Now that we’re a few weeks past the 48-hour wall-to-wall British Vogue exclusives, I feel like we need to reassess what actually happened with the Duchess of Sussex’s guest-editorship. On the whole, Meghan did a lot of good things – she drew attention to a lot of interesting women doing great work, women who are existing and thriving in spaces which weren’t built for them. Meghan also used her guest-editorship to announce her capsule collection to benefit one of her patronages, Smart Works. Of course there was a lot of criticism, most of it utterly unhinged, but a small portion of it legitimate. But what if we’re missing the bigger picture? What if… Meghan used to the guest-editorship to “claim” certain issues away from the Cambridges?

A week after Meghan’s big British Vogue kerfuffle, the question remains; what was all that about? Meghan’s fans say it was all about promoting her agenda of inclusiveness and diversity, but, churlish though it may be to say it, whatever causes Meghan hoped to promote in the issue were swept aside by the larger controversy.

The Royalist’s suspicion, for what it is worth, is that Meghan and Harry were using the issue to cement their claims to the various bits of territory that will be up for grabs now the joint Royal Foundation of the Fab Four (provide your own hollow laugh here) has officially broken up.

Most critically, Harry has taken full possession of the very fashionable causes of wildlife, conservation and the environment, while Meghan seems to be angling to be the face of mental health awareness, which, officially, both sets of royals will continue to lobby for. This could get messy.

[From The Daily Beast]

This is… actually an interesting theory, and it’s been the lowkey gossip for months, even before the British Vogue September issue, even before the formal split of the Royal Foundation. Fans of the Cambridges and the Sussex fans all noted that the Sussexes seemed to be happily “encroaching” on charity-territory and issues which the Cambridges seemed to want to claim as their own. Add to that, the Cambridges kept trying to step on the Sussexes’ newscycles with their announcements. That’s already been happening for months, and I imagine that it will get worse in the months and years to come. That being said, it could make for better “work” from both couples – William and Kate will be keen to compete, so they’ll make moves to take over certain issues and then the Sussexes will be like “no, those are OUR issues” and the charities will likely benefit from all that keenness.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, cover courtesy of British Vogue.