The news this week that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex - otherwise known as Harry and Meghan - will be unshackling themselves from the Royal Family will have scandalised, enraged and energised in equal measure.

For dedicated royal followers - and there must be a fair few of them, because an entire sector of the magazine industry exists to service that market - it will be confirmation of their worst fears: that the glamorous divorcee from America was never really committed to life in this most exclusive club from the first.

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For those of a more progressive bent, it will be seen as an act of extraordinary defiance: a confident modern woman rejecting the restrictions and limitations by kicking open the door of her gilded cage.

And for the rest? They'll be angry that a young married couple's decision to move to another country and start earning their own money was newsworthy at all.

But it was newsworthy - as the reaction to the news showed.

Every person who had a conversation about Harry and Meghan this week - and that includes those whose comment was to say they didn't care - is a contributor to the soap opera that is the life and times of Queen Elizabeth II and her family.

Soap operas need an audience, and every person who took notice of the latest news from England can count themselves (even if it was only briefly) in that audience.

The other essential ingredient in a good soap opera, of course, is a regular supply of incredible plot twists - and this week's one was a doozy.

Harry and Meghan might be moving to North America to escape the royal reality show, but the irony of their decision is that it will ensure there are breathless updates and dramatic storylines for many more years to come.