Prince Harry and Meghan Markle may have fled across the pond after a highly publicised split from the royal family, but they've got at least one secret ally in their corner: Princess Anne.
The Princess Royal, who is the second child of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip, appeared to lend her support to the former senior royals, who announced their retirement from the life of luxury after a high-profile feud with Harry's brother Prince William.
Speaking to Vanity Fair a month after Harry and Meghan announced they were giving up their HRH titles, Princess Anne, 69, hinted that she understands why they made their decision.
She and her first husband Mark Phillips chose not to follow royal tradition for the births of their children Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, rejecting the HRH title that were offered by her mum the queen.
"I think it was probably easier for them, and I think most people would argue that there are downsides to having titles," she explained.
"So I think that was probably the right thing to do."
Harry and Meghan also rejected the Queen's offer to bestow a royal title on their young son Archie, preferring instead for him to live as a commoner.
He will be known as Master Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor as he's raised in California by his no-longer-royal parents.
Princess Anne also appeared to briefly touch on the subject of her disgraced brother Prince Andrew, who was forced into an early retirement by the Queen after his car-crash Newsnight interview about his relationship with the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew has so far refused to cooperate with the FBI over allegations of his own sexual impropriety with former teen sex slave Virginia Roberts, who claims Epstein paid her £10,000 to have sex with the Queen's son - an allegation he outright denies.
Of her own potential stepping down from her busy royal schedule, Princess Anne wryly pointed out: "I don't think retirement is quite the same [for me]. Most people would say we're very lucky not to be in that situation because you wouldn't want to just stop.
"It is, to a large extent, the choice of the organisations you're involved with and whether they feel you're still relevant. But I think both my father and my mother have, quite rightly, made decisions about, you know, 'I can't spend enough time doing this and we need to find somebody else to do it' because it makes sense."
She added: "I have to admit they continued being there for a lot longer than I had in mind, but we'll see."
*Read the full Princess Anne interview in the May issue of Vanity Fair, available via digital download and on newsstands Friday April 17
