Meghan Markle and Prince Harry spoke out on the 2020 US presidential race – but can the former British royals even vote?
Harry and Meghan declared the upcoming US presidential election to be the most important of their lifetime, but are the couple even allowed to vote themselves?
It is well known that members of the British royal family are expected to stay neutral when it comes to politics, which means Queen Elizabeth and her immediate family are not supposed to express opinions regarding politics or political figures. So when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle spoke out about the US election last month on a Time 100 video message, it caused quite a stir.
In the short video, Prince Harry urges people to “reject hate speech, misinformation and online negativity”, and Meghan points out that the 2020 presidential race is probably the most important election in our lifetime.
“Every four years, we are told the same thing, that this is the most important election of our lifetime – but this one is,” she says. “When we vote, our values are put into action and our voices are heard. Your voice is a reminder that you matter. Because you do. And you deserve to be heard.”
The British tabloids were the first to criticise the couple, somewhat overlooking the fact that the pair are no longer senior royals and now living in the US as private citizens. Meanwhile, UK royal-watchers held their collective breath while waiting for a reaction from the “palace protocol police”.
And while Buckingham Palace does not usually comment on such stories, to everyone’s surprise, this time it did, saying: “The Duke is not a working member of the Royal Family and any comments he makes are made in a personal capacity.”
As Prince Harry explains in the Time video, “I’m not going to be able to vote here in the US, but many of you may not know that I haven’t been able to vote in the UK my entire life.”