Prince Harry has already been booed at a rugby match and Meghan has been accused of profiting from her tea at Claridge’s with a Nobel Prize winner. But today’s quasi-royal visit will be the true test, Ellie Fry writes
The Sussexes are set to return to a sentimental place for their first engagement since moving back to the UK, but this time things will look very different.
In 2017, the couple visited Nottingham. Fresh from Harry’s cottage proposal with Meghan’s new engagement ring gleaming, supporters spilled over the barricades to catch a glimpse of the Sussexes and all their royal promise.
Union Jacks swirled as people screamed their names feverishly. It was their first public engagement since sharing their happy news. To many, they represented a new, modern monarchy.
Nine years on and one royal exodus, memoir, Netflix documentary and Oprah interview later, it’s hard to imagine a starker contrast. Having spent years profiting from their disdain for royal life, they are returning to the city on today as private citizens – a definition King Charles has gone to great lengths to point out – without taxpayer-funded security or the overwhelming favour of the British public.
But the engagement has all the hallmarks of a royal visit – the couple are set to visit a number of charity organisations as well as a community recording studio that Harry has been to before.
It remains to be seen whether they will get a warm reception. The long list of allegations they have made against the royal family have left many loyal supporters of the institution feeling bruised. Harry has already faced boos at a recent rugby match.
But the real elephant in the room is the optics for the Palace, and how Charles manages it. The King insists that his son does not have the ‘half in, half out’ deal that the late Queen strictly forbade. He has made it clear that they aren’t here to represent the crown, but the trip surely won’t look far different to one that Prince William and Princess Kate would carry out.
The Sussexes have carried out ‘quasi-royal’ tours in South Africa and the like since quitting as working royals and while awkward for the Palace, the geographical distance likely made it an easier pill to swallow. But today is the first time that the couple will step out together again on Harry’s home soil. They are becoming harder and harder to ignore.
Another jarring piece of the puzzle is how Harry and Meghan can marry commercial projects with charitable ones without looking like ‘grifters’, as Spotify executive Bill Simmons once called them.
It’s been claimed that Harry could have been paid up to $100,000 (£75,000) for a recent talk he gave on mental health, where he opened up about his depression. In a conversation with neuroscientist Dr Mary-Frances O’Connor about grief and resilience, the Duke said that he had “slipped into depression” after fleeing the UK in 2019.
Meanwhile Meghan has been busy rebranding herself as a ‘charity queen’, having met Nobel Prize-winning activist Malala Yousafzai last week for tea at London’s Claridge’s.
Critics have already accused the Duchess of using the Malala meet to sell products from her lifestyle brand, As Ever, as she announced on Instagram that proceeds from selected items would benefit the Malala fund, an organisation which supports girls’ education. It’s a noble cause, but the switch from a fundraising message to ‘click to shop’ left a sour taste for some.
And the Soho House-esque lifestyle empire could only get bigger as it’s said that Meghan plans to launch her As Ever products in the UK.
Tensions have already been brewing between camp Sussex and the Palace when it comes to their status in the UK. Last month, Buckingham Palace issued a letter of ‘guidance’ on King Charles ‘ behalf, declaring in no uncertain terms that the couple have not returned to the UK as working royals. The letter stated that they remain ‘private citizens’.
The letter was swiftly followed by an extraordinary briefing from camp Sussex, which made it known that they’d prefer to be known as ‘public figures’ instead. “The duke is understood to have taken particular issue with the notion that the couple were to be treated as private citizens,” it said.
“If that were the case, it was claimed, such formal guidance would not be required. The Sussexes prefer the term ‘public figures’, and would have liked an acknowledgement that, on a personal level, they remained members of the Royal Family, despite no longer receiving public funding.”
The whole purpose of the infamous Sandringham Summit in 2020 was to stop the Sussexes from being able to carry out their commercial projects while continuing to be working royals.
But the reality of how this plays out, especially now the couple are back in the UK, remains tricky for Charles. Experts have long warned that it will be difficult to distinguish between an official royal event and a personal philanthropic one if the Sussexes meet members of the public, raise awareness and deliver speeches – much like a working royal would.
Aside from the taxpayer-funded security that Harry is so determined to reinstate, perhaps the Sussexes have carved themselves out the deal they wanted all along.
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