The British royal commentators spent the weekend banging their heads against the wall, wailing about why the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were being so secretive, so quiet, so lowkey. Nevermind the fact that all of those same commentators were having meltdowns a week ago at the very idea that Harry and Meghan might turn up to events and steal everyone’s Jubbly thunder. At the end of the day, Harry and Meghan quietly went to Trooping the Colour with Harry’s cousins on Thursday, they attended the service at St. Paul’s Cathedral on Friday, they threw a nice little birthday party for Lili on Saturday, and then they were out of Salt Island on Sunday.

A glum-looking Prince Harry has arrived back in California with Meghan Markle and their children as it emerged they left Britain on a private jet before the grand finale of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee even began yesterday. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their children reportedly flew out of Farnborough Airport, west of London, at 1.30pm yesterday, an hour before the Jubilee Pageant started in central London.

It marked the end of their Jubilee, where they were left without any official role having quit as frontline royals in 2020. One insider said: ‘There was no fanfare, they just went. They didn’t stick around for the Platinum Jubilee pageant which is a celebration of Britain and all of its quirks and eccentricities over the Queen’s 70 year reign.’

At lunchtime yesterday the Montecito-based couple were reportedly driven from Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, where they were staying since arriving in the UK on Wednesday. And they were already crossing the Atlantic as Harry’s grandmother, father, brother and nieces and nephews waved to the adoring crowds from the balcony at Buckingham Palace at the denouement of four days of wonderful celebrations marking the Queen’s 70 years on the throne.

[From The Daily Mail]

While I would have loved to see them do a few more public events – come on, everyone would have loved those photos – I completely adore how they handled all of this. It was spectacular. They took the wind out of everyone’s sails. Harry and Meghan made it clear that they merely came for the Queen, to support her and so that their children could spend some time with her privately. And that’s it. That’s all they did. They showed support for the Queen (at her personal invitation) and they did not show any public support for anyone else in the institution. They were not used as diversity props in the Windsors’ colonialist play. And the papers can’t stand it. They’re trying to make it sound like Harry and Meghan left in a tiff because they were so “snubbed.” LOL. This was most likely their plan from the start. And I love it.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.