Brewing storm in a coffee mug: Getting royalties by being royal

Having created a toofan in a Buckingham Palace garden party teacup back home, by renouncing their duties and responsibilities as members of the British monarchy, Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, née Meghan Markle, have reportedly caused a kerfuffle in a Canadian coffee mug.

The contretemps took place when a Canadian coffee chain offered the footloose and fancy-free royal couple ‘free coffee for life’ should they decide to set up shop, in a manor of speaking, in the land of the Maple Leaf.



The freebie offer, coming from a company that has already been accused of unfair trade practices for locking out some of its employees for demanding a pay rise, attracted a lot of flak from Canadians who made it clear that they concur with the sentiment that kind hearts are better than coronets.

Other claimants to dynastic descent might be inspired by the episode to relaunch their own careers based on a ‘Rent a Royal’ business model. While a number of our own derecognised princes have devised revenue sources by turning their palaces into hotels that could aptly be described as majestic, there are many of their tribe still in search of gainful employment.

By hiring out their services to add regal ritz to events like destination weddings, pauper princes could earn a livelihood by emulating the dictum, ‘Raja ban gaya gentleman’.