Prince Harry reportedly did not initially accept the "trial period" Queen Elizabeth offered after he and Meghan Markle stepped back as working royals. The Duke of Sussex had the determination to quit his royal life for good and make a clean break in the U.S. with his wife.
According to the book Finding Freedom, Prince Harry was originally not willing to go through the process of a review 12 months after their life away from the royal family. The Sussex royal reportedly didn't like that this review was suggested by the royal courtiers. He has issues with these "gray men in suits" and "old guards" at Buckingham Palace in how they manage the institution and how they treat Meghan.
To Prince Harry, the review meant that the doors are still open for them to return as working royals. He believes that this lessened the impact of their departure because the press could still write about the possibility of their return and resumption of their royal roles.
Another source told Finding Freedom that Prince Harry felt the review process implied that their decision to step back was a big mistake. But the source said the Queen offered the 12-month allowance to give them some flexibility for their future roles as royals.
Prince Harry and Meghan officially quit the royal family in March but announced their intention to leave in January. The source said that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have yet to seek what they truly want to do outside of their royal life.
The couple has plans to launch a new charity to continue their work in public service in Los Angeles, where they have been based since the middle of March. The plan stalled, however, due to the coronavirus pandemic as Prince Harry and Meghan were supposed to hit the ground running in April.
The authors of Finding Freedom, set to be released on Aug. 11, discussed Prince Harry and Meghan's issues with the royal family institution with more than a hundred sources. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's people, however, released a statement saying that Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand never interviewed the couple personally for the book.
The spokesperson for Prince Harry and Meghan said that the book is an interpretation of the events known to the authors because of their work as journalists following the royal family. The Sussex pair deny that they collaborated with the book's release.
