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Pharaonic announcements, nebulous projects: but what are Meghan and Harry really doing?

2022-01-17T16:49:08.921Z


In 2019, they distanced themselves from the royal family, and announced that they wanted to be financially independent. Since then, the Sussexes have launched numerous projects. And so ?


We are January 8, 2020: Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, announce with loss and a crash “no longer wanting to take an active role within the royal family”, and to become financially independent. Losses, because the couple will no longer be able to benefit from the subsidies paid in compensation for official appearances, handshakes, smiles to children and other inaugurations of libraries made in the name of the royal family. Fracas, because the couple distances themselves from "the Firm" against the backdrop of a relationship crisis, Meghan Markle having not concealed her discomfort in recent months.

Money will be at the heart of the turmoil caused by this departure. Installed on Vancouver Island with Archie, their 8-month-old son, the Sussexes must ensure their safety: Canada, a member of the Commonwealth, will cover the costs. But not the United States, where the couple settled permanently in March 2020 and acquired a sumptuous villa in Montecito, California in July. Prince Harry will dwell at some length on his financial situation in the interview given by the couple to Oprah Winfrey on February 15, 2021: according to him, their departure would have been impossible without Lady Di's inheritance, because the royal family would have “cut the food”: “We live thanks to the money that my mother left me, he explained. Without it, we couldn't have left. So, looking back on it, it's like she sensed it."

On video, suicidal thoughts, racism: the explosive secrets of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

The Archewell Foundation

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at the Global Citizen Live concert, campaigning for fair access to the Covid-19 vaccine.

(New York, September 25, 2021.)

Gotham/WireImage/Getty

In short, Meghan and Harry have to earn a living. Fortunately, the Sussexes have plans. On April 6, 2020, they announced the creation of Archewell (“Arche”, which refers to their son's first name, is also the Greek word meaning “source of action”), a philanthropic foundation whose motto is to make “the compassion an action”. And promised great things: according to documents picked up by the

Telegraph

, and filled out by the couple in March, it must encompass a charity work, volunteer services, a large-scale website and " educational material” including podcasts, books or films.

Even before the official launch of Archewell in October 2020 (delayed due to poorly completed paperwork), the couple announced that they had signed a lucrative contract with Netflix, to “develop series (…), films, documentaries, and programs for children”.

Estimated amount of the deal: nearly 99 million dollars (

about 87.4 million euros, editor's note

).

Three months later, the Sussexes announce that they have also signed with Spotify to produce a series of content modestly intended to "elevate and entertain audiences around the world".

All neatly organized under two subdivisions within the foundation: Archewell Productions for the image, Archewell Audio for the sound.

But since then, it has to be said that the said community has only a few programs around which to gather.

Netflix and Spotify

Do not expect to see Meghan Markle resume her acting profession on Netflix: if the Duchess collaborates (in the company of David Furnish, husband of Elton John) with the streaming platform, it is to launch an animated series,

Pearl

, the story of a 12-year-old girl inspired by the great female figures in history. The project, announced in July, still has time to see the light of day. As for Harry, we have known since April that he is preparing a documentary series in connection with the Invictus games, a sports competition for injured or disabled war veterans, which he imagined in 2014.

Heart Of Invictus

will thus trace “the powerful stories of resilience and hope of competitors during their journey to the Invictus Games The Hague in 2020”. The event, after being postponed twice due to the pandemic, will finally take place from April 16-22. Date on which it might be appropriate to broadcast the program.


On the Spotify side, the Sussexes put online, on December 29, 2020, a 33-minute podcast for the Christmas holidays. A retrospective in which we were moved to the first words of Archie, before listening to celebrities such as Elton John, the tennis champion Naomi Osaka or the author Deepak Chopra meditate on the pangs of the year having seen birth the coronavirus pandemic. But the experience was not repeated in 2021, with Spotify's "Archewell Audio" page remaining hopelessly empty ever since.

One cannot help but compare the activity of the Sussexes with that of another famous couple who have just inaugurated a new chapter in their life.

In 2019, two years after leaving the White House, Barack and Michelle Obama also announced that they were developing programs for Netflix and Spotify.

Although they are a year ahead of the Sussexes, they have since given birth to three video programs (

American Factory

,

Becoming

and

Waffle and Mocha

) and two podcasts (

Born In The USA

and

The Michelle Obama Podcast)

.

Besides, the much slower pace of the Sussexes would notably make the leaders of Netflix a bit nervous, when they do not yet perceive a return on investment.

Compassion in action

Archewell relies on a third component, that of philanthropic activities. According to the rain of logos displayed on the foundation's official website, it has forged links with organizations as diverse as the Aspen Institute (a think-tank in which Harry participates in a commission on the risks of misinformation) or NGOs such as World Global Kitchen, which fights against the lack of food following natural disasters, or Global Citizen, with which the couple campaigns for more equitable access to the vaccine against Covid-19.

Partnerships that mainly take the form of press releases or speeches by the couple at conferences or round tables.

We do not know if the presence of the Sussexes, which guarantees immense visibility for any cause, is remunerated.

Everything is in any case relayed by the Instagram site of Archewell, which also serves as a communication relay for the couple: it is there that he posted the birth announcement of his daughter Lilibet, his wishes for the new year, and information on his personal projects.

Solo projects

Meghan and Harry also have a few activities on their own. Harry thus imagined with Oprah Winfrey

The Me You Can't See

, a documentary series on mental health. If the project was announced in March 2019, then delayed due to the pandemic, it went live on Apple TV last May (much to the delight, no doubt, of Netflix). Mental health, a subject to which Prince Harry is attached: he thus exercises the functions of “chief impact officer” within Better up, an American startup specializing in professional coaching; a position increasingly common in Silicon Valley, where the nickname “chimpos” is used for those executives responsible for issues of mental health, sustainability and the impact of a company on society. Estimated salary: $1 million (

around 838,500 euros, Editor's note

) per year, to participate in round tables like that of December 7, 2021, where he encouraged, not without creating controversy, employees to resign if their job harmed their psychological well-being.

Finally, Harry writes his memoirs: a book that will relate “the ups and downs, the mistakes, the lessons learned” during his 36 years on Earth.

And which should be published by Penguin Random House at the end of 2022.

In video, "The Bench", by Meghan Markle

For her part, Meghan is not to be outdone and also turns to literature: she published

The Bench

on June 8, 2021 , a children's book inspired by her life with her husband and children. Although it shot to the top of Amazon charts when it was released, it would have sold just over 3,200 copies in England according to the

Daily Mail .

(against which the Duchess won a lawsuit that lasted almost all of 2021). On the fighting side, Meghan Markle is committed this year for parental leave: in October, she split a letter to the American Congress telling how, at the birth of their daughter, Harry and she found themselves "overwhelmed". But also how, unlike many parents, "they haven't had to face the hard reality of having to choose between spending those critical first months with our baby or going back to work." According to the

Daily Mail

, the Sussexes would have granted themselves twenty weeks of parental leave after the arrival of Lilibet, on June 4, 2021. However, it is clear, via the Archewell Instagram account, that both had resumed media appearances and other participation in charities in the summer.

In short, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are busy.

If the vagueness remains as to their respective remuneration, and that their projects are slow to see the light of day, one can imagine that the pandemic, as well as the education of two young children, have delayed them.

However, as the Duchess pointed out in her letter to Congress, the Sussexes do not lead exactly the same life as all families in the world.

The balance may still have to be found between their means, their image, their ambitions and their deep desires.

After calls for compassion, will 2022 be the year of (real) action?

The editorial staff advises you

  • "Hello, I'm Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex": the self-promo video that is already making people cringe in England

  • Meghan Markle's children's book, whose hero is none other than Harry, is already heavily criticized

  • Prince Harry and Meghan Markle want to sell their villa for 13 million euros, which no longer suits them

Source: lefigaro

All life articles on 2022-01-17

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