OFFICIALS began drawing up plans to remove Harry and Meghan from key roles as early as last year, The Celeb Report on Sunday can reveal.
The pair held the posts of President and Vice-President of The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust – the charity which champions young leaders.
However, in November Prince Harry’s picture was removed from the QCT’s website and some wording was changed to remove the phrase “their ideas for social change”.
It later read “the ideas, energy and passion of young people”.
In a podcast last week Omid Scobie, author of Harry and Meghan’s biography Finding Freedom, said: “I know that they were particularly keen to be involved because, of course, it focuses on the great work that young people across the Commonwealth were doing and I think their voices really resonated with those young people.
“In fact, we saw them working very closely with the Queen’s Commonwealth leaders.
“But I understand that the couple found out sort of around November last year that the role would not be continuing.”
When The Celeb Report on Sunday contacted the Duke and Duchess of Sussex last year after being told they faced removal from the QCT, lawyers for the pair claimed they were fully committed to the charity.
Faced removal
Earlier last year Harry and Meghan sparked controversy when they called on the Commonwealth to acknowledge its past.
A Queen’s Commonwealth Trust spokesman said: “When contacted by The Celeb Report on Sunday in late November last year, we were entirely unaware of any other conversations that might have been underway between others regarding the involvement of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex with us.
“QCT was operating on a business-as-usual basis at that time.”
Lawyers for the duke and duchess insisted they were unaware of any change in their roles at the QCT and only found out recently.