- Two royal couples announced they are splitting up within the span of a week, and a royal expert believes "Megxit" and Princess Beatrice's wedding plans influenced the timing.
- The Earl and Countess of Snowdown announced they have "amicably agreed" to divorce, just eight days after Peter Phillips and Autumn Phillips said they have been separated since last year.
- "Once 'Megxit' happened, the palace needed positive royal news and hence the announcement of Beatrice's marriage," royal author Nigel Cawthorne told Insider.
- "This, in turn, created the space to flush out more bad news, but I don't think that Phillips and Snowdon would have announced their divorces without Beatrice's announcement or some other good news," he added.
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"Megxit" and Princess Beatrice's wedding plans affected the timing of the latest royal divorce announcements, according to an expert.
The Queen's nephew, the Earl of Snowdon, and his wife Serena have become the second royal couple to announce they are divorcing in the past week.
The earl and countess have "amicably agreed" to split, a spokesperson for the couple told Insider.
Meanwhile, Her Majesty's eldest grandson Peter Phillips and his wife Autumn Phillips last week announced they have been separated since last year.
The Phillips family weren't initially going to make an announcement, their spokesperson told Insider. However, they felt they had to speak on the matter after it was leaked to the press.
Since these two major divorces were leaked and announced within just eight days of each other, it begs the question as to whether any external factors had an influence.
Princess Beatrice's wedding announcement 'created the space to slush out more bad news'
According to royal author Nigel Cawthorne, the couples might not have announced the sad news if it wasn't for Princess Beatrice, who he says allowed the negative royal coverage that came with "Megxit" to die down when she announced details of her royal wedding earlier this month.
"It is complicated. Once 'Megxit' happened, the palace needed positive royal news and hence the announcement of Beatrice's marriage," Cawthorn, author of "I Know I Am Rude: Prince Philip on Prince Philip," told Insider.
"This, in turn, created the space to flush out more bad news, but I don't think that Phillips and Snowdon would have announced their divorces without Beatrice's announcement or some other good news," he added.
On February 7, Buckingham Palace announced that Beatrice will marry Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi on May 29 at St James's Palace in London.
The news came just a month after Markle and Harry announced they will depart from the royal family in the spring.
However, another commentator believes the timing will do little to dull the negative coverage of 'Megxit' and Prince Andrew
Richard Fitzwilliams, a royal commentator, believes the timing of the latest royal divorce is "strange" but it ultimately won't impact the public's perception.
"The timing of this is strange and there are those who will see it as the latest in a line of troubles for the royal family. Andrew, 'Megxit,' Peter and Autumn Phillips, and now this," he said.
"Since they are not working royals, the timing is not significant so far as the public are concerned," he added.
The Earl of Snowdon is 21st in line to the throne, and he is not a working royal. However, his wife, Serena, inherited the title Countess of Snowdon upon the marriage.
Buckingham Palace won't comment on the divorce, so it's unlikely they will provide confirmation as to whether Serena will retain her title like Princess Diana did.
"A divorced wife of a peer is styled the same as a widow of a peer," Marlene Koenig, a royal expert for History Extra, told Insider.
"Instead of being The Countess of Snowdon, she will be Serena, Countess of Snowdon. He could marry again and his new wife would be The Countess of Snowdon.
"Should Serena remarry, she would stop being styled as Serena, Countess of Snowdon. If she remarried a man with no title, she would become The Lady Serena [followed by] surname as she is a daughter of an earl in her own right," she added.
Fitzwilliams added that while the divorces aren't "significant," they are making way for a tipping point within the royal news cycle.
"However if anything else were to happen, one really will wonder what sort of a decade this is going to be for the royals," he said.
It certainly doesn't look as though the royal drama is about to subside any time soon. Just this month alone there have been reports that the Queen has banned Harry and Markle from naming their charity "Sussex Royal," and news that Prince Andrew has refused a military promotion in light of his connection to Jeffrey Epstein.
"At the moment, after some two decades of mostly favorable coverage, royal matters are totally unpredictable, to put it mildly," Fitzwilliams added.
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