The Duke and Duchess of Sussex want to be left alone, away from the prying gaze of the media, to live out their lives, raising kids (and chickens?), in the relative anonymity of star-studded Montecito.
Hard to do without royal cash, though. Since being cast out by the palace, the Sussexes have, among other things: been the stars of a documentary about their royal lives (both), written a first-day-sales-busting memoir (Harry), produced just one series for a $20m Spotify podcast called Archetypes (Meghan) and, as part of their reported-but-denied $100m Netflix deal, produced two lifestyle programmes. Harry’s (about polo, in which he doesn’t appear) has sunk without trace, while Meghan’s, about “the joys of cooking, gardening, entertaining, and friendship”, has dropped to an avalanche of hate.
Whatever one’s view of the couple — whom a Spotify director called “fucking grifters” — the overwhelming feeling of With Love, Meghan is an intense-beige joylessness. It immediately proves what a Spotify employee reportedly said of the Sussexes to Vanity Fair: “The thing you’re escaping is the reason you’re compelling.” Making dog biscuits and “sun tea” and lavender towels are not it.
They are not the first royals to cash in on The Firm. Sarah, Duchess of York, was bust in a News of the World sting operation by Mazher “fake sheikh” Mahmood for offering access to Prince Andrew for 500 large, while the prince himself was recently in hot water for his “unusual degree of trust” in a Chinese businessman known as “H6” who has been barred from the UK for being a security risk.
This week we have King Charles’s Apple collab “The King’s Music Room”, his curated playlist of Afrobeats, reggae, Kylie Minogue and “1930s crooners” to celebrate Commonwealth Day. Music, the king says helpfully, “brings us joy”.
It might also bring in a few pennies. Probably not enough, though, to cover the ongoing, £369m refurb of Buckingham Palace.
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