meghan and harry year in review 2023
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Meghan and Harry’s 2023 Was A Year of Intense Highs and Lows

They smashed records but were also called "grifters"

In January, it will be four years since Meghan and Harry announced they were quitting their jobs as working royals. Since then, it’s been a whirlwind of bombshells, estrangements, lawsuits, deaths and births (hi Lilibet!) that seems to accelerate rather than calming down into some sort of sundazed Californian chill.

In 2023, the Duke and Duchess of Sussexes’ highs—a bestselling book! a legal triumph!—were tempered by notable lows, like losing multi-million-dollar gigs and getting called “grifters” on their way out. These were underscored by a tabloid press that delights in any misstep and a social media landscape that manages to get ever more polarized, and as a result, public opinion often swung against them. (If you had a dollar for every time someone typed, “But they said they wanted privacy!” you’d be putting in an offer on Buckingham Palace right now.)

Ensure your seatbelts are fastened, keep your arms and legs inside the gilded carriage, and let’s ride the rollercoaster that was Meghan and Harry’s notably intense 2023.

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Spare by Prince Harry, $47, amazon.ca. Photo: Random House Canada
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1. Prince Harry released his bridge-burning, record-busting memoir

We’ll say this for the Duke of Sussex: He made sure his publishers got their money’s worth out of his rumoured $20 million USD advance. From details you may have been curious about (how he coped after his mother’s death, what it’s really like being the “spare” to the throne, his side of his relationship with “Willy”) to information you never asked for (the Frostbitten Todger), Harry offered up an astoundingly candid, no-holds-barred account of his life so far, massaged by a ghostwriter who couldn’t resist a Shakespearean allusion. It was shocking stuff that showed the prince was not afraid to cement his estrangement from his family, and the public couldn’t get enough. Topping bestseller lists around the world, Spare was crowned the fastest-selling non-fiction book of all time. 

 

 
 
 
 
 
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2. Harry and Meghan were roasted by South Park 

In an episode title “The World Wide Privacy Tour,” Meghan and Harry were pilloried by the famously sharp comedy show. She was recast as “the Princess of Canada, sorority girl, actress, influencer, victim,” he as the author of a memoir called “Waaagh!” Together, they were depicted marching around publicly holding signs that said “Stop looking at us!” while chanting “We want privacy.” The episode said what many were thinking, reflecting a growing critique of the Sussexes best summarized as: They said they left the Firm because they couldn’t take the press attention, so why are they courting it now with all these interviews, documentaries and memoirs? For their part, the Sussexes’ spokesperson dismissed claims they’d been furious about it, saying, “It’s all frankly nonsense.”

3. Meghan signed with Hollywood uber-agency WME

After a quiet start to the year, Meghan began making moves in April, starting with news that she’d signed with the same agency that reps superstars like Angelina Jolie and Oprah Winfrey. This wasn’t a return to acting, however: WME made it clear it would focus on Meghan’s “business ventures…including film and television production, brand partnerships and more.” Cue the rumours that Meghan was entering her influencer 2.0 era, fuelled later in the year when a new Instagram account with the handle @meghan popped up. Months later, we’re still waiting for a post, so file that one under “Maybe,” along with those whispers about the resurrection of her blog, The Tig.

Prince Harry coronation feature

4. Harry went to the Coronation, alone

After months of fevered speculation, the Sussexes’ RSVPs for King Charles’ big day were in: Meghan chose to stay in California with the kids, while Harry did his duty with a cursory appearance that lasted just 24 hours. He stuck to a background role and departed as soon as physically possible, literally leaving for the airport from Westminster Abbey. New reign, same painfully complicated father-son relationship, clearly.

5. A paparazzi car chase became a PR disaster

Leaving an awards gala in NYC, Meghan and Harry were involved in what their rep called a “near catastrophic car chase” with paparazzi who they felt were in “relentless pursuit.” The two-hour timeline was chaotic: at one point, they drove to a police station, took shelter in a garage, then got in a yellow cab to throw photographers off their scent, but then got stuck behind a garbage truck. But the real mess came after the couple released their hyperbolic statement condemning the night’s events. Cue the queries of how it’s possible to have a car chase in Manhattan’s bumper-to-bumper traffic and even accusations that they staged this as a publicity stunt for sympathy points, milking the echoes of Princess Diana’s death while pursued by paparazzi. Their rep told the New York Times these accusations were “abhorrent,” adding: “Respectfully, considering the duke’s family history, one would have to think nothing of the couple or anybody associated with them to believe this was any sort of P.R. stunt.”

6. They lost their Spotify deal

In June, Spotify and the Sussexes’ audio production company announced a “mutual decision” to part ways, marking the premature end of a multi-million dollar deal that produced precisely one podcast, Meghan’s 12-episode Archetypes, and a holiday special. While this isn’t uncommon in the world of celebrity podcasting (the Obamas exited their Spotify partnership, too), and the decision was set against a backdrop of layoffs and cancellations across the business, Meghan and Harry’s detractors seized on it as evidence of their entitled incompetence. The most prominent was a Spotify executive named Bill Simmons. who called the pair “grifters” and threatened to tell the (likely unflattering) story of “the Zoom I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea.”

7. But not their Netflix one

Despite rumours that their big Netflix deal would be axed next, later in the year the couple not only released a documentary about the Invictus Games, but also announced they’d acquired the rights to adapt a romance novel by Canadian author Carley Fortune.

Harry and Meghan Invictus GamesAt the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf. Photo: Getty Images

8. They charmed the crowds at the Invictus Games

Looking for all the world like two working royals, Harry and Meghan bathed in the glow of rare good press when they played hosts at the Invictus Games, held in Germany in September. They strolled hand-in-hand through the stadiums, hugged athletes and punters, took smiling selfies and posed with adorable puppies. We even saw the triumphant return of the “Meghan Effect,” wherein many of the outfits the duchess wore for the events sold out, just like in the olden days of 2017.

prince harry court lawsuit
Prince Harry arriving at court in London in June. Photo: Getty Images

9. Harry went to court, and was ordered to pay damages to the Daily Mail

The prince has launched several legal actions against British media outlets, and one isn’t exactly going his way: A defamation suit against the Daily Mail, in which he claimed that the tabloid had libelled him by saying he’d hid his attempts to retain tax-payer funded security after he quit as a working royal. The judge disagreed with Harry’s attempt to “strike out” the paper’s “honest opinion” defence, saying the article had potential to be defensible as “an honest opinion.” Harry was ordered to pay around $85,000 for his opponent’s legal fees.

That said, this isn’t the end of that libel case; it will go ahead in May 2024, so stay tuned.

10. …but then won three times that from the Mirror group

In June, Harry became the first royal in 130 years and four generations to take to the witness stand, for his case against the Mirror newspaper group. He flew to London for several days of cross-examination in his bid to prove that the papers used unlawful techniques, including phone hacking, to write stories about him and several other celebrities in the 1990s and early 2000s. In December, a judge ruled that the Mirror had been guilty of “extensive” phone hacking during the period detailed in the suit (and even during a government inquiry into that very practice). The court ruled that 15 out of 33 articles Harry had submitted as proof of “unlawful information gathering” had been written using practices like phone hacking. As compensation for the resulting “distress,” Harry was awarded over $235,000 in damages. Harry wasn’t in court for this news, but his lawyer read a statement on his behalf, calling it “a great day for truth.”

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