Dr. Jane Goodall revealed new details last week about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s exit, suggesting that the royals knew of their plan to step back from the royal family many months ago.
The famed primatologist visited with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex last summer, just after their son Archie was born, for an interview in the iconic September issue of Vogue UK, which Meghan was guest editing.
After the interview was over, Jane told the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine that Meghan brought in little Archie to say hi.
“He was very tiny and very sleepy — not too pleased to be passed from his mummy,” she said. “I think I was one of the first to cuddle him outside the family.”
The 86-year-old added that Meghan “made Archie do the Queen’s wave, saying, ‘I suppose he’ll have to learn this.’ Harry said, ‘No, he’s not growing up like that.’”
Of course, that could also be a reference to the fact that little Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor does not have an official title.
Harry and Meghan announced many months later, in January, that they were stepping back as senior members of the royal family.
After discussions with the queen and Princes Charles and William, it was agreed that the Sussexes would officially exit on 31 March.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stayed at a residence in Vancouver Island after announcing their step back, before later relocating to Los Angeles.
After previously announcing that they would share details of their new nonprofit organisation at another time, to ensure that focus stayed on the coronavirus pandemic, the couple revealed the new name of their future charity last week in a response to a Telegraph report.
“Like you, our focus is on supporting efforts to tackle the global Covid-19 pandemic but faced with this information coming to light, we felt compelled to share the story of how this came to be,” the couple said in a statement about Archewell, obtained by HuffPost.
“Before SussexRoyal came the idea of ‘arche’ — the Greek word meaning ‘source of action,’” the couple continued.
“We connected to this concept for the charitable organization we hoped to build one day, and it became the inspiration for our son’s name.
“To do something of meaning, to do something that matters. Archewell is a name that combines an ancient word for strength and action, and another that evokes the deep resources we each must draw upon.”