Making the decision to move places, especially to another country, isn’t an easy one, especially if you are a member of the British royalty and all eyes are on you.
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced they were stepping down from their royal duties, it came as a shock to many. The public was eager to see what their next move would be and how the rest of the royals would react to the decision that placed the family under the spotlight more than ever in recent years.
Eventually, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex settled in sunny California. They started several business ventures, including deals with Netflix and Spotify worth millions, Harry’s book Spare, which caused a lot of stir and burned some bridges with his family along the way, and most recently, Meghan’s brand American Riviera Orchid.
Since they moved to the States, the lives of the Sussexes have been different compared to the lives they had in Britain.
Their initial motive for the drastic change to leave Harry’s homeland was to avoid the scrutiny from the media, and that’s one thing they have achieved since they are not followed by paparazzi as they once were. Meghan was also able to give birth to her second child, daughter Lilibet, in private, without having to follow royal traditions and protocols which come with the act of giving birth to a royal baby.
Harry and Meghan have tried to make their way into Hollywood’s celebrity society, according to people close to the couple, but that didn’t go as smoothly as planned allegedly.
Hollywood insider, broadcaster, comedian, and actor Tim Dillon said on the “They Come and Go” episode of his podcast, The Tim Dillon Show, last summer, as per the Daily Mail,
“I know people in LA that know them, and all they want to do is hang out with celebrities. I was at a celebrity party the other night talking to somebody about this, and they go, ‘These people are just… it’s constant with them.’”
He then added:
“She was texting the person I was with there – and, ‘no, you can’t come’. I shouldn’t have even been there. But the point is they just won’t stop, these two. They are just like moths to the flame trying to hang out… They’re like low-grade reality stars that are trying to attach to anything.”
This wasn’t the first form of criticism from Dillon about the Sussexes. Back in September 2021, he tweeted: “Harry and Meghan are such a gift to this country. Thank GOD for them. They make everything OK. Just because they’re here. They’re helping people by being on NETFLIX! This was such a happenstance thing, not at all a plan they had. I love when good things just happen. There IS hope!”
Allegedly, text messages Meghan had sent to some of her friends showed she was practically begging them to hang out. “She is trying to get places. It’s sad. A lot of it isn’t working, and they are rolling their eyes to me, and they’re going LOL, and we are all having a good laugh about this because they’re just a bunch of goons, and no one cares,”
Dillon said, and then added:
“Now listen, at the end of the day, I respect the hustle, I get what she’s trying to do, I get what they are trying to do, but it didn’t work, right? A lot of people at this party were like, ‘Hey man, you know, we text her back, we tried to be nice, she’s the Duchess, but we’ve had enough, we’ve had enough of her.”
Following the news that Meghan is set to launch a new podcast with Lemonada Media, which has been pushed back to next year, an insider spoke of her as of a “greedy” person.
“She wants everything all at once, and it’s backfiring on her again. She’s become a total joke and is overplaying her hand,” the insider stated, as reported by the NY Post.
“That clearly didn’t go down well with Lemonada. They surely expected to be Meghan’s priority project, but she must have decided she had bigger fish to fry with Netflix. Almost everything they’ve tried has ended in disaster.”
Another person close to the couple told In Touch that the Duchess has now lost all respect among Hollywood A-list stars.
“Hollywood is glam and glitz on the outside, but the real stars have worked hard for their success — and you get the impression hard work isn’t really Meghan’s thing,” the source said. “Now, after all her failures, those A-listers — and the royals — are laughing at her!”
When it comes to Harry and how he spends his time in the States when he’s not with his family not much is known. He has been spotted playing polo with some friends, but those who know him are convinced he missed his army and college friends dearly, royal author Tom Quinn writes.
The thing is they don’t visit him in the States and Harry has no permanent place to stay in Britain ever since he and Meghan were evicted from Frogmore Castle.
Back in the day, while they were still living in Britain, Harry and Meghan renovated the royal estate to the tune of around $3 million. Later, when they stepped down from their royal duties, they agreed to return the money to the taxpayers.
Following the numerous accusations against the royals in Spare, King Charles decided to evict his son and daughter-in-law from the royal estate and let his brother, Prince Andrew, use it as his home. The Sussexes weren’t at all happy about this decision.
“Harry and Meghan have until early summer to vacate,” a source told Omar Scobie, reporting for Yahoo, at the time. “Initially, they were given just weeks, but now they have at least until after the coronation.
“It all feels very final and like a cruel punishment,” a friend of Harry and Meghan’s added. “It’s like [the family] wants to cut them out of the picture for good.”
“For King Charles, forcing (Prince) Andrew to move to Frogmore solves several problems at once – it sends a message to Harry that, as a private citizen and no longer a working royal, he will never be allowed back to Frogmore,” Quinn told the Mirror.
“It sends [a] message to Andrew that having disgraced himself, he can no longer expect to live in the grand style. And, finally, it means that a suitably grand residence can be made ready for the royals who really matter – William and Kate. Charles is determined that Royal Lodge is the only residence on the royal estate at Windsor that is big enough and regal enough for his heir.”
Having said this, Harry is now looking for a permanent “home” in the UK.
“As time goes by, Harry misses some aspects of his old life in the UK. Inevitably, the honeymoon period where everything in the States is new and exciting is coming to an end and Harry is looking back at the past through rose-tinted spectacles,” Quinn claimed.
The royal author added: “He misses his Old Etonian and army friends, many of whom have not visited as they don’t get on with Meghan. Harry is determined to find his own permanent home in the UK, which is partly why he’s continuing his legal action to get the British taxpayer to pay for his security.”
What are your thoughts on this?