King Charles clarifies Harry and Meghan's U.K. status in surprise letter

Six years after stepping back from royal duties, Prince Harry and Meghan find themselves once again defined by a document they did not author. King Charles issued a formal letter this week clarifying the couple's official standing within the British monarchy — a rare act of royal prerogative that arrived, by all accounts, without warning to those it most directly concerns. The move speaks to an enduring tension at the heart of modern monarchy: the collision between institutional authority and individual autonomy within a family that is also a state.