In a shocking, if not entirely unsurprising, decision, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced on Wednesday that they are effectively quitting the royal family. In a statement, the duo—who had just returned from a six-week break spent on Vancouver Island, away from the cutthroat U.K. press—said: "We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent."
While the couple had made clear that they were unhappy—"Not many people have asked if I’m okay," Meghan had said tearfully in new documentary Harry and Meghan: An African Journey, and Harry and William had publicly fallen out—the news is still unprecedented. "Feels pretty damaging to the whole ethos and purpose of the royal family if you can just, like, quit being part of it," commented BuzzFeed reporter Rosie Gray.
And Twitter, of course, had a lot to say about the decision.
