he Queen has intervened in the row over the future role of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as the couple faced a backlash over their plan to step back as senior royals.
Supported by the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cambridge, the 93-year-old monarch directed all four household teams “to work together at pace” to find “workable solutions” to the couple’s desire to break free from the ‘Firm’.
Her intervention came as sources in the royal households cast doubt on their plan to step back while retaining the trappings of their titles including their annual slice of £5m from the Duchy of Cornwall.
One source suggested that Prince Charles could withhold the Duchy money which funds his office and that of his sons or that the couple could be asked to pay rent on their home at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor.
The Duchess on Thursday night flew back to Canada to be reunited with Archie, whom the couple had left in the care of her friend, Jessica Mulroney and a nanny, the Telegraph has confirmed.
Royal sources said the Duchess had always planned for her return to the UK to be brief. It is unclear how long she will remain in Canada, with one report suggesting she could now stay for the “foreseeable future”.
“Everything is still being discussed,” they said. “Nothing has been agreed. “Any statement of fact can only be described as premature.”
Sources said the royal couple would not be able to “have their cake and eat it” saying: “There remains a great understanding that they want to do things differently. But it is a complete hybrid arrangement between being funded by the public and a private role that has to be developed and this will take a lot of thinking about.”
At the Queen’s request, a series of ‘crisis meetings’ have now been scheduled, the first of which took place on Thursday.
The process – which is also involving representatives from the British and foreign governments – is expected to take “days rather than weeks”.
On Thursday night, royal insiders accused the Sussexes of trying to “bounce” the Queen into agreeing a new role.
Wednesday night’s statement came after the couple had been expressly told not to make any “knee jerk” announcements.
Sources have described the Queen as “hurt” and “disappointed” not to have been properly consulted. The heir to the throne was last night “worried about his son”.
It came as a YouGov poll found two thirds (63 per cent) think they should no longer receive a share of the income generated by the Duchy.
The Telegraph has learned that the Duke and Duchess expressed concerns about their future royal role before Christmas, and then outlined their plan to “step back” to the wider family upon returning to the UK from their break in Canada last week.
They were denied a meeting with the Queen and instead told to discuss the plan with the Prince of Wales.
The source added: “What we had were some ideas but without letting anyone know they turned them into fully fledged outcomes.”
A source close to the Queen suggested the couple were “mistaken if they think they are the ultimate decision maker on this. HM is the boss.”
Yet it is thought that the sight of the Queen, Charles, William and Prince George posing for two ‘four generations of monarchy’ photographs over Christmas proved to be the final straw for the Sussexes, who fear they will only be increasingly overshadowed as the Cambridges’ children get older.
It was on Thursday night claimed that Archie had remained in Canada while the Duke and Duchess flew back to London under the care of Jessica Mulroney, the Duchess’s close friend.
The couple plan to return to the country to be reunited with him, People magazine claimed.
A spokesperson for the Sussexes did not respond to a request for comment.
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