Today, January 13, The Queen held a meeting at Sandringham with Prince Charles, Prince William, and Prince Harry to discuss Harry’s and The Duchess of Sussex‘s announcement that they want to step back from being senior royals. Afterward, Buckingham Palace released a statement on the meeting and the “period of transition” as everything is resolved.

Today my family had very constructive discussions on the future of my grandson and his family.

My family and I are entirely supportive of Harry and Meghan’s desire to create a new life as a young family. Although we would have preferred them to remain full-time working Members of the Royal Family, we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life as a family while remaining a valued part of my family.

Harry and Meghan have made clear that they do not want to be reliant on public funds in their new lives.

It has therefore been agreed that there will be a period of transition in which the Sussexes will spend time in Canada and the UK.

These are complex matters for my family to resolve, and there is some more work to be done, but I have asked for final decisions to be reached in the coming days.

royal.uk

My first thought when reading this statement is that it tells us nothing we didn’t already know: Harry and Meghan want no public funds (the RF doesn’t consider Duchy money public, but that’s another matter), they don’t want to be full time royals, and this will take time to resolve. And to be completely honest, it sounds like it was written before the meeting even took place, because it’s so non-specific.

My second thought is that this statement is far more informal than usual BP statements: saying “my family” a lot, referring to the Sussexes as “Harry and Meghan” rather than “The Duke and Duchess”.

I didn’t think we would be getting anything concrete today, so I’m not surprised by the lack of concrete information here. I am surprised at how informal it is. It will be interesting to see what happens next.