As the Sussexes stepped out into the torrential rain in Los Angeles and flashed smiles at the waiting paparazzi on their way into Hollywood’s most exclusive private members’ club, San Vicente Bungalows, all was not well behind the scenes.
For despite their forced grins, the couple are said to be stunned and furious at the news that they are being evicted from Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, which they were given as a wedding present by the late Queen, leaving them without a home in the UK. A close friend of the couple told the Sussexes’ favoured royal reporter, Omid Scobie, that it felt like a “cruel punishment” by King Charles — one that’s left them both reeling.
It’s even more galling when you find out that the keys to the five-bedroom property are instead set to be handed over to Prince Andrew. The disgraced Duke of York — who faces being booted out of Royal Lodge in Windsor following a shake-up of funding by Charles that includes plans to axe the £250,000-a-year royal handout he pocketed from his mother — was offered the smaller cottage last week.
But it’s said he’s currently “resisting” the offer, as he’d rather stay in his larger mansion, which has 98 acres of land and its own swimming pool. It’s said at least two members of the Royal Family are “appalled” by the Sussexes’ eviction. While they haven’t been named, it’s widely thought to be Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, who are both close to the duke and duchess.
A spokesperson for Harry and Meghan has verified the news, saying: “We can confirm the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been requested to vacate their residence at Frogmore Cottage.”
Sources say they were initially given mere weeks to leave the property, but the deadline has since been extended to early summer, after the King’s Coronation. Harry and Meghan have reportedly started planning how to ship over their belongings from the former family home they lived in until Megxit and stayed at following the Queen's death last September, which include an ornate ottoman bench and a chaise longue.
But surely, the Sussexes and their small team of advisors and strategists must have been expecting some sort of backlash following their startingly indiscrete torrent of revelations at the turn of the year? The eviction from Frogmore is thought to be King Charles’s revenge for the incendiary claims made in Prince Harry’s tell-all memoir, Spare, in particular his less-than-flattering comments about Camilla, the Queen Consort (Harry calls her “dangerous” and the “villain”). Indeed, it’s rumoured the eviction notice was first served to the couple mere hours after the book’s release in January.
The pair have been laying low ever since, only emerging for a brief appearance at Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi’s wedding vow renewal party in Montecito last month, where they rubbed shoulders with Jennifer Aniston, Katy Perry, and Gwyneth Paltrow, as well as the odd date night at a fancy members’ club and the occasional work commitment.
Meghan made a fleeting appearance in a promotional video for a coffee brand start-up that she invested in, Clevr Blends, while Harry popped up in a segment of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday (February 28), said to have been filmed a month ago in New York, where he answered 15 quick-fire questions and revealed he believes in reincarnation and wants to come back as an elephant.
The Prince is also set to take part in an hour-long interview this weekend with ‘toxic trauma’ expert Dr Gabor Maté, where he’ll discuss his book and the importance of personal healing, among other topics.
Aside from these brief outings, sources close to them say the pair have been taking this time to quietly regroup following the severe backlash after Spare, which has left them just as tainted in their newly adopted home across the pond as they are in the UK. The most recent poll from Redfield & Wilton indicates their popularity in the US has taken a drastic nosedive following the book’s publication, with Harry’s ranking sinking 48 points since December and Meghan’s 40 points, giving them net approval ratings of -10 for the duke and -17 for the duchess.
To put that in perspective, this means they’re now more disliked in America than Prince Andrew. It can’t be what they expected after devoting so much time and energy to telling ‘their story’. It’s alleged that Harry and Meghan have claimed the polls mean nothing, and that having a best-selling book refutes the notion that they’re so unpopular in the US.
Coupled with this is their merciless lampooning in a recent South Park episode, which turned the couple into a national laughing stock. Entitled ‘The Worldwide Privacy Tour’, the episode revolves around the Prince and Princess of Canada, a young royal couple who bear a striking similarity to Harry and Meghan and move to a small town in search of privacy while embarking on a publicity blitz to promote the Prince’s new book, Waaagh. In it, the wife character is described as a “sorority girl, actress, influencer and victim”. The duchess was said to be “upset and overwhelmed” by the episode and there were rumours that the couple might look to sue over the animated series. However, the Sussexes’ spokesperson has since released a statement saying the idea of the sketch having legal ramifications was “all frankly nonsense” and “totally baseless and boring”.
Then there’s the fact that Meghan’s own half-sister, Samantha Markle, is currently suing her for defamation over comments made during the Sussexes’ interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, as well as claims made in the biographical book Finding Freedom. Markle, who has the same father as the duchess, is seeking $75,000 (£62,500) in damages after alleging that Meghan “published and disseminated false and malicious lies designed to destroy her reputation”, such as telling Winfrey that she grew up as an only child and discussing her fairytale “rags-to royalty” upbringing at her family's expense. Both Meghan and Harry have been called upon to give evidence in the case, despite the duchess’s California-based legal team branding the various requests “irrelevant”, “vague”, and “speculative”.
“I think Meghan is embarrassed by her family and any litigation that might keep them in the headlines is a nightmare for her,” says LA-based royal expert and host of the To Di For daily podcast Kinsey Schofield. “She spoke on Instagram and The Tig about loving her father and lunches at fancy Beverly Hills delis after dance classes, but then wants to tell Congress that she grew up poor eating off of the $4.99 salad bar at Sizzler. Meghan has lived a life of privilege but changes her story to cater to a specific demographic.”
It’s hardly surprising the duo have opted to keep a low profile in their wealthy Southern Californian enclave, where the locals confirm they have removed themselves from the spotlight.
“I live about a minute's drive from their estate in Riven Rock and they were both seen quite a lot during the summer, when Harry played for the Las Padres polo team at the Santa Barbara Polo Club, but since then they have not been seen too much around the neighbourhood, other than Harry walking his Labrador on Miramar Beach or cycling around the area, with a security team in a Range Rover in tow,” says Richard Mineards, a British expat and columnist at the Montecito Journal. Mineards does note, however, that the South Park episode “has been much discussed” at the local coffee shop, Pierre Lafond.
Adding to suggestions that the couple is in freefall is the recent state of affairs at their media organisation and charitable foundation, Archewell. Last month, it was announced that the organisation was parting ways with two of its senior staff, with many viewing this as a sign that Harry and Meghan were dissatisfied with the reception of their recent projects.
Ben Browning, Archewell’s head of content who oversaw the Netflix series, will step down later this year. along with Fara Taylor, the organisation’s head of marketing. In an Archewell press release, the Sussexes thanked Browning and Taylor for their help with “vital ‘look back’ projects”, adding that they will now focus on projects that “look forward”. The organisation also recently revealed that it has donated $3 million (£2.5m) of $13 million (£11m) raised in its first year of operation, with the money given to causes including refugee resettlement and humanitarian-relief centres.
“Employment at Archewell is a revolving door,” says Schofield. “At the end of the day, the Sussexes are responsible for their low polling figures and audience response. They have been incredibly hands-on and insistent on trying to control the narrative through the content that they delivered. Unfortunately for them, it was not received well. That is a huge blow when you need these opportunities to attract the next.”
Of course, the question on everybody’s lips is whether they will attend the King’s Coronation in May. While it was said Charles had made it clear both Harry and Meghan were very welcome at the historic event, his decision to oust them so unceremoniously from their UK home in favour of his disgraced brother seems at odds with this. The official invitations aren’t being sent out to its 2,000 guests until next week, and friends of the Sussexes say that the couple is currently undecided about whether to attend. They face a complicated predicament: if they don’t go, they could be accused of snubbing the family, but if they do attend, they leave themselves open to being labelled hypocrites.
It’s said the King and the Prince of Wales are at odds over plans relating to the Sussexes, and there have been suggestions that the Archbishop of Canterbury could intercede to negotiate a deal between Harry and his family to attend the Coronation. The King is understood to be willing to discuss concessions that include giving the Sussexes a prominent seating position in the abbey and promising that Harry would not have his royal titles revoked.
Prince William, on the other hand, is understood to have his reservations about them attending at all, worrying that his brother may use the event to organise some sort of publicity stunt. There’s also the possibility that Harry will travel to London alone, while Meghan stays home with the kids – an idea further bolstered by the fact that the Coronation date happens to fall on the same day as their son Archie’s fourth birthday. Such a plan could see Harry whisked in and out of Britain in 48 hours, for what’s being dubbed the ‘Harry in a hurry’ trip.
So, what can we expect next from team Sussex? It’s been revealed that the couple is working with a Hollywood venture capitalist who is famed for making millions of dollars for celebrities. Adam Lilling, who founded Plus Capital in 2012, partners “the world’s top influencers with the best operators in the world”, and was introduced to the couple by their mutual friend, Ellen DeGeneres. Lilling is understood to have been working with the Sussexes for some time and is no doubt currently in overdrive trying to set up their next deals, particularly in light of their newly toxic status across the pond which, according to sources, has left some Hollywood big wigs reluctant to associate with them.
Most are agreed that, whatever comes next, it will be spearheaded by Meghan, who is now keen to brand herself independently from Harry. She has reportedly been seen around town meeting with influential people in politics and finance — without Harry in tow — and there are rumours that she may be rebooting the lifestyle blog she ran before she met the Prince, The Tig, after it was revealed she filed an application to trademark the name last year.
“I think relaunching The Tig would be a huge opportunity for Meghan,” says Schofield. “There are plenty of ways to reshape her image and make her more relatable and humbler through a project like [this], such as creating content around her babies.”
There’s also talk that Meghan is keen to write her own memoir, as part of the Sussexes’s $20 million (£16.7m), three-book deal with Penguin Random House, and it’s been reported that the couple may pivot to concentrating on making romantic comedies as their next broadcasting projects.
“Let's not forget that Meghan was a Hallmark actress before she married Harry, [thereby] fulfilling the ultimate Hallmark movie fantasy,” says Schofield. “Meghan will write a book, but hopefully she has learned through response to Spare that people are tired of the victimhood narrative. Maybe Meghan is taking this time for some soul searching because, public relations-wise, they need it.”
Whatever they do, it feels that the time has come for them to move away from relying on spilling royal secrets to earn a quick buck and instead find other ways to stand on their own two feet if they don’t want their reputations to take a further battering. It’s becoming increasingly clear that they’ve burned their bridges in the UK, perhaps irreparably. They would be wise not to make the same mistake across the pond.
