MEGHAN MARKLE’S FINAL ROYAL FAREWELL ENDED WITH SEVEN HEARTBREAKING WORDS — ‘IT DIDN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY’
Meghan Markle’s final engagement as a working royal ended with an emotional goodbye to members of her staff — and, according to a later account, a seven-word remark that appeared to capture the pain surrounding her departure.
The Duchess and Prince Harry stepped down as working members of the Royal Family in 2020, just two years after their wedding.
Their final official royal engagement came at the Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey in March that year, before the couple left Britain and moved to the United States.
Six years later, Harry and Meghan have returned to the UK with their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet — making their final days as working royals an especially striking chapter in their story.
MEGHAN’S LAST SOLO ENGAGEMENT
Before joining Harry at Westminster Abbey, Meghan carried out what would be her final solo royal engagement.
She met scholars from across the Commonwealth at Buckingham Palace in her then-role as patron of the Association of Commonwealth Universities.
But behind the scenes, the occasion also marked an emotional farewell.
According to Finding Freedom, the biography by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand published in August 2020, members of Meghan and Harry’s staff were deeply affected by the couple’s decision to leave.
The authors described staff who had been with the Sussexes from the beginning mourning the ending of what they had expected to be a very different story.
They wrote that the staff had imagined “two people fall in love, get married, have a baby, serve the Queen, the end” — only to find themselves watching the couple prepare to leave the country.
‘IT DIDN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY’
As Meghan’s final engagement came to an end, a member of staff reportedly recalled an emotional farewell with the Duchess.
According to an account reported by The Mirror, Meghan hugged the staff member goodbye before delivering a brief but striking message:
“It didn’t have to be this way.”
The seven words have since become one of the more poignant details associated with Meghan’s final day as a working royal.
The remark, as reported, suggested a sense of sadness about how events had unfolded — although Meghan has not publicly confirmed the account herself.
HARRY ALSO APPEARED EMOTIONAL
The emotion was not confined to Meghan.
During the Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey, Harry also appeared visibly affected by the significance of the occasion.
One account described the Duke as appearing to be “fighting back the tears” during the service.
The couple joined other senior members of the Royal Family for the event, including Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales.
It would prove to be their final official appearance as working royals.
SIX YEARS LATER, THEY ARE BACK
The Sussexes subsequently relocated to the United States, where they have spent the past six years building a new life away from the institution they had stepped back from.
Their return to Britain in late August 2026 has now brought them back into the country where their royal story began — this time with Archie and Lilibet alongside them.
The children, now aged seven and five, have reportedly been enrolled in British schools as the family settles into life in the UK.
That makes Meghan’s final royal goodbye in 2020 all the more striking in retrospect.
What began with a farewell to staff, an emotional appearance at Westminster Abbey and the reported words “It didn’t have to be this way” has now come full circle — with the Sussexes once again making Britain part of their family’s next chapter.