On January 8, 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced to the public their decision to “step back” as senior working members of the royal family. In a statement, they said they planned to work toward “financial independence.” Eventually, they left the U.K. for Montecito, made friends with Oprah, and quickly started racking up deals with various media and tech companies. So how’s all that going?
Well. Over the last four-plus years, Harry and Meghan have tried their hand at a number of different business ventures, from memoir-writing to podcasting to jam-making. Sometimes, they have been successful; sometimes, they have lost multimillion-dollar contracts with media companies like Spotify. Lost track of what on earth this power couple is up to these days? Let’s review their ever-evolving career paths.
The Archewell Foundation
Harry and Meghan’s first step toward independence from the royal family was to found their own charitable organization. The Archewell Foundation is hard to sum up in one sentence, but basically, it partners with other charitable organizations that focus on causes like mental-health awareness, responsible technology use, “digital civil rights,” support for mothers and families, and correcting misinformation in the media. If all of these things sound a bit disparate and hard to track, well — yeah. In May, while Harry and Meghan were on an official Archewell trip to Nigeria to raise awareness for even more causes like women’s leadership and wounded veterans, the California attorney general issued a notice of delinquency against the charity for failure to pay an annual filing fee. Sources told the media the check was “lost in the mail,” and the situation was quickly rectified. Whew.
A deal with Netflix
In September 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan signed their first major for-profit deal: a five-year contract with Netflix for a reported $100 million. They have since produced exactly two projects for the streamer: Harry & Meghan, a riveting yet frustratingly opaque docuseries about their escape from the royal family, which did very well, and Heart of Invictus, a docuseries about Harry’s wounded-vets charity, which did not.
In February of this year, TheWrap reported that the couple has not managed to produce anything else because “the Sussexes have worn out their welcome in Hollywood with an iron-fisted desire for control, combined with a lack of experience.” However, in April, Netflix announced two new Sussex projects in the “early stages of production”: a series that “celebrates the joys of cooking, gardening, entertaining, and friendship” produced by Meghan, and a series about the high-stakes world of professional polo, produced by Harry and Meghan. Release dates have yet to be announced, but according to the Daily Beast, Meghan’s joy of cooking/gardening/entertaining/friendship show is “in the can” and “all went well.”
A deal with Spotify
Shortly after landing their Netflix deal, Harry and Meghan also signed a reported $20 million contract with Spotify to produce podcasts. They got exactly one off the ground: Archetypes, Meghan’s 12-episode series about female archetypes that featured guests like Serena Williams and Paris Hilton.
Last summer, Spotify and the Sussexes made a joint announcement that their partnership was no more. According to The Wall Street Journal, Harry and Meghan probably did not receive their full $20 million payout because they failed to meet certain “productivity benchmarks.” Fellow Spotify podcast host Bill Simmons memorably called them “fucking grifters” on his show after the deal fell apart. Then Bloomberg reported on some of Harry’s failed podcast ideas, chief among them a series about “childhood trauma” wherein he would interview guests such as Mark Zuckerberg, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump about what went wrong in their early years to make them the way they are today. Crazy that one didn’t come together.
A deal with Lemonada Media
Undeterred by the Spotify failure, Meghan announced a new podcasting deal in February of this year with Lemonada Media. In a statement, she said, “I’m proud to now be able to share that I am joining the brilliant team at Lemonada to continue my love of podcasting.” She revealed that Lemonada would host the archives of Archetypes, as well as help her produce a brand-new podcast. By May, however, sources told the Daily Mail that the new podcast will be delayed until 2025 and is “struggling to get off the starting blocks.”
An investment in Clevr Blends lattes
In December 2020, Meghan announced she had invested in a little-known powdered-latte company called Clevr Blends. “This investment is in support of a passionate female entrepreneur who prioritizes building community alongside her business,” Meghan said in a statement, referencing founder Hannah Mendoza. “I’m proud to invest in Hannah’s commitment to sourcing ethical ingredients and creating a product that I personally love and has a holistic approach to wellness. I believe in her and I believe in her company.”
Amazingly, Meghan has remained involved in the company since, even appearing in an Instagram Reel for the brand in December 2023.
Tech and finance roles
Like good Montecito residents, Harry and Meghan have dabbled in the worlds of tech and finance. In April 2021, Harry announced that he was taking the role of “chief impact officer” at BetterUp, a virtual career and mental-health coaching service that now, of course, harnesses the power of AI somehow. A disgruntled former employee told the Daily Beast that Harry’s particular responsibilities at the company include “zero things.” But that’s not exactly true: He shows up to public events for the brand, like an “Uplift Summit” in San Francisco with Mindy Kaling this spring.
In October 2021, the couple jointly invested in Ethic, a fintech asset manager that promises “sustainable investing.” In an interview with the New York Times announcing their involvement in the company, Meghan said, “My husband has been saying for years, ‘Gosh, don’t you wish there was a place where if your values were aligned like this, you could put your money to that same sort of thing?’”
The couple has not mentioned the company publicly since.
Spare
One certified hit since the couple left the U.K. has been Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare. Released in January 2023, the 416-page tome broke all kinds of sales records, including the Guiness World Record for fastest-selling memoir of all time. The book sold 1.43 million copies on launch day, beating the previous record-holder, President Obama, whose memoir A Promised Land sold a messy 887,000 copies when it was released in 2020. Maybe Harry could get together with his ghostwriter J.R. Moehringer and write a sequel?
American Riviera Orchard
This venture remains mostly just an idea, but a promising one: a lifestyle brand helmed by Meghan. In March of this year, Meghan announced AMERICAN RIVIERA ORCHARD BY MEGHAN, DUCHESS OF SUSSEX (MONTECITO), and I have been waiting to buy a product — any product — from her ever since. Her initial trademark application included goods such as “jellies, jams; marmalades; fruit preserves; edible oils and fats, and preserves; Vegetable-based spreads; Legume-based spreads; Nut-based spreads; Garlic-based spreads; Sesame-based spreads; Dairy-based spreads; Nut butters; Fruit butters.”
In April, Meghan sent a test round of jams to luminaries such as Chrissy Teigen and Kris Jenner. In June, she sent a single jar of dog biscuits to Harry’s polo buddy Nacho Figueras. And then — nothing. I just know this could be a billion-dollar business as soon as it gets going.
