Harry and Meghan: Navigating Post-Royal Life in a World of Scrutiny (read below for updated comments)

First, read this, and then follow us as we explore why VF wrote this piece other than the obvious, they wanted to sell papers.

UPDATE: CAMILLA TOMINEY WROTE THIS HIT PIECE AND VANITY FAIR ALLOWED IT.

January 2025 marked five years since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped away from royal duties, embarking on a new chapter as independent figures in the United States. Their departure from the royal family was initially framed as an attempt to escape the relentless pressures of the British tabloid press and a monarchy that, in their view, failed to support them. Since then, the couple has navigated a series of legal, financial, reputational, and personal trials in their bid to redefine themselves outside the institution they once represented.

From being members of a 1,200-year-old institution—one that claims divine selection or, at the very least, is anointed by divine choice—to becoming startup founders and media entrepreneurs, the Sussexes’ transition has been a steep learning curve. While their move to California presented opportunities, it also exposed them to new criticisms, including accusations of opportunism, mismanagement, and a struggle to define a consistent public persona.

Hired Person: Kim Thompson Drew This To Milk H&M for a job

Over the past several months, Vanity Fair spoke with numerous individuals who have worked with and lived alongside Harry and Meghan to understand the impact they have had on their new community in Montecito, California, their struggles as first-time CEOs, and the ways in which their royal experience continues to shape their challenges today.

Philanthropy, Media Ventures, and Public Perception

Despite their shift away from the British royal family, both Harry and Meghan have remained involved in charitable efforts. Harry continues to work closely with the Invictus Games Foundation, which he founded to support injured military personnel. Additionally, his organization Sentebale focuses on mental health and HIV/AIDS awareness in Southern Africa. According to a close associate, Harry finds solace and purpose in this work, which allows him to operate independently of his family’s influence.

Meanwhile, Meghan has pursued initiatives aimed at empowering and educating young women. Her 40×40 campaign, launched on her 40th birthday, encouraged 40 high-profile friends to spend 40 minutes mentoring women reentering the workforce after the pandemic. However, like many of their initiatives, its impact remains unclear.

In March 2024, Meghan returned to Instagram to announce American Riviera Orchard, a lifestyle brand that has since faced criticism for its vague mission and the use of the term “American Riviera”—a name historically associated with Santa Barbara rather than Montecito. Though her previous blog, The Tig, had a dedicated following, some observers question whether her latest venture will resonate with modern audiences.

Their media ventures have also seen mixed results. Archewell Productions, their entertainment company, has produced Netflix content, including Heart of Invictus, a documentary series that, despite its compelling subject matter, failed to match the popularity of Harry & Meghan, their initial Netflix docuseries. With Love, Meghan, a lifestyle program featuring practical advice and celebrity conversations, faced delays, officially pushing its premiere to March 2025.

While their ambitions in media have been grand, their execution has often faltered. Their Spotify deal, reportedly worth $20 million, resulted in just one podcast, Archetypes, before being terminated. Critics pointed to a lack of clear direction, with insiders suggesting that while Meghan had creative aspirations, she struggled with follow-through. Reports surfaced that the couple had pitched various projects, including a podcast where Harry interviewed world leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump—an idea dismissed as impractical. At one point, a producer suggested a show where Harry reviewed different brands of hot chocolate, which he reportedly considered before rejecting.

The Complexity of Public Image

One of the most persistent criticisms leveled at Harry and Meghan is their perceived inconsistency: they claim to desire privacy while simultaneously engaging in high-profile media projects. Their Netflix documentary provided intimate details of their departure from royal life, and Harry’s memoir Spare—a bestseller—offered an unfiltered look at his childhood, family tensions, and personal struggles. While both projects were commercially successful, they reinforced the perception that the couple remains deeply entangled in the institution they claim to have left behind.

Critics argue that their approach to storytelling—painting themselves as victims of the British media and the royal institution—has limited their appeal beyond that narrative. As one former Spotify employee noted, “The thing they were escaping is what made them compelling.” Without the palace backdrop, their ability to sustain long-term audience interest remains uncertain.

Further complicating their image is their relationship with former employees and business partners. Reports suggest that working with the couple can be challenging, with some describing Meghan as strategic to a fault and prone to abruptly shifting direction on projects. Others, however, describe her as warm and engaging, albeit deeply protective of her public persona.

Harry’s Legal Battles and the Struggle for Security

Harry’s ongoing legal disputes in the UK have also played a role in his strained relationship with his homeland. He is currently engaged in lawsuits over privacy and security concerns, particularly regarding police protection for his family when visiting Britain. His legal battles, combined with his revealing memoir, have further alienated him from his father, King Charles, and his brother, Prince William.

Despite his decision to step away from royal duties, Harry appears conflicted about his place within the monarchy. He has repeatedly expressed a desire for reconciliation with his family, yet his legal actions and public revelations suggest otherwise. His absence from key royal events, including the wedding of his close friend Hugh Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster, has fueled speculation that his return to the UK is unlikely in the near future.

Life in Montecito: A Community Divided

Harry and Meghan’s presence in Montecito has been met with mixed reactions. While some locals appreciate their efforts to integrate, others view them as disruptive figures whose fame has drawn unwanted attention to the quiet enclave. Residents have complained about increased paparazzi presence, rising real estate prices, and crowded public spaces. Some see their attempts to brand Montecito through American Riviera Orchard as another example of commercial opportunism.

Despite these tensions, the couple continues to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle among Hollywood elites. Meghan’s inner circle now includes socialites and industry executives, reinforcing perceptions that she remains deeply invested in the world of celebrity. However, questions remain about whether they have successfully established themselves as enduring cultural figures or if their relevance is largely tied to their royal past.

The Road Ahead: Reinvention or Stagnation?

As they enter their sixth year post-royal life, Harry and Meghan face a critical juncture. While their initial departure was framed as a bid for freedom and purpose, their actions have often suggested an ongoing struggle to define themselves beyond their royal identities. Their philanthropic endeavors, while noble, lack the scale of their royal foundation work. Their media projects, while ambitious, have failed to establish them as long-term entertainment figures. Their legal battles continue to tether them to the institution they once sought to escape.

Ultimately, their success will depend on whether they can move beyond the narrative of victimhood and establish a clear, sustainable brand that does not rely on their royal past. Whether that means doubling down on philanthropy, refining their media ventures, or stepping away from the spotlight remains to be seen. What is clear, however, is that their journey remains one of the most compelling—and polarizing—stories in modern celebrity culture.

Conclusion: Can Harry and Meghan Truly Win?

No matter what Harry and Meghan do, public opinion remains deeply divided. Their critics accuse them of hypocrisy, opportunism, and failing to deliver on their promises. Their supporters see them as trailblazers who dared to challenge the status quo. In a world where media narratives shape reality, their next moves will determine whether they solidify their place as influential change-makers or become cautionary tales of lost potential.

For now, they remain caught between two worlds—the royal one they left behind and the Hollywood one they have yet to fully conquer. Only time will tell which side will ultimately define them.

Vanity Fair’s Article:

Transcript (Audio)

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/prince-harry-meghan-markle-cover-story-2025

This January marked five years since that fatal party leading the royal family has brought tests for the couple, legal, financial, reputational, personal and practical. Going from Divinely chosen, or at least chosen by someone else who was divinely chosen, members of a 1,200 year old institution to start up founders in exile is a tough adjustment, but there has also been opportunity. Over many months, vanity fair spoke with dozens of people who have worked with and lived alongside the couple to understand the impact they had on their new coastal California community, the challenges of enacting the ambitions of two first time CEOs, and how their experience of the monarchy foreshadowed some of their current difficulties. Harry and Meghan declined to be interviewed for this article. Harry still works closely with the charities he founded, the Invictus games foundation and, an organization focusing on mental fitness and the impact of poverty and HIV AIDS in Southern African countries. He has real brothers.

When he speaks about his work in Africa, says someone inside the couple’s circle, and he is free from Willie, as well as the future King’s supposed dominion over that continent, as Harry confessed in his 2023 memoir, despair Africa was his thing, Harry said, Archewell also encompasses Megan’s efforts to empower and educate young women like the 40 by 40 Initiative, where, for her 40th birthday, she asked 40 well known friends such as Melissa McCarthy and then first lady of Hyundai, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, to each spend 40 minutes on Zoom, mentoring a woman retweet the workplace in the wake of the pandemic.

On March 14 of last year, the fourth anniversary of their flight to California, Megan rejoined Instagram to announce American riding goods and sundress line. The sussexes have announced Megan’s second podcast vote on the title or premise of it. Archwell Productions also recently produced two high profile Netflix series, a dog series called polo, which premiered December 10 and features the world of Harry’s buddy Nacho Figueres, and the reality show with love Megan.

The latter is a hospitality endeavor that, according to Netflix promotional language reimagines the genre of lifestyle programming, blending practical how tos and candid conversation with friends new and old. Three days before her show’s scheduled premier date of January 15, they announced that the series would be pushed to March 4, as we focus on the needs of those COVID by wildfires in my home state of California, the couple has been volunteering amid the crisis in Los Angeles and donating to people displaced by the fires, as taking in friends who had to evacuate their own homes, they have this naivete and their hopefulness about what’s possible in terms of storytelling and good works and all those things, says producer Jane Murray, who collaborated with a couple while we developed audio projects at ARC well and later produced a podcast with Michelle Obama. I wish I had that kind of optimism.

Optimism abounded as a couple embarked on their Spotify deal in 2020 both for them and for those who were coming in to help me to work. I thought that I had the role of a lifetime, says a person who worked in media projects, who was a fan going in and eager to make the type of life changing content Harry and Meghan seemed to want to create. I thought I was going to be besties with Megan and Harry, and we were going to like, run around the world, saving people interest in the couple was on the slack at all, but it remained to be seen whether they were actually interesting, beyond Harry’s uniquely difficult upbringing and Megan’s years of defending herself from shotting treatment and racism, whether in the British press or from members of her husband’s family. As one former Spotify employee put it, the thing you’re escaping is the reason you’re compelling. Those stories would have meted out in different media, breathless reports of a $20 million Penguin Random House contract spanker and $100 million partnership. With Netflix. Harry and Meghan, according to a representative for Netflix, we don’t disclose our financial deals with talent, but I can confirm to you on the record that the $100 million figure is not correct on the august 2022 cover of the cut Megan did to promote reverse and only Spotify podcast archives. She said, I’m like, so excited to talk, and it’s like finding not finding my voice. I had my voice for a long time, but being able to use it when repeatedly asked by the interviewer what she wanted to say with her newly free voice. Megan demurred, I have a lot to say until I don’t do you like that sometimes, as they say, the silent part is still part of the song.

She said, noting I’ve never had to sign anything that restricts me from talking. I can talk about my whole experience and make a choice not to one of the people who spoke with Fiat for this story says they signed a non disclosure agreement to be employed by Harry and Macon, a person who worked closely with the couple and loves them says, I have no idea what Harry’s interests are beyond bolo. No clue what his inner life is like. The development process was challenging. The former Spotify employee says they had this idea to do a podcast because they knew celebrities did them a category differentiated between celebrities who got a lot of money to begin podcasting, like Harry and Meghan, and celebrities who get large heels after proving themselves to be capable. Podcasters like smartness as Will Arnett, Sean Hayes and Grace Bateman, the former Spotify employee, says Harry and Meghan didn’t do what celebrities do on podcasts, which is turn on the mic and talk. They wanted a big theme that would explain the world, but they had no ideas. Someone who worked closely with them on audio projects disputes this version lamenting, but because of Megan and Harry’s insistence on silence from employees and their own reticence, the public doesn’t know about good projects that had to be abandoned for practical reasons.

It feels like the only story is they didn’t satisfy their contract. She says it’s not like work wasn’t being done. People involved with production say the couple did trial runs on some big ideas, like this American lifestyle show where Harry and Meghan took turns hosting and talking to interesting civil Indian guests as lumber included hairy lined outer series where he interviewed powerful men with complicated stories, like Mark Zuckerberg Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. The concept was addressed that the men share a challenge in early lives, except their experiences.

Stories like Mark Zuckerberg, Vladimir, Putin and Donald Trump, the concept wasn’t just that the men shared challenging early lives, except their experiences made them into sociopath process. Since the person who worked in media confirms there was a sociopath podcast, the person who worked closely with the couple on audio projects recalls Perry saying, I have very bad childhood trauma. Obviously, my mother was essentially murdered. What is it about me that didn’t make me one of these bad guys to implore a season’s worth of world famous sociopaths to talk about how they developed sociology would be what is referred to in access journalism as a booking challenge. As time passed, there would be nearly two years between the public steel signing and the premier of archetypes. Spotify began applying pressure to produce something, anything that people might listen to. The former Spotify employee says Harry came to the Los Angeles office once and asked for a house of cocoa. There was none in office for a boy who he scrambled to obtain.

An idea was pitched to Harry. What if he reviewed a hot chocolate every week while chatting with a different friend, which he and his team considered and rejected. Another concept was that Harry would fix something every week, ranging from a flat fire to global warming he wanted to do a podcast about disabled people who compete in the Invictus Games, the former Spotify employee sense, but there’s no crossover between the audience who would listen to that and people who want to hear about Harry’s life.

Harry and Meghan did produce a 2023 Netflix daughter series called Heart Invictus, which significantly underperformed Harry and Meghan, the former Spotify employee, says it was challenging to engage Harry, and a person who interviewed for a job with a couple says I just felt like he kind of didn’t want to be there doing that at this time, my expectation was charming, receiving line, and it was clear he wasn’t that person, at least that day, and at least in the context of a hiring manager, a person who worked on an event during Harry’s book tour says he has the greatest manners I’ve ever seen, hands down, like I can’t believe his knees are as subtle as they are. He was getting up and down anytime somebody walked into a room. He was unfailingly kind and friendly to everyone during the interview, the potential employee says Harry’s attitude was either, well, why should I do this? Or why are we doing this?

The interviewee says they wondered; didn’t Spotify pay him a lot of money to do this. The person inside the couple circles says he looks like the kind of guy who would frankly, happily work for charities for the rest of his life and would be very happy if Megan made all the money. Made all the money and he didn’t need to on his self-titled podcast. Bill Simmons described his own experience working with the Sussexes at Spotify, the fucking Grifters. That’s the podcast we should have launched with them. Simmons said, I have got to get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I handed with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea. It’s one of my best stories. Fuck them the Grifters, Harry and Meghan became increasingly nervous about how their content would impact them. Marie says, I can say that they have really great ideas for shows, interesting pitches, interesting guests, but then as the deliverers, or either of them as the hosts of these more kind of edgy ideas would have been like they would have had a move again. I think it’s a combination of self censorship for good reason, and the corporate powers that be that runs podcasting that don’t know what that is to create valuable shows.

 In combination, those things make it really hard to make good stuff. The person who worked in media projects imitates the thought process behind any decision about the couple’s projects. Well, he has a million things that he has to protect, and he has the book, and they have the documentary, and they don’t want to make the queen upset and their public image. That source says the idea for archetypes came from another employee, not many, though the employee didn’t own any of the intellectual property archives. Began production in January 2021 though the former Spotify employee says the initial expectation was that arc 12 would handle production for the series. The process took so long that Spotify studio inlet was called in. A source familiar with the production of archetypes says this required additional cost to and resources from Spotify. The current Spotify employee repeats that the expert support was a burden virtually the entire game that team would be laid off in the year following archetypes release, but please blame mismanagement at Spotify rather than any individual project.

The former Spotify source says archetypes was complicated as a podcast concept. You had to explain what the archetype was, then why the woman embodied it, but also how it wasn’t true about her. Every episode was like, this is my friend who has been called that archetype. But it’s not that archetype. These archetypes, actually stereotypes included Eva Mariah Carey and bimbo Paris Hilton and Eliza Schlesinger. As for those friends, there was an expectation that Megan would be able to use her personal Rolodex to book the show the way hosts like Simmons and the pod save America guys do, the person who worked in media projects says the assumption was Megan’s gonna be on the phone with the Pope tomorrow.

The former Spotify employee says, in addition to Taylor Swift, they heard rumors that Beyonce and Megan the stallion were asked to come on the show and declined. Other people who worked on the podcast also say they heard those names mentioned, though source close to the situation says Megan the stallions team knew nothing about any requests. According to the source and media projects, Megan would agree to provocative ideas and then walk them back. In one episode, she wanted to actually say the word bitch, because, as the source remembers Megan saying, you hear it all the time, it ended up with Megan calling it the B word.

An episode titled slut, intended to center on how trans women’s sexuality is used against them, was retitled human being by Megan and had to be completely reimagined late in production. Every episode got more and more watered down and further away from actual conversation.

The source says it felt like a very Women’s and Gender Studies 101, taught in 2003 though the Spotify contract has widely been recorded as worth $20,000,000, 2 sources told VF, such shields are generally not paid out in lump sums. In other words, the couple would not likely have received the full amount without meeting benchmarks beyond making 112-episode season of a podcast Spotify does not comment on deal terms. The issue is extended into the actual workplace. Terry wood, an executive vice president at Oprah Winfrey harbor productions, was brought in to be what Megan would later call her right hand when archetypes won People’s Choice Award in 2022 the source familiar with the production of archives describes Wood’s anger, saying that she yelled at Spotify staffers when Meghan changed her mind about episodes, Wood did not respond to the as request for comment. The source who worked in media projects says Megan’s own relationships with employees tended to follow a familiar pattern.

She would be warm and effusive at the beginning, engendering an atmosphere of professional camaraderie when something went poorly, often due to Meghan and Harry’s own demands, such as a teaser for archetypes being released five months before the show premiered, and before there was any tape remote, Meghan would become cool and withholding toward the person she perceived to be responsible. The source says it was really, really, really awful, very painful, because she’s constantly playing checkers. I’m not even going to say chess, but she’s just very aware of where everybody is on her board. And when you are not in you are to be thrown to the wolves at any given moment. In practice, they say that manifested as undermining. It’s hobbling behind your back. It’s gnawing at your sense of self, really like Mean Girls teenager Marie, had a different experience with Megan. She’s just a lovely, genuine person.

She said, The person who worked in media projects read stories in the tabloids about Megan bullying countless aides, and couldn’t imagine something happened after working with her, though, this person realized, oh, any given Tuesday. This happened while it makers belief that Megan actually shouted at a palace, as has been reported, a person who interacted with her professionally says you can be yelled at even if somebody doesn’t raise their voice. It’s funny that people don’t differentiate between the energy of being yelled at and literally somebody screaming at you.

Two sources say a colleague with ties to archetypes took a leave of absence after working on three episodes, then left gimlet altogether. Several others described taking extended breaks from work to escape scrutiny, exiting their job or undergoing long term therapy after working with Megan, the person who interacted professionally with her, says, I think if Megan acknowledged her own shortcomings or personal contributions to situations, rather than staying trapped in a victim narrative, her perception might be better. They added with the soggy laugh a plebe rendering judgment on the Duchess of Sussex. But who am I to criticize Meghan Markle?

She’s doing great. It’s hard to imagine how someone who seems so earnestly intent on being kind and engaging in world improving if also brand building activities, could wind up engaging in revanchism with people so below her in status. A partial answer might be found in an episode of archetypes in which Meghan interviews Mindy Kaling, who assumed Megan was popular as a child while attending Immaculate Heart Catholic School in Los Angeles.

Megan tells Kaling, I never had anyone to sit with at lunch. I was always a little bit of a loner and really shy, and didn’t know where I fit in and so I just became I was like, okay, well, then I’ll become the president of the multicultural club and the president of sophomore class and the president of this and French club. And by doing that, I had meetings at lunchtime, so I didn’t have to worry about who I would sit with or what I would do, because I was always so busy. It brings to mind Swift’s mastermind lyrics. No one wanted to play with me as a little kid, so I’ve been scheming like a criminal ever since to make them love me and make it seem effortless.

In other words, Megan was a good person trying to do good things in spite of and at times because of unkind people. The person familiar with the production of archetypes, says at least one employee who had a terrible experience got a handwritten thank you note and gift from Meghan. Is it any surprise that a sense of victimhood and righteousness could continue to exist in a person who had been treated so horribly by the press and her husband’s family, not to mention those little b words and Immaculate Heart the people who Megan may have perceived as enemies or interlopers, members of the Lonesome media or insiders of the palace, or people who actually knew how to make a podcast, or her pitiable father and half sisters selling her secrets and history to tabloids for cash might have seemed more powerful than her in some way, despite her immense fame and wealth and privilege. And then whatever happened to them? Well, they shouldn’t have gotten between Meghan and her good work, as Harry knows, trauma can warp your perspective.

Spare Harry’s best selling and beautifully written Memoir chronicles a prince’s lonely former life with MRI level self examination, if not always taught to your self awareness. Harry recounts an anti poaching trip to Nvidia in which he insisted on sleeping outdoors, despite his team telling him we just saw proof that there are lions after your boss. Harry claims everyone with him, including a Bonjour local police arranger and Namibian soldiers who were all there to protect him, went to bed in their tents or trucks, rather than staying up to ensure he wasn’t eaten by lions in the night. The book also discusses in great detail Harry’s issues with his family, opening on his reunion with now King Charles and Prince William, who, in addition to beloved brother, Harry describes as his arch nemesis possessing a familiar scowl and alarming baldness.

 It doesn’t get more flattering for Willie in the ensuing pages, at an event in 2023 someone privately asked Harry if he’d heard from his family. He said he hadn’t. This person asked Harry if he thought he was going to and he said he hoped so. That’s sort of what made me so sad. The source says his hopes seem very genuine, and I was just kind of like, Oh no, the source believed Harry hadn’t absorbed the gravity of what it would mean to sell millions of copies a tell all book about a famously insular and circumspect family in the middle of a years long public relations crisis, the power of the written word and the power of the narrative, this person went on, I don’t know if that’s something he understood while he was doing it, in addition to Painting Dorian Gray style, personal portraits of family members in spare. Harry accuses the offices his brother, father and Camilla of briefing the press against Harry to distract from or trade away negative stories about themselves. Harry sued the publisher of The Daily Mail for libel, for publishing an article in 2022 that said Harry tried to conceal his efforts taxpayer funded security. But the prince ultimately dropped the case and a judge ordered Harry to pay the male’s publisher nearly 50,000 pounds in legal fees. Harry is currently involved in two other lawsuits that further alienate him from his home country and its tabloid media.

He is moving forward with an invasion of privacy case against sun publisher News Group newspapers, which follows a settlement from newer group newspapers for a phone hacking charge. But more isolating is the suit regarding state police protection for him and his family when they were in Britain, which Harry Meghan and their older child, Archie, were stripped of when they left the UK in 2020. There are clear dangers to Family Safety. A person who worked closely with them says strangers take lifts to their house, and in 2023 the couple was involved in what a spokesperson called a near catastrophic car chase with paparazzi. There were no injuries, collisions or charges filed.

The person who interacted with Harry in 2023 also described a very scary paparazzi situation after employees at the hotel where Harry was saying allegedly tipped off photographers to His Presence. Nevertheless, the High Court in London twice struck down the UK lawsuit Harry is appealing.

According to someone familiar with Harry and Meghan, the legal case was at least part of the reason Harry didn’t attend the June wedding of his longtime friend Hugh Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster. The source says if he come back for the event, it could have imperiled his claim that he needs government funded protection. Well, you were here in May and you were absolutely fine attending a wedding, the source says imagining the responses. So I’m sure a lot of the decisions about time in the UK are also being made based on how it looks for the case. Of course, there’s also Willie. The source says that after invitations went out, Harry and Groser had a conversation.

Vanity Fair has also reported that Harry may not have formally been invited. The source says they discussed Harry’s discomfort at the thought of being remired in the familial claustrophobia of Windsor turf, it suddenly becomes all about the brothers, and did they look at each other and how close were they stood? The source says, which is exactly what happened to Charles’s 2023 coronation and their uncle, Lord Robert fellow’s funeral in August. You can imagine the recruiter footage level scrutiny by the press. The source says they miss Harry, or at least the person they pretended he was in their papers. I think with a lot of the reporters, they like the version of Harry that they helped create.

They say, describing how they would reminisce out when Harry would come over and pal around with them, yes, but he also, when you left, would make fun of you all behind your backs and hated you guys, but who’s the real Harry now that he’s been released from the zoo in which he was raised.  By one telling the person who interacted professionally with Megan says he’s socially removed beyond his nuclear family. She was upfront about the fact that Harry hadn’t made many friends yet.

The source says of Megan’s assessment of her husband, the person who worked in media across novel also has a guess. I think Harry doesn’t know what he wants, because he grew up in a fishbowl, and so he doesn’t know what real life really is. They say, I think he probably wants to be left alone and be able to go to his babies every once in a while, but not have to worry about money. I don’t think he wants to be famous the way Megan wants to be famous.

 Harry and Megan are in the estimation of everyone. Vanity Fair spoke with deeply in love. They are so hot for each other. The person who worked closely with them said, like, you know how you made those couples where you’re like, the way they’re looking at each other, I should probably not be here right now. When Harry is solo, the person inside the couple’s circle says he’s very personable. He’s very at ease with people quite like Diana. He just has this way of like, making people feel very comfortable when he’s in public with Meghan with there is a circus. The source says he’s so protective of her because people are so nasty to her, it’s a whole different experience.

Harry has explicitly drawn parallels between his wife and his late mother. My deepest fear is history repeating itself. Harry wrote in a 2019 statement about Megan’s treatment by the press, I’ve seen what happens when someone I love is commoditized to the point that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person. I lost my mother, and now I watch my wife falling victim the same powerful forces. While Harry is vigilant about Megan’s safety. The person who worked closely with them says Megan’s role in their dynamic is caregiver and facilitator. She is the one who makes things happen. Pre-Meghan says the person familiar with the couple Harry would just pop into the palace press office, ask a few questions and leave like he was a little bored, but also very keen. It’s almost impossible to imagine today’s Harry willingly engaging with the media in search of purpose. The source who worked with Harry and Meghan says I can picture him meeting Meghan and being just a deep breath of like, I’ve been so exhausted and you make everything so easy. I don’t want to be like, Oh, it’s an Oedipus thing or whatever, but it kind of feels like she’s reparenting him in a way.

It’s easy to imagine emerging from the singular blend of circumstances, a need to believe in each other and the primacy of their relationship in the face of shared trauma and the real obstacles they encountered as they idealistically endeavored to break the wheel, while occasionally breaking the spirits of those tasked with executing their shared vision. You don’t tell them, No. The person who worked in the couple’s media project said, I left because I couldn’t live with myself anymore.

This intra couple permission to stray from other people’s realities may have led to some of the points of contention that people bring up when questioning Megan’s fidelity to emotional truth above literal truth. Her assertion said She neither Googled Prince Harry nor looked out the etiquette for meeting the Queen of England, and didn’t know she was supposed to courtesy until the ride over. Megan is the type of woman who would check a menu out online before going to a restaurant to pick what she was going to eat says Tom Fitzgerald, a fashion and cultural commentator who, with his husband Lorenzo Marquez, comprised the brand Tom Lorenzo, a resident of Montecito who ate lunch in the same restaurant as Megan, said the server told her Megan had called ahead to ask about the privacy of the seating arrangement.

So the idea that she didn’t know she was supposed to curtsy for the queen, I just didn’t find it particularly believable, because based on everything she never told us about herself, I cannot imagine that she went into meeting the royal family completely cold with no research whatsoever. Fitzgerald also points to Meghan’s repeated claims that she was forced to wear neutrals during her time in the palace in order to avoid upstaging or competing with Queen Elizabeth and other senior members of the family, noting that Megan’s wardrobe is now primarily composed of that palette.

A Royals reporter believes that Meghan assumed her husband’s vision rather than researching the job of being a royal. And the reporter has a more positive view of the folly. Oh, that’s such a good idea for a successful marriage. The reporter says it’s a terrible idea for a job. But if you’re joining this big network of people, you’ve got to see this through your husband’s eyes. Be Your husband’s advocate in it. And it’s no wonder this relationship works, even if the family business part of it fell apart. It’s a charming, if free and dynamic, a husband and wife who organize each other’s lives and well-being, who flirt and hold hands and want the world to be a better place, even to the exclusion of evidence that suggests their well-meaning way of disrupting institutions is not always the best approach.

That instinct to do things as Harry and Meghan believed they should be done rather than how they are typically accomplished, was exacerbated their time as senior working Royals. It led to conflict with Harry’s family and Palace staff. The reporter says, because Harry doesn’t understand himself. He doesn’t understand a monarchy. His family didn’t do a very good job of inculcating him into the family legend, partially because he didn’t care, partially because he was just kind of abandoned at the age of eight. However, the couple’s regal charisma, while effortlessly changing the world, has been showcased great effect on their most successful reimagining of monarchy times Marvel, Harry and Meghan’s common royal tours to Nigeria in May and Colombia in August.

Invictus Games, for sure, is a very clear product, a brand, an organization that Harry spent a decade building, which is why, in many ways, I think the Nigerian tour worked, says Elaine Louis, the celebrity commentator behind gossip, when they appear together in non Invictus circumstances, that’s when people are like, I’m really clear what they’re representing here that’s contrasted with an actual royal tour when individuals are acting on behalf of the sovereignty and its various causes. Or as Louis points to an independent actor like Angelina Jolie, who went to places like Afghanistan and Ukraine with the backing of the United Nations Refugee Agency.

In September, Harry appeared in a small group at the United Nations in New York to highlight issues in Lesotho, one of the countries where his charity focuses his efforts. Louis says she could leverage the history and the reputation of a very established philanthropic organization to say, Hey, I’m lending my celebrity to this cause, and in raising this awareness, we can actually attach the effect or the results to the UNHCR with the Gaussian parts of Megan and Harry’s tours, what Harry called the reasons to meet the people at the heart of our work. Louis says the question is, how are they helping anyone? And how is Archwell distinguishing itself from any other foundation, after raising more than $13 million in 2021 according to public disclosure forms, the charity grows $2 million in 2022 the nonprofit has not yet shared its 2023 or 2024 revenue.

Yes, it has them, as spokespeople, Louis says, but they haven’t had yet, because it’s still quite new, a track record of being able to make philanthropic achievements independent of the palace. How complete that independence is is another point that rankles people about Meghan and Harry. If you still use a title and ascend upon Commonwealth or developing countries and let little girls courtesy to you, as one did to Meghan in Colombia, it doesn’t seem like you’ve totally left the monarchy behind. It also doesn’t get you a lot of room to critique it.

The Netflix series, Harry and Meghan litigates in painstaking detail. Harry’s and Megan’s mental health declines as she was bullied, at the very least, in sight of and by many accounts, at the behest of an imperialist establishment. Yet this doesn’t seem to sour them to the idea of participating in a hereditary bloodline in the Harry says that during their last week as working senior roles, the couple ruining the circumstances of their exit, kept telling each other we would have carried on doing this for the rest of our lives. When Charles ascended the throne after Elizabeth’s death, the couple’s children became Prince Archie and Princess Lilibeth. Some people familiar with the production of archetypes and Harry’s book tour said they were instructed to address the couple as sir or ma’am, though the request was dropped in one instance after the person pushed back. Other people say they were encouraged by Harry and Megan to call them by their first names. I think ultimately, it’s cache and sets them apart as different and special. The source familiar with the couple’s sense in the US, success, money, fame, all of that stuff exists out here but a blood title, it’s few and far between.

Many members of Meghan’s current inner circle, which includes Caitlyn Figueroa’s wife, socialite Delfina Blackie Tracy Robbins, the fashion designer and wife of Paramount global CO CEO Brian Robbins and parenting influencer and activist McKee Zeifen, are basically living by the rules of American aristocracy according to Louis, they say behind the scenes wield their power quietly and look down on people who are very public too thirsty. On the other hand, all of the aforementioned are slated to appear on with love Meghan, a black studies scholar who is also an African American woman, noted the way racism is discussed in Harry and Meghan as the one off actions of Princess Michael of Kent wearing a  brooch to a brunch where Meghan was present, or the distant colonialism that still furnishes the duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster and the jewels and the families tiaras, or Harry saying that the royal family merely had unconscious bias. It’s a very common discursive move.

The scholar says locating racism in individual bad actors, or locating it in the past, Queen Elizabeth becomes a kindly grandmother. She’s in the back of a car or her carriage under a blanket. There’s that story which is really kind of sweet that Megan tells in the documentary, but can’t connect that with the larger ideology of England, and thereby Queen Elizabeth being like we are the natural rulers of the world, and that includes the segregation of people of color. The cultural critic says this framing makes it so Meghan and Harry can tell the story of being victims of the system, but it’s all about them being disenfranchised from whiteness and white privilege.

The couple repeatedly expressed frustration in Harry and Meghan that Meghan wasn’t tapped as an asset for upholding the Crown’s international interests in an era when Prince William was tasked with expressing profound sorrow for the appalling atrocity of slavery during tour to Jamaica, as historian David Alusoga says in the donkey series, part of what makes the inability of the palace to defend Megan an even bigger disaster is at the center of the argument for the monarchy in this country is the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth is 2.5 billion, mainly black and brown people. Here was a woman who looked like most of the people in the Commonwealth.

Harry speaks shortly after and says, the palace and its denizens have already missed an enormous opportunity with my wife, and how far that would go globally. The source familiar with the couple says it’s important to note that Harry isn’t an anti monarchist. He just didn’t like the way things were run within the institution. He says his issues are about people and behaviors, not tradition. The source, who is also a person of color, defends Megan’s right to want a piece of the empire for herself. If I was in the same position and I was treated the way I was by the institution, it wouldn’t stop me from still feeling that that title is mine and deserved, they say, if anything, it would feel like you’re giving in the pressure to exclude you in the first place. So actually, it would probably make me want it even more damn well. I’m going to slap it on my kids’ names too.

Natalie Portman, Jeff Bridges, John parody, Kirk and Michael Douglas. Jonathan Winters, Gwyneth, Paltrow, Adam Levine, Jimmy Connors, TC Boyle, Leonardo, DiCaprio, Neil Young and Daryl Hannah, Michael Keaton, and, of course, Oprah are among the many celebrities who have peacefully coexisted with other locals in Montecito an unincorporated art of Santa Barbara County, when a Montecito’s Labrador ran up to a child and licked their ice cream, the kid’s father Kardashian affiliate Scott Disick, ran up to the pepper with concern, not because he was upset that the colon was ruined, but to reassure the person that the ice cream was vegan and wouldn’t upset the dog’s stomach.

Katy Perry has, per usual, had some legal real estate issues, and Ellen DeGeneres has become unpopular for her Immaculate, usually off market flips that have supposedly driven house prices up. I think everyone, including the a list celeb, would prefer that it’s not on the map like it is the it’s a place where no one would ever bother a famous person beyond saying hello at the coffee shop as they would to anyone else.

One resident says Montecito’s defining characteristics are quiet and neighborliness.

The Prince and the starlet, as the monteciten calls her, have become local villains, according to several people who spoke with BF, they attribute the increase in housing prices to them, as much as to DeGeneris, and point him out of counters coming in, driving too fast and taking up all the street parking by local trails, like the one Meghan was photographed hiking on while Harry was in the UK for Charles’s coronation.

You can’t just walk into Lucky’s for dinner anymore. While the Monteciten says neither he nor his friends have ever met the couple. Two others mentioned Harry biking in town. They popped up in the video for de generous and Portia vow renewal, and the Montes saw photos of Harry playing polo at a nearby field, which will also be featured in Harry’s Netflix donkey series. Meghan’s Netflix project was filmed at a house near theirs. American Riviera orchard, which on Instagram, has a logo style with a royal looking crest and written in Megan’s perfect calligraphy that is known internally as Auro, is located in Montecito though an 1898 book published by the Southern Pacific company Rail and states the Montecito is known as the American Riviera. Today, that honor is understood to belong to Santa Barbara.

No one Vanity Fair spoke with had ever heard Montecito referred to by the name. It’s such a kind of hucksterism. One resident says it’s just finding every way she can to monetize something, and in doing so, bringing more attention to the place where the Sussexes say they want to be left alone.

 I still think they’re the most entitled, disingenuous people on the planet, the Monteciten says. They moved away from England to get away from the scrutiny of the press, and all they do is try and get in the press in the United States. Louis says the most common criticism she hears about Meghan, though, she notes it’s true of Harry as well, is you can’t cherry pick the good parts and leave out the bad parts of fame.

However, she points out all celebrities do this, don’t take photos of me. Oh, but here, let me step out conveniently and get papped only give me good reviews of my movie or my album, and if you don’t like my music, I’m going to post on Instagram that you’re so shitty as a reviewer.

Whether American Riviera orchard will be well received or received at all, at least in name, remains to be seen. On August 31 the trademark office rejected the trademark application. Registration is refused because the applied for mark is primarily geographically descriptive the response rate. In other words, you can’t claim a place. Tell that to Queen Victoria. The same day, according to The New York Post, the Office reportedly received a complaint from story pair, purveyor Harry and David regarding the similarity in name to its Royal Riviera line, as far as the substance of the brand Louis says Megan’s first lifestyle effort, the TIG was popular in Louis circle in Toronto while Meghan was telling suits there. However, American Riviera Orchard to me is giving 2014 not 2024. Fame arrests you at the moment it arrives. I wonder if that is your lifestyle version of that for where she had to suspend the TIG, the moment she became gf, fiancé, and then his wife.

ARO is picking up where the TIC left off. The source familiar with the couple says that there is one thing that no one can take away from Meghan and how hard she works. Ultimately, that is all she needs. That is probably why ARO will be successful and even if in 2 years, it does not exist anymore. Meghan is hard working, so ARO will be successful, there is no way you can’t say it is not successful.

A few years ago, a rumor began circulating about Meghan, a person with knowledge confirmed that Meghan’s team gauged interest in a concept post divorce. Not a general book about life after marital dissolution or about Meghan’s past experience. She was married to a producer Travis.

This book or notion of the book might center on a post Harry debate. Not that there was on in the works, just if this a priori divorce ever came to be, would the publisher theoretically be interested in a book that took place in the aftermath. If that were true, another source says, she’d be approached, not vice versa. No offer was ever made and no manuscript was produced, after all, there was no divorce. The source familiar with the Couple or Meghan’s appetite to move on from projects, 40 by 40 mentorship, lifestyle line, wisp of a book that never happened are a part of why she is best for celeb outside the palace. The Royals don’t work like that.

How many years Kate spoke of childhood development. Nothing has happened on that yet. Meghan has earned her own fame. Meghan wants to make the world a better place. Meghan has reached out to others when they least expected it. It’s not like Diana was best friends with all the people she visited. That is why Meghan has continued to grow. 30 years later, Meghan wants to change the world. No matter what Meghan and Harry they do, they can’t win. Meghan could not live up to unexpected ideal. Diana walked among landmines; Meghan couldn’t even say the word slut.