The fact that in 2020 everything will not go as planned became clear already in early January. Then the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their decision to alternately live in Great Britain and North America and secure financial independence for themselves, while continuing to support Queen Elizabeth. She herself, as the Daily Mail wrote, did not know about the radical decision of her grandson until the post from the official instagram of the Dukes of Sussex was quoted by television channels.
“This is deeply unfair to the queen, who does not deserve this treatment. You can't do that to her. The family understands that they [Prince Harry and Meghan Markle] want to do something else and are fully committed to helping them. But now people are completely devastated, "commented an insider.
However, in public, Elizabeth II continued to keep her face. After several days of heated discussions at Sandringham Palace, she made an official statement that she fully supports the aspirations of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to start a new life, but wants to define a transitional period during which issues of their location, financial security and security will be resolved.
While the representatives of the royal family were organizing the "megsit" (as they called the departure of the dukes from Great Britain by analogy with "Brexit"), the reasons for this were discussed on the Internet. Some users suggested that Meghan Markle was tired of criticism of new relatives in relation to her origin, skin color and divorce status (she was previously married to film producer Trevor Engelson). Others said that Prince Harry, like his mother, Princess Diana, was tired of following endless rules. And still others called the duty of members of the royal family to constantly see British Prime Minister Boris Johnson "sufficient reason to jump on a ship and cross the ocean".
The first official photo of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle after Megzit © nstagram.com/msayles
The dots on the i's were drawn by the book Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, written by Royal Pool journalists Omid Scobie and Carolyn Duran at based on the comments of acquaintances, friends and former subordinates of the Dukes of Sussex. In a biography released in August, it was told that, despite the disdain for Meghan Markle from not only the senior members of the royal family (they called her "the girl with the baggage" and "Harry's statistician"), but also the servants, the initiative " megzita "came from Prince Harry.
One of the advisers, who participated in the discussion of the refusal of the Dukes of Sussex from privileges, explained that the discord between the relatives happened because of the "division of the budget." “In this family, the position depends on how you were born. Therefore, Harry has always been second after his brother, especially in matters related to funding. There were times when Harry wanted to take on larger projects and do more (before the Megzit, the prince performed representative functions at events - RBC Style), but he was not allocated money for this. William has always been a priority,”the authors of the book quoted an insider as saying.
At the same time, the spouses were obliged to adhere to the existing rules that prohibit the royal family from making a living on their own projects. As the media wrote, Meghan Markle was criticized due to the fact that a few days before giving up her royal privileges, she began to negotiate with Disney in order to voice cartoon characters and even made the first recording. The Duchess's relatives were not softened by the fact that she planned to send all the funds earned from the deal to charity.
Cinema
The departure from the UK, which took place at the end of March, after the farewell tour of the Dukes of Sussex as representatives of the royal family, simplified not only the issue of employment, but also communication with potential employers and partners. Disney's headquarters are located half an hour from the new permanent residence of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in the prestigious Los Angeles area of Bel Air, where George and Amal Clooney, David and Victoria Beckham and Oprah Winfrey also live. However, the documentary from The Elephant, which was eventually co-produced by the Duchess and premiered in April, was poorly received by both the public and critics. Meghan Markle's voice acting was called vulgar, annoying and overwhelmed with "unnatural cheerfulness and desire to please."Since then, nothing has been heard about the collaboration of the disgraced princess with Disney.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle after announcing their engagement in 2017 © DOMINIC LIPINSKI / PA / TASS
In September, the Dukes of Sussex partnered with Netflix. Under the contract, for several years they will produce documentaries and feature films and series, as well as programs for children. However, due to the scandal surrounding the TV series "Crown", highlighting some hard-hitting details of the life of the royal family (after the premiere of the fourth season, Charles, Prince of Wales, and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, even had to turn off comments on Twitter), the deal may end earlier. Neither Prince Harry nor Meghan Markle has yet commented on this. After all, the agreement allowed them to return the £ 2.4 million spent on the renovation of Frogmore House (the country residence of the members of the British royal family - "RBC Style") to British citizens, outraged by the departure of the dukes after they had lived on state taxes for years.
Podcasts
At the same time, the British condemned earning money through self-promotion in the status of relatives of Elizabeth II and the participation of the Dukes of Sussex in public projects as such. “I thought they were trying to hide from the public eye. All this is just ridiculous. This is definitely Megan's initiative, she wants to be in the spotlight,”one Twitter user commented on the news of the launch of the spouses' podcasts on the streaming service Spotify.
“Young artists streaming songs on Spotify will be lucky if they make enough money to pay for their meals,” said Tom Gray, member of the UK band Gomez. "It's probably something that Meghan and Harry didn't think about, but it really questions the ethics of streaming platforms if they continue to behave this way but still find tens of millions for certain deals."
Dukes of Sussex at the Skavennati artist exhibition in 2020 © DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS - WPA POOL / GETTY IMAGES
By the way, the details of the contract between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with Spotify were not disclosed, but it is known that immediately after the announcement of the cooperation, the company's shares jumped by 2%.
Charity
It seems that the only thing for which the Dukes of Sussex are not pecked today is charity. In April, they donated the proceeds of their wedding broadcast on the BBC to Feeding Britain, which provides food for children during the COVID-19 pandemic, and personally participated in the Project Angel Food campaign to deliver food to Los Angeles residents who are at risk for coronavirus. “They found out that our drivers were overloaded and volunteered to unload them. This is really amazing. We love them, they are very down-to-earth people,”commented Richard Ayoub, CEO of Project Angel Food.
Participation in charity events for organizing catering helped Prince Harry and Meghan Markle find the main focus for their own Archewell Foundation, which was founded in the spring, but to this day has not taken any active action. In December, the company partnered with chef José Andrés and his World Central Kitchen project, which helps provide food to disaster-affected communities. The project will establish assistance centers in the regions with the most acute problems, consisting of a kitchen, a school, a clinic, a food distribution site and a shelter in case of devastating natural events. The first site of the project will be the Dominican Republic, which was damaged by hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at their wedding in 2018 © WPA POOL / GETTY IMAGES
The Dukes of Sussex did not disclose how much the debut project will cost the Archewell Foundation. Nate Mook, CEO of World Central Kitchen, estimated that building each center would require an initial investment of at least $ 50,000. Obviously, if the couple don't stop there and launch other projects under the Archewell umbrella, then the proceeds from the Spotify contract and funding on the part of Prince Charles (at the beginning of the Megzit, he promised to keep his son's annual salary, which is £ 5 million) may not be enough. Therefore, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle also build their personal brand on political ambitions. In September, the media actively wrote that the Duchess was preparing to run for president of the United States in 2024.
Politics
By signing a contract with an agency for organizing lectures and public appearances, with which Barack and Michelle Obama collaborate, Meghan Markle has become an active citizen, as she did before joining the royal family. In June, she spoke to alumni from a Los Angeles school she graduated from, encouraging them to join the Black Lives Matter movement. In July, she became a speaker at the Girl Up Leadership Summit hosted by the UN and spoke about the need to empower youth. In August, she took part in the event of The 19th *, discussing the problems associated with the lack of a woman's voice and gaze in the media and politics. And in September, together with Prince Harry, she reminded of the importance of voting in the upcoming US presidential elections, for which, probably,received another slap in the face from the royal family, which does not influence political processes and does not express adherence to one or another ideology. “Keeping royal titles prohibits them from poking their noses into politics as they have now done,” British journalist and TV host Piers Morgan explained in a column for the Daily Mail.
It must be said that the audience of public appearances of the Duchess of Sussex celebrates her success as an orator. In the comments under the video from the Girl Up Leadership Summit, users wrote that she is able to convince, encourage and lead others, so she could very well become a political leader. Although some of them paid attention not to the charisma, but to the appearance of Prince Harry's wife, upset that, in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, events are mostly held online, which prevents them from seeing her outfits.
Dukes of Sussex at the 2019 WellChild Awards © INSTAGRAM. COM/SUSSEXROYAL/
Fashion
Such comments are not as meaningless as they might seem at first glance. Meghan Markle was named the most influential person in fashion a few months before the Megzit by Lyst, which analyzes user searches. Experts noted that almost every public appearance of the Duchess causes a surge of interest in the authors of her outfits several times, which, of course, affects sales.
“The consequences of one young woman’s choice of clothes can be phenomenal,” commented Eric Bartle, director of communications for Australian brand Outland Denim, whose jeans Meghan Markle wore on her royal tour of Australia in 2018, thereby increasing site traffic to 3000%. This allowed Outland Denim to employ 30 new seamstresses, and they, in turn, build roofs over their families, plant rice fields and ransom relatives from servitude.
The Meghan Markle Effect (as the media called her influence on the fashion industry) has become one of the forms of charity that brands lacked in 2020. Probably, with the end of the pandemic, the situation will not change: the duchess not only began to leave the house less often, but also began to dress more casually, as required by the American style. In the case of pregnancy, which is actively attributed by journalists after Meghan Markle's summer miscarriage and a recent photo near the medical center, she will start wearing more voluminous and not attracting attention at all. Collaborations with brands that also provide support and that the Duchess of Sussex practiced in 2019, releasing a collection of clothes with Marks & Spencer, John Lewis & Partners, Jigsaw and Misha Nonoo, too, should not be expected. It seemsshe does not plan to return either to the profession of a designer, or to the profession of an actress, or to court life.
Meghan Markle at the Oceania Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2018 © MAX MUMBY / INDIGO / GETTY IMAGES
However, the latter largely depends on the will of Elizabeth II. On March 31, exactly one year after Prince Harry moved to Los Angeles, his agreements with the Queen will be revised. Representatives of the monarch will study all the activities of the Dukes of Sussex during this time for compliance with the "values of Her Majesty" and decide whether they can continue to live away from London and at the same time be considered members of the royal family.
As it became known to the media, the couple have already turned to Buckingham Palace with a request to postpone the revision of the deal. Prince Harry probably wants to prove to Elizabeth that charitable projects will really pay off, and the podcasts launched on Spotify will help to ensure them without affecting anyone's personal interests. In this case, Meghan Markle is better off giving up political ambitions, taking into account her fashion influence, focusing on helping others and starting to like not only Americans, but also the British. After all, it is their resentment that Queen Elizabeth is so wary of.>