The Duke and Duchess of Sussex left the United Kingdom four years ago
September 2019, a date that forever changed the course of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. They were the couple of the moment, they had been married for almost a year in a wedding that the United Kingdom fell in love with and they had just become parents of little Archie. Each step they took completed that fairy tale in which nothing turned out to be as it seemed.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were not happy, nor did they feel comfortable with the life they led. During a trip to South Africa they found the perfect moment to communicate it to the world, thus sowing the first seed of a radical change that four years later has been consolidated thanks to their last two professional moves.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are preparing two projects with Netflix that close the circle since it all started with a documentary, Harry and Meghan: an African Adventure. ITV cameras accompanied the couple on their first trip to South Africa, the Prince's refuge when his mother died. Returning to this country clicked inside him and led him to speak openly about the fear that the story of Diana of Wales would be repeated now with his wife, who was at the center of the media spotlight: "Being part of this family, in this role, in this job...Every time I see a flash it makes me remember the worst moment of my life."
The marriage confessions to journalist Tom Bradby, at the head of the aforementioned documentary, were the prelude to his departure from the British Royal Family. Upon returning from South Africa they announced that they were taking a six-week sabbatical. In that month and a half, the bombshell news was created that hit the foundations of the Crown: they were no longer senior members of the British Royal Family and said goodbye to official commitments on Commonwealth Day (March 9, 2020). Their decision caused a stir both in public opinion and within the Windsors, but Harry and Meghan remained firm: they wanted to protect their son (little Lilibet Diana had not yet been born at the time) and have their financial independence. Now yes, they have achieved it.
To reach the moment they are currently living in, they have been sowing for four years. How? They have designed their own agenda to attend public events that they have chosen and have entered the world of entertainment through different means. In 2021, Meghan Markle debuted as a children's writer with The Bench, inspired by her family; In 2022 she launched a podcast called Archetypes with Spotify in which she aimed to break down labels and stereotypes through conversations with inspiring women. For his part, Harry published In the Shadow in January 2020, a biography that has given a lot of talk; Months later he released a documentary about the Invictus Games on Netflix. Together they also starred in a documentary about their life on this last platform.
During the last months of 2023 and the first weeks of 2024 his life seemed to have been put on pause (media speaking). They barely appeared in public, the agreement with Spotify ceased and there were many unknowns about the projects they would continue with. But in the middle of one of the most complicated stages for the British Royal Family, they have returned. And it seems that they have done it to stay. Their new website arrived in February and two months later it was confirmed that their absence was due to the preparation of two productions with Netflix in which they are protagonists as well as executive producers.
One of them revolves around polo, Harry's favorite sport, and the other has as its main attraction Meghan Markle, who will talk about the pleasures of cooking, gardening, well-being and friendship. In this way, she follows the path of American Riviera Orchard, a lifestyle website that she launched last month and in which she offers a varied catalog with lifestyle, home, gastro universe, cosmetics, pets and self-care products. She is not new in this area since those were the axes of The Tig, the blog that she closed when she became engaged to Prince Harry.
During these four years in which their long-awaited financial independence has been consolidated, the gap with the British Royal Family has also widened, with whom they have met on rare occasions. They are separated physically and emotionally. The freedom granted to them by not following the ironclad rules by which this institution is governed has made them speak out. They have recounted their personal experience within the Windsors and have given their own version of the most complicated part of belonging to one of the oldest Royal Houses in the world. Many of their statements have meant a tsunami whose consequences have continued (and continue) thousands of kilometers from the United Kingdom, in California, where they are increasingly closer to Hollywood and further from what their lives used to be.
