IN the months after ‘Megxit’, the future of Harry and Meghan looked bright with an £80million Netflix tie-up, a £15million book deal and the launch of their charitable foundation, Archewell.
But after their latest controversial rebrand, the couple - who left the UK for California in 2020 - appear to be presiding over a confused and collapsing empire.
Their much-heralded streaming deal now hangs in the balance, a series of PR disasters have hit their reputation overseas, and a mass exodus of staff has led to a "revolving door" of executives attempting to salvage a PR strategy dubbed "catastrophic" by industry insiders.
In a shock move this week, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex appeared to sideline the Archewell brand - named after their four-year-old son, Archie - and relaunched their website under the name Sussex.com.
The new domain comes with slick bios entitled Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, which crow about their philanthropic achievements and awards, including being named in the list of TIME Magazine’s Most Influential People.
It also resurrects their rarely-seen royal coat of arms, which was first revealed after their 2018 wedding and has been little used since.
The rebranding is likely to be greeted with fury by Harry’s family, who were not consulted, and has been slammed by royal watchers as “cashing in” on their titles, four years after they stepped back from royal duties.
PR insiders have now also waded in on the Sussexes' "contradictory" image overhaul, telling The Sun it flies in the face of their blistering attacks against the Firm in a bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, scathing books including Harry's memoir, Spare, and their Netflix documentary series.
PR expert Mark Borkowski tells us: “Everything that they have done has always been a bit of a knee jerk.
“It is not being considered. If you look at the whole thing, from Oprah, right the way through to Harry’s appearance with James Corden, the book, the story-spinning, it's just been a catastrophic disaster.
“If you wanted to understand how to build a foundation or a brand, there's a good way of doing it, or you can do it the Harry and Meghan way, which is not the most sensible way of moving forward or establishing yourself as thought leaders that might effectively change the world.”
Brand and culture expert Nick Ede believes the couple are looking to create “an umbrella brand” to tie together their TV and media work with their charity arm and to establish future deals, but using the Sussex name sends mixed messages.
“They are entitled to use the name as it belongs to them and linking back to Sussex Royal shows the work they have done in the past,” he says.
“But it does blur the lines between their past and present and doesn’t draw a line in the sand, but still uses their royal experiences as part of their present.
“It feels that it contradicts all of the things they have outlined in the past few years with the documentary and Spare and the Oprah interview.”
Before the surprise rebrand, Archewell’s finances were not looking healthy.
The foundation was operating at a £536,357 loss but was kept in the black by generous donations, including a donation of £7.8million — 77 per cent of Archewell’s total 2021 income — from one unidentified benefactor, and £1.6million from another.
It revealed a hole in the accounts in December last year after it received almost £9million less in donations than the previous year.
Since walking down the aisle in 2018, the Sussexes' problems have been compounded by the loss of at least 17 valued members of staff, with one insider calling the offices a “revolving door” for high-profile employees.
In the latest blow to the brand, Archewell executive Bennett Levine, who was promoted to run the TV production arm of the business in 2022, quit to join US rival Cinetic media.
He worked on the couple's hit Netflix docu-series Harry & Meghan and the less successful follow-up Live to Lead along with Oscar-winning producer Ben Browning, who quit in January last year.
The same month Fara Taylor, who led the marketing team during the release of the couple's Netflix docu-series and Harry's memoir, Spare, left her role.
They are the arbiters of their own style and I think that's where things go wrong, because they're not allowing people who can help them to have the influence they deserve
PR guru Mark Borkowski
Just weeks earlier came the departure of ‘head of audio' Rebecca Sananes, who ranted on TikTok that she was the brains behind the duchess' award-winning podcast Archetypes, which came to an abrupt end when their £18million deal with Spotify was axed.
She told viewers that, as the producer, she would “edit, research, write, make scripts, make the sound good, score” and create “everything you love about your favourite podcast”.
Archewell President Mandana Dayani also stepped down the same month, in December 2022, and a spokeswoman for Meghan and Harry said the pair would “take full lead of their company”.
Among others to jump ship since the couple’s move to the US are Archewell Foundation executive director Catherine St-Laurent, who left after less than a year; PR executive Toya Holness, senior TV executive Nishika Kumble, and Natalie Campbell, a diversity campaigner hired by the Sussex Royal charity foundation.
“I think like many start-up businesses they didn’t quite know what they do and what they can do and what they will do. But now they are using Sussex.com to define and outline who they are and what they will do moving forward,” says PR guru Nick.
“This is why their staff turnover was quite high as they had to find their feet and also find the right people to drive the business and their brand forward.”
But fellow PR boss Mark says Harry and Meghan's headstrong determination to shape the business their own way could lead to clashes.
“We can only speculate, but they have always felt that they're in charge of what they do,” he says.
“They are the arbiters of their own style and I think that's where things go wrong, because they're not allowing people who can help them to have the influence they deserve.
“They feel they are right and on the right course of action.”
He adds: “They've been floundering for some time and there's been a number of challenges they have faced.
They've been floundering for some time and there's been a number of challenges they have faced
PR guru Mark Borkowski
“Primarily the fact their Netflix deal is in question and their Spotify contract wasn’t renewed and there was an issue regarding the quality of what they produce.
“There was an indication they were moving back to Hollywood, which was really telegraphing that they're available for business.
“So now they are desperately trying to own the domain Sussex.com, but there doesn't seem to be a strategy here. It just feels a little bit desperate.”
After Spotify executive Bob Simmons slammed the couple for not producing enough content, rumblings of a similarly tense relationship with Netflix have grown.
The rumours were fuelled further by a trip to Jamaica last week for the film premiere of Bob Marley: One Love, as guests of Brian Robbins, head of rival Paramount Pictures.
Following the initial success of their explosive Oprah interview, as fans clamoured to hear their side of the story, interest began to wane and the backlash from Harry’s attacks on his family in Spare turned many off - on both sides of the Atlantic.
While their first Netflix documentary was a hit, critics branded it a “shallow attempt to burnish their public image” and take aim at the Royal Family.
They found themselves being made the butt of the joke on scathing episodes of South Park and Family Guy - which they failed to see the funny side of - and were even named among the “biggest losers” of the year by The Hollywood Reporter in 2023.
Archewell has suffered an £8.7million fall in donations in the last year and “exciting new projects” announced by Meghan on the red carpet at Variety’s Power of Women bash in September have yet to be announced.
Harry’s dash to the UK after King Charles was diagnosed with cancer earlier this month may have helped to heal the family rift.
But after spending a reported 45 minutes with his father, he flew out for an NFL awards ceremony in Las Vegas, where he cracked gags and made no mention of his father’s troubles - amid claims the couple are becoming "royals for hire".
Mark says that the couple wanted to present “a brand with purpose which was connected to the rest of the world”, but adds: "That was the romantic dream and we all felt it was interesting.
“But it became a lunge for money, it became a lunge for revenge, to create clickbait and all those things worked against them because there was no long-term vision.
“You might win a few headlines today, but what happens tomorrow when people are bored with the story? What do you stand for?
“It's all very sad, because there are major challenges for the Royal Family at the current time, and Harry, who was bred and conditioned to this position no matter what he said, could have been such a huge asset to his family.”
As they attempt to jumpstart their ailing brand, the couple are reportedly now eyeing up a move from Montecito to Los Angeles, where insiders say Meghan is “incredibly popular”.
In April, the former Suits star signed up with William Morris mega agent Ari Emanuel, who manages Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson, Serena Williams and Oprah Winfrey.
With talented staff leaving Archewell, the couple have hired ex-model and reality star turned TV producer and ‘InstaMom’ Tracy Ryerson as head of scripted content, amid plans to launch a prequel to Dickens’ Great Expectations, focusing on Miss Havisham.
Harrison Colcord, marketing director at their local hotel, San Ysidro Ranch, was taken on in June, and the British owner of a Montecito bike store was hired as their office manager after gifting the couple a bicycle for Archie.
Miranda Barbot, a PR guru behind the re-election of Barack Obama, has also come on board, hinting the couple might be considering a political career move.
It isn't a particularly rosy future for them because there's been so much emotion connected with their brand and so much failure that's connected with the brand
PR guru Mark Borkowski
Despite reports that Netflix were ready to part company, Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer recently insisted: “They have a couple of unscripted things they’re working on with Brandon [Riegg].
"And they actually have, like, a bunch of development; they have a movie in development, a [scripted] series that they’re working on.
"So all very early development, with a movie, a TV show and a couple of unscripted shows.”
But Mark says the future for the couple is “challenging”.
“They have a number of obstacles to overcome in terms of public opinion and re-engagement, and obviously they need a lot of money,” he says.
“There seems to be a series of Everests they have to summit and I'm not sure if they can achieve that.
“So it isn't a particularly rosy future for them because there's been so much emotion connected with their brand and so much failure that's connected with the brand.
“I think they're hurtling towards becoming a slight cliche, like the estranged Duke and Duchess of Windsor (the abdicated Edward VIII and Wallace Simpson) that became synonymous with a royal soap opera and had a negative outcome.”
