In a moment that will go down as one of the most electrifying confrontations in modern royal history,
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is said to have lost her composure completely during a transatlantic video call on Tuesday evening,
screaming the now-immortal words: “This is succession, not replacement! I fought for that position. I bled for it. And now you just hand it to her?”
The “her” in question is Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, the once low-profile royal who, in the space of 18 months,
has become the monarchy’s most admired and trusted female figure after the Princess of Wales. And the “position” at the heart of the storm? The unofficial but hugely symbolic title of the Crown’s leading lady-in-waiting, the quiet, steady, impeccably dressed power behind the throne who carries out hundreds of engagements, charms world leaders, and, most crucially, commands the unwavering affection of the British public.
Sources inside the Sussex camp in Montecito claim Meghan discovered the full extent of Sophie’s elevation only when she opened the Court Circular on Monday morning and saw that the Duchess of Edinburgh had undertaken no fewer than five major patronages that had once been earmarked, at least in Meghan’s mind, for herself: the Girl Guiding movement, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), the London College of Fashion, and, most symbolically, the honorary presidency of the Women’s Institute network in England, Wales and the Islands, an organisation Queen Elizabeth II cherished above almost all others.