Royal Family's 'fatal decision' that led to Meghan Markle and Harry's dramatic exit

The Royal Family were said to be angry, disappointed and upset when Meghan Markle and Prince Harry decided enough was enough and quit their senior roles.

While the couple said they had been thinking about their life-changing statement for months, it came as a complete surprise to the Queen, Prince Charles and Duke of Cambridge.

In the days that followed the family worked with their most trusted aides to work out the logistics of Meghan and Harry's new lives, with the couple reportedly disappointed by the final conditions of their arrangement.

This included the Queen's decision that they could not use the word 'royal' in their new branding for future business projects, meaning they would have to scrap their SussexRoyal account and website.

However, insiders claim things didn't have to be as drastic as they were, and much of the upset could have been avoided if Meghan and Harry had handled things differently.

Writing in their new biography Finding Freedom, royal journalists Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand write: "Even sources close to Harry and Meghan had to admit that the way the couple were forced to approach the situation (mainly in the act of keeping the family and their team in the dark about the website) 'created a lot of ill will in the household and especially in the family'.

"'Harry and Meghan would have reached a more beneficial agreement to allow them to life the life they wanted if they had handled things in a private, dignified way', explained a senior Buckingham Palace aide.

"Added another courtier, 'They oversimplified what they were asking for. They thought they would give Charles their rider, negotiate over email, rock up to London, give three months notice and fly back to Canada'."

However, the authors claim that Meghan and Harry felt they didn't have a choice as they thought the royal family had decided not to take their concerns seriously.

They continue: "Harry and Meghan, however, felt they had been patronized by other family and staff members for too long.

"People had humoured them when they brought up their grievances,  never thinking the couple would actually do anything drastic.

"The explosive reaction was a direct result of their growing impatience. If other members of the family and those working with the households had taken their requests more seriously, it wouldn't have reached that point."?