Meghan Markle and Prince Harry left royal fans around the globe stunned Wednesday after announcing that they were stepping back from their roles as “senior” members of the royal family.
“After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution,” the royals wrote on Instagram, in the caption of a photo from their engagement announcement in November 2016.
“We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen,” the Duke and Duchess of Sussex added, noting that they will now split their time between the UK and North America.
People on Twitter, naturally, lost it over the news and had all kinds of reactions to the “Meg-xit” on their hands.
“Good for Meghan and Harry opting out of the UK tabloids staggering racism and the lack of support from the royal family,” author Roxane Gay tweeted. “They will be fine.”
Most people were rooting for the couple’s decision — and for Meghan, of course:
And obviously, some people wondered how long it would take for them to adjust to “normal” life:
A lot of people were wondering what was going on with the writing staff of “The Crown”:
And of course, there were allusions Prince Andrew’s recent decision to step back from his place in the royal family after his ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein came to light:
It’s unclear what the future holds for the royals ― or when exactly they’ll make the official split ― but Harry alluded to his future work in an interview in October for an ITV documentary.
“The rest of our lives, our life’s work will be predominately focused on Africa, on conservation,” he said in “Harry & Meghan: An African Journey.”
“There are 19 Commonwealth countries across this continent so there’s a lot of things to be done, but there’s also huge potential,” Harry added.