Harry and Meghan Sent a Bold Message to King Charles and Prince William With Their Nigeria Trip, Commentator Says
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s trip to Nigeria said it all. A commentator says the Duke and Duchess of Sussex sent a message with their three-day visit to the West African country. But not necessarily one Harry’s father and brother, King Charles III and Prince William, will welcome. Rather, one they probably “don’t like” at all.
Harry and Meghan’s Nigeria trip likely has Charles and William ‘worried’
On the heels of Harry’s stint in London, England, marking the Invictus Games anniversary, he and Meghan traveled to Nigeria.
Tom Quinn told the Mirror that whatever Harry and Meghan did, whether delivering a speech or touring a charity, it resembled an official royal visit.
“When you look at what Harry and Meghan got up to on their Nigeria visit,” he said, “it is easy to see why the senior royals are worried. 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.”
The king and Prince of Wales have likely been “scratching their heads” and brainstorming how to “control this nightmare situation.”
“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.”
The Sussexes sent a ‘we don’t need your permission to be working royals’ message
So what message did the Duke and Duchess of Sussex send with their Nigeria trip? “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,’” Quinn told the publication.
Harry and Meghan left royal life in 2020. Although their Nigeria trip may have looked like an official royal visit, it wasn’t.
They were invited by Nigeria’s minister of defense, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar Badaru. Harry and Meghan met Badaru at the 2023 Invictus Games in Düsseldorf, Germany, which saw the country represented in the competition for the first time.
William, Charles, and the British government likely want it ‘made clear’ that Harry and Meghan didn’t represent them in Nigeria
Harry and Meghan’s message aside, William and his father, along with the British government, likely want to get something across.
“This,” royal expert Jennie Bond told OK!, “seems to be a rather strange halfway house. I think both the king and the prince, and indeed the government will want it to be made clear that Harry is not representing either the royal family or Britain on this trip.”
“The king and Prince William are firmly of the belief that you are either in or out of the working royals.”
Indeed, it seems the message has been received. Multiple reports of Harry and Meghan’s Nigeria trip not being official have surfaced. The British High Commissioner Richard Montgomery reiterated it wasn’t a royal tour. “They are visiting in a private capacity, not an official one,” he said.
