages.”

The couple said the discussions had been many months in the making; but who hasn’t after a family Christmas felt like “stepping back” from their relatives?

Weirdly, or perhaps not, 8 January, the day the Sussexes put out their public statement, is known as “Divorce Day”. That is the most popular day of the year to commence proceeding for divorce, according to statistics. Data analysed by divorce support service Amicable have shown that more than 40,500 people in the UK will search “divorce” online in January.

Adult children can’t really divorce their families but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to. (And vice versa, I might add.)

Christmas is a time when we often return to our family of origin. It’s a weird time, a reverse of the Tom Hanks movie Big, where we are inhabiting our adult bodies but finding ourselves hurled back to childhood roles.

In those intense, often claustrophobic days leading up to Christmas, the day itself and right up to New Year’s, we can revert to old family roles, patterns and grievances. Some of us even find ourselves sleeping in our childhood bedrooms, legs hanging off the too-short bunk bed, the musty Star Wars sleeping bag barely keeping us warm.

There’s not just a regression we experience at Christmas, but a whole suite of guilt, expectations and old wounds can arise.

We are reminded of our family obligations, and over mince pies and too much alcohol, often reminded of where we fall short.

For every family enjoying a happy time at Christmas, there will be another family next door, comprised of ageing parents and grown-up children who strain under the pressure of being together.

After surviving a family Christmas it’s really normal to want to release a statement to the world saying “You know what, I’m STEPPING BACK! (and moving continents!!!)”

For Harry and Meghan, stepping back from the royal family means stepping back from a life of feeling trapped in a particular, narrow and stifling role.

It means stepping back from a bullying and destructive British media that have already inflicted so much trauma on Harry throughout his life and Meghan since their marriage.

It means breaking ancestral patterns and problems that come with being a royal.

It’s the Sussex’s Bonnie and Clyde moment; a break for the border, a cry of liberation.