Following her departure from the royal family, Meghan Markle made a speedy comeback to the entertainment industry.
"She [Meghan] would not have been happy with the ultimately quiet or truly independent/non-royal lives that William and Harry's cousins actually live. She would have been happy with the lives that they actually experience. Looking back to Megxit, Harry was not just the grandson of the Queen, the same relationship all his cousins had to the sovereign, he was the son of the future King,” Jane Barr said in her From Berkshire to Buckingham newsletter.
During the interview that the Sussexes gave to Oprah Winfrey in 2021, the couple made a passing reference to the fact that they desired to lead royal lives that were equal to those of Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice. However, due to Harry's position in the line of succession, this was not possible.
"William and Harry were — from birth — preeminent royals, while their cousins, although celebrated, surely, began as secondary royals and only continued to fade as the years went by. Harry seems so bitter about being the spare, but he has always been quite senior to his cousins, and treated accordingly,” Jane said in an interview.
Over the course of the year 2020, Meghan and Prince Harry were successful in securing a number of lucrative contracts in the entertainment business with companies such as Netflix, Spotify, and Penguin Random House.
"Meghan wanted to take her HRH and her title and be a superstar in her own sphere on the international stage," Jane explained, pointing out that this would be "wholly separate from the control of The Crown."
It was previously stated that royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams asserted that the recent unofficial tour of Nigeria that Meghan and Prince Harry took helped market the Sussex brand for the public.
"I think they will be very satisfied with it because it was a private visit that had all the trappings of a royal visit. It was a private visit that had all the trappings of a royal visit. So in reality, people conflated the two, and it had enormous press coverage,” Richard said to GB News in reference to their visits to Nigeria.
"They had huge international coverage so what this gives them is an opportunity to build the value of their brand internationally by doing this again. Now that they have beefed up their communication team, I would expect them to do this again,” Richard explained further.
When asked about his ambitions, Prince Harry hinted that he intends to pursue additional foreign chances since doing so will assist the Sussexes in advocating for topics that are important to them.
"This puts them much more into the A-lister bracket. What they had done before was not that much or that impressive,” he explained to reporters.
Royals from the United States were able to raise awareness about the Archewell Foundation and the Invictus Games while they were spending time in Nigeria.
Prince Harry was quoted as saying to a publication, "It is of the utmost importance for us to meet directly with people, supporting our causes and listening, in order to bring about solutions, support, and positive change. There’s only so much one can do from home and over Zoom, so we look forward to traveling more because the work matters."
"Whether it’s the Archewell Foundation, Invictus, or any of our other causes, there will always be reasons to meet the people at the heart of our work," the Duke of Sussex said in conclusion.
It was during their travels through West Africa that the parents expressed their excitement about their new lives in California, in addition to their professional aspirations.
"We’re just doing great. And happy to be watching our family grow up and evolve. Of course, I'm happy. We're really happy," Meghan told the outlet.
"You know what Africa means to me over the years. It is a very, very special place, and to be able to include Nigeria now [in the Invictus Games], I’m very happy. That experience of knowing what life, post-injury, is like gives people so much hope. And hope, hope, hope is a huge part of this,” Prince Harry added.
Business Times has reached out to Meghan Markle for comments.
