Post-coronation, there has been a very real effort to make it sound like the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s marriage is in trouble. In some ways, this is the British media trying to “punish” the Sussexes because Meghan didn’t go the stupid Chubbly. In other ways, it’s disturbing to see such coordination across the British tabloids and newspapers to convince themselves that Harry and Meghan are struggling, as opposed to “the Sussexes are fine and they’re not giving the media access to their business.” Well, it’s getting even weirder. After creating stories out of thin air about Harry staying in hotels solo to get away from Meghan and Meghan going out partying without Harry, these same people are now getting “royal sources” to react to the fictional marriage-trouble drama. Tom Sykes at the Daily Beast is always quoting from “friends close to Prince Harry” and “sources close to the king,” and those insiders are bizarrely focused on the ginned-up rumors:

Friends of the royals have said the family would be hugely concerned if reports of difficulties in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s marriage turned out to be accurate, as finding a role for a divorced or separated Harry who decided to return to the U.K. would be “a bloody nightmare.” However the friends emphasized that reports alleging the couple are struggling all appear to be “groundless,” and based on speculation.

A friend of William’s told The Daily Beast: “William and Kate had plenty of reservations about the marriage in the first place, precisely because they feared Meghan wasn’t right for Harry. But what’s done is done and now William, like everyone else in the family, just hopes it all works out. Harry returning to the U.K., and trying to find him a job, would be a bloody nightmare.”

A friend of King Charles’ told The Daily Beast: “The marriage has to work. That’s not a case of Charles saying, ‘Harry has made his bed and has to lie in it.’ It’s a case of a father wanting his son, who he loves very much, to be happy and to have his wife and children in his life. These stories are groundless anyway. I don’t think anyone is seriously concerned that they are on the point of separation.”

Rumors that the marriage might be in trouble first started to circulate after reports surfaced that Harry was spending occasional nights away from home, staying at the exclusive San Vicente Bungalows resort in Los Angeles.

However the journalist Petronella Wyatt wrote in the Daily Telegraph this week that she believed the couple would never split up, citing, “friends of mine in LA who know Harry and Meghan socially…. There is something almost heroic in the way they have held their perilous ground, disdaining all compromise, unmoved by their vociferous critics. They have faced every conceivable form of attack that rational people are capable of mounting and yet they have scarcely budged an inch.”

[From The Daily Beast]

William, Kate, Charles and Camilla did everything they could to stop Harry and Meghan’s wedding. Then post-wedding, everything was done to force Meghan out of the UK, to abuse her to the point of killing herself or divorcing Harry to save herself. Then when Harry and Megha left, these people spent three years trying to convince Harry to “come back to them,” to leave Meghan and return to the royal fold. The goal is, as always, to separate the Sussexes and marginalize or neutralize Meghan. So… it’s pretty rich for “a friend of William” to suddenly panic and declare “Harry returning to the U.K., and trying to find him a job, would be a bloody nightmare.” It would not be a nightmare for William, since he wants nothing more than to have Harry under his thumb once again. In any case, none of this is real. Absolutely none of it. Even if – A HUGE IF – the Sussexes ever did split up, Harry would stay in America, I’m absolutely sure.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.