Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will have to ‘renounce royal privileges’ for South Africa move

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will have to ‘renounce their royal privileges ‘ ahead of any planned move to South Africa, a royal expert has suggested. 

The Duke, 35, and Duchess of Sussex, 38, voiced their desires to live in the country on ITV’s Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, which aired on Sunday and charted the pair’s ten-day tour in South Africa. 

However royal correspondent Victoria Arbiter told the New Zealand talk show Breakfast that there are a number of reasons a move to South Africa cannot occur while the couple remain members of the royal family.

Questioning whether the British or South African taxpayer would fund their security, she added that showing ‘favouritism’ to one Commonwealth nation would not be fulfilling their ‘responsibility’ to the Queen. 

‘That’s just not going to be OK unless, of course, they renounce all of their royal privileges, their royal titles, everything to do with their life as a member of the royal family’, she said. ‘I don’t see that happening, either.’ 

Victoria continued: ‘In the documentary, Meghan talks about the grass always being greener, but there are logistics that come into play when you’re a member of the royal family.

‘Some of them are a little bit more obvious. So they move to South Africa, so who pays for their security there?

‘Yes, they’re both independently wealthy and they could support themselves there. But is the South African taxpayer suddenly paying for their security, or is the British taxpayer paying for that? Neither party are going to be particularly happy.’ 

She said that while a move might be a ‘lovely’ idea, it is rather unlikely that South Africa would be in the running because the royal couple could be accused of favouritism.

Prince Harry, Meghan and their baby son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor in Cape Town, South Africa on September 25, 2019

Victoria continued: ‘Harry and Meghan’s first responsibility is to the 16 nations for which the Queen is head of state – South Africa’s not one of them.

‘It is a Commonwealth nation, but then there are 53 total members of the Commonwealth, so then there’s accusations of favouritism if they’re spending time in South Africa.’

Ms Arbiter suggested that Meghan and Harry’s only option would be to renounce their royal titles if they wanted to seriously consider the move.

She said: ‘Harry has long talked about his passion for the continent as a whole; he’s clearly very happy there; he went there to heal following his mother’s death – it is somewhere they can spend a lot of time, but live there full-time?

In an ITV documentary, Harry hinted that his wife and son Archie could head overseas to the African nation when talking to broadcaster Tom Bradby (pictured together)

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex along with their son Archie meet with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mrs Tutu at their legacy foundation in Cape Town, on day three of their tour of Africa

‘That’s just not going to be OK unless, of course, they renounce all of their royal privileges, their royal titles, everything to do with their life as a member of the royal family – I don’t see that happening, either.’

In the hour-long ITV documentary, Harry revealed he is considering living in Africa one day.

He said: ‘I don’t know where we could live in Africa at the moment. We’ve just come from Cape Town, that would be an amazing place for us to be able to to base ourselves, of course it would.

‘But with all the problems that are going on there I just don’t see how we would be able to really make as much difference as we’d want to.’

Harry also revealed Africa will be the main focus of his and Meghan’s work in the future.

He said: ‘The rest of our lives, especially our life’s work will be predominantly focused on Africa, on conservation.

‘There are 19 Commonwealth countries across this continent, there’s a lot of things to be done, there’s a lot of problems here but there’s also huge potential for solutions.