You know what, I've had a weird change of heart about Meghan over the last few weeks.
When they did their bombshell announcement in January I was (rather irrationally) livid. I felt that they wanted their cake and eat it, and it was ridiculous to think they could be semi royal, free to say what they want politically and yet use the royal status to give them a lifestyle of billionaires.
The more I look at it, the more I think that Meghan just made a big mistake.
She's approaching 40, and as people on here are so keen to point out, might have been running out of time to start a family. She is also at the wrong end of the age spectrum to be breaking into Hollywood.
Meeting Harry when she did must have felt like a stroke of pure golden luck.
He was royal, so would elevate her status to no end, she could carry on with the charitable work she seemed to like, she would have money and a lifestyle that very few people can achieve, even well known actors can't live like that.
They rushed into the marriage. I think anyone who gets married before having been together (and lived together) for at least 5 years, has no real idea what they are getting into.
I understand why, especially if they wanted a family. She was originally committed to becoming a senior royal, even when offered the chance to continue acting.
I think the reality doesn't really live up to the pictures you see in the paper. It's probably boring quite a bit of the time, and I bet there is a lot of background work before you rock up to an event.
From what I hear about all the royals, including Meghan and Harry, is that they seemed well informed when they appeared at charities and supporting their patronages.
That takes work, as they have a LOT of events to go to.
The press were not kind to her once the wedding took place. This is relatively standard for a royal bride, if you look at the coverage of Kate, Fergie and Camilla immediately after their weddings.
But I'll bet it hurts to see it. Meghan didn't have that level of fame before, so she won't have been as prepared for it as they may have thought.
I think the constraints of the royal family protocol was just too much for her - as it would be for me. I would hate to be married to any of them.
Then she gets pregnant. Now she has a problem.
Again, we see it time and time again on here where a woman has gotten married, moved to her husbands country and then had a baby. When the wheels come off, she is in a precarious position with regards to custody and returning to her home country.
Look at Autumn Phillips. I doubt that a court would have allowed her to go back to Canada with her daughters. They are older and therefore settled here, and like it or not, that fact that Peter Phillips is a member of the royal family will bear some weight.
So she is stuck here for the foreseeable, regardless of whether she would like to return to Canada.
I think Meghan panicked. The only way to ensure Archie would remain with her in America, should they split up, was to get there ASAP. Before Archie was olde enough to go to school and be considered settled in the UK.
I suspect that is why Archie did not come back to the UK in January or March. She may well be (quite rightly) worried that Harry might change his mind and want to stay. Once he's on UK soil, Harry could have applied to the court for an order to keep Archie here.
Given her application for British Citizenship, a court may well order that Archie remains in the UK. He was born here and is in line to the UK throne.
Her ONLY option was to persuade Harry to move to America with her and Archie. If they settle there, then that is Archie's home, and that is where he will remain, whatever happens to the marriage.
Look at Princess Haya, she had to wait for a legitimate reason to fly to the UK, before she could take refuge in London and issue a case in our High Court for custody of her children. If there had been no ill treatment of her and his older children, they likely would have been returned to Dubai.
As for the foundation - that is something that is unlikely to work outside of the royal family, for Meghan and Harry who do not have the wealth of Bill and Melinda Gates, nor the background and experience of the Obamas.
I think the foundation is to appease Harry, who really has nothing to do in LA. It provides him with something to do, and which he is familiar.
I'm sure she wants the A List lifestyle and money - and would like to re-enter the acting world. But I suspect this is more about getting Archie "home".
Might not have been on this thread, but I absolutely agree with the person who said they should have gone off to rural Wales in the beginning and had a slow entrance to the royal family. Flying helicopters would have been a great thing for Harry to do, given him purpose.
It appears they have ignored all PR advice, particularly in announcing this today. Again I have no evidence, but I suspect this is going to the extreme other end of the spectrum, having had a full communication team before, with whom they clearly did not agree.
Even if the papers got wind of the registration of the foundation, they could have just said nothing and everyone would have forgotten about it in a months time.
I also think they chose the moment in order to piggyback off the Queen's speech... oh look there's an announcement from the Queen's grandson... it keeps them relevant.