This is a remarkable turn of events considering that just a few years ago, when their relationship was first announced, Harry and Meghan seemed to have a world of opportunities ahead of them. People were rooting for them, believing their endeavors to be innovative and anticipating their financial independence.
With Meghan's background as an actress, many thought they would succeed in Hollywood. However, it has become increasingly evident that they never truly intended to forge their own path. Instead, they seemed to expect handouts for essentially doing nothing.
Spotify's public step back is the first clear example of a company refusing to play along with their game. Dior has now also called them out, denying any brand deal despite their attempts to manifest one publicly.
This raises questions about the future prospects of Harry and Meghan, and highlights how they have mishandled their own future so terribly. Regardless of personal opinions about them (and I must admit, I am not a fan), they had an incredible opportunity to make something great for themselves. However, it is evident that their true enemy is not the royal family, the public, or the media—it is their own laziness.
Today, we will delve into this topic and explore how they have squandered their potential. If you are new to the Royal News Network, my name is Brittany, and I provide compelling royal commentary, covering the latest news and occasionally delving into gossip. I am aiming to reach 150,000 subscribers soon, so if you enjoy my content, please hit the subscribe button.
In addition to Harry and Meghan, I cover other royals as well. I also have a weekly newsletter called Royal Wire, and a fashion channel. If you want more details about the Dior situation, I have two videos dedicated to it. One discusses Harry and Meghan floating the brand idea a few months ago, and the other compares Meghan Markle's style with that of Beatrice Borromeo, an Italian aristocrat married to Pierre Casiraghi, Grace Kelly's grandson. Both Beatrice and Pierre are Dior brand ambassadors and, in my opinion, far superior choices compared to Harry and Meghan.
While Harry and Meghan continue their attempts to manifest this deal, I am introducing people to two stylish royals with a long and treasured history. Beatrice's family lineage dates back a century, and she even has a saint in her ancestry, reflecting her well-bred stock. She embodies the timeless and classic elegance that Meghan Markle lacks, making her a much better representative of Dior.
Before we dive into the Harry and Meghan discussion, I want to mention an intriguing story about the Titanic. A tourist submarine recently ventured down to view the wreckage, but there has been a loss of contact with the submarine. What makes this even more astonishing is that they took eight hours before notifying the authorities, considering they were 12,500 feet beneath the ocean's surface. It's a mind-boggling situation.
Please note that I have an upcoming trip to Germany and Austria, and I would love to have you join me. We have only a few weeks left before the trip concludes. If you are interested in exploring the breathtaking sites of Munich, Bavaria, Salzburg, and Vienna, please check the details in the description box below. You will also find links to other interesting content. Now, let's delve into the story of Harry and Meghan."
Down there, it is a very dire situation. Apparently, Charles has asked to be well informed because one of the team members is a British billionaire who happens to be a donor to the Prince's Trust, which is Charles's charity he has had for several years. This remains a harrowing story in many ways if you've never researched the crushing pressure of the ocean at that depth. If something went wrong, there's really not much anyone can do, especially when you're thousands of feet under the ocean.
The only successful rescue of a submersible at the lowest depth was around 1,600 feet, and here we are talking about ten times that depth. If they are on the ocean floor, things aren't looking good for them. Hopefully, prayers for all those involved.
Moving on, we also have the Order of the Garter event yesterday. Catherine and William were both in attendance, along with the King, Queen, Princess Anne, Prince Edward, and Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh. They all looked absolutely fabulous. Although I must say, one of my favorite looks of Catherine's of all time was her Order of the Garter look last year.
I wasn't as much of a fan of this year's look because I don't like Alessandra Rees. However, it was interesting to see Catherine sporting a darker lip shade. These subtle changes signify how things are slowly loosening up post the Queen's death. Catherine also opened up the National Portrait Gallery today after a three-year refurbishment.
She was wearing self-portrait, and I have seen that dress. They recently had a sale, so I might consider getting something from there. I do love their style, which is very classically elegant, although sometimes it can be a bit fussy depending on what you get. It was exciting to see the gallery reopening.
Furthermore, we had a tiara appearance in Belgium because the King and Queen of the Netherlands are on a state or official visit. Maxima once again showcased the House Diamonds, also known as the Stuart Tiara without the Stuart Diamond. She looked absolutely fabulous. Queen Mathilde of Belgium wore her Nine Provinces Tiara, which is her grandest tiara. They really went all out, and I love how the dresses, especially Mathilde's, flow over the floor. There's something magical about that, isn't there?
Unfortunately, the magic does not extend to Meghan Markle. Meghan made a huge and catastrophic mistake because, in my opinion, much of this comes back to her lack of understanding about what it truly means to be a royal within a royal family. When you're a royal, you inhabit a very peculiar space. You are a celebrity, but not entirely.
You're a diplomat, but not exactly. You can't make significant decisions as a state representative because you're not involved in the process of making major changes to a country. However, there is something undeniably magical about being a royal. You get to wear tiaras, jewelry, and gowns—things you don't see every day. Even the Oscars, which used to be grand, now falls short in comparison.
When I think of grandeur, I think of royals, castles, and palaces—the grandeur of being part of an ancient aristocratic heritage. Meghan mistakenly believed that she could transplant all these elements to Hollywood without any problems. She came into the royal family and thought she was the magic, not the crown that added the magic.
Magic, it was her. I made this analogy, and it's been a while since I mentioned it. For those of you who are new, the way royal families essentially work is that the crown represents the actual Sun. So, it's not the Monarch, but the crown itself. The shine of the crown, however, is better for you the closer you are to it. Therefore, the crown is the sun.
Then, the next "planet" would be Mercury, which symbolizes Charles. If Mercury had a moon, that would be Camilla. Moving along, Catherine and William would represent Venus and its moons. As for Harry and Meghan, you could say they are currently in the outer atmosphere. Unfortunately, the power, majesty, and shine of the crown only extend if you are actually part of the family. The further away you are from it, the less it shines on you.
When Meghan Markle decided to initiate Megxit, because I truly believe it was her idea, she was manipulating Harry, saying, "I'm not happy, and I won't be happy until I can be back in Hollywood because the press will never leave us alone." Of course, you could also argue that it's been three years, and has the press gotten any better for the two of you? No, it has not. So, this move was an epic failure. It didn't change anything, except for making people like them less.
Meghan Markle had Hollywood at her feet, and I understand the curiosity factor. A royal has left, and she was part of Hollywood, or so they thought. They all knew she was a terrible actress. Many of them watched her work and realized she wasn't actually good. She was more of an influencer than an actor. They debated among themselves and decided to give her a chance because she had been in the royal family. But what they really wanted was the dirt.
Palaces, regardless of the country, are pretty cloistered, and the aristocratic circles that surround them tend to keep each other's confidences. Hollywood smelled blood in the water and knew Meghan Markle would flip on a dime if it benefited her. That was likely a significant reason why they landed these massive deals. They wanted the behind-the-scenes insights into the royal family.
At the time, signing those deals made sense. When I first heard about them, I thought it was unfair, but I thought, "Fine, whatever. Hollywood can make its mistake." Now, I think Hollywood is realizing that they made a catastrophic error. They assumed, like many others, that Meghan Markle actually knew what she was doing. They assumed she had an idea of how to leverage her time within the royal family and create content. I create content all the time. It's not always easy, but it's not bad either. You can create a lot of content, especially if you have a team around you. Sometimes, I struggle with content due to the time it takes to finish editing a video, setting up the recording, doing makeup, and styling hair. Today, I had to go out since I'm in a hotel.
Some mascara because I forgot my mascara. So, there are all different things that go into these videos, things that Meghan Markle doesn't have to worry about. I think Hollywood thought that if they gave her a certain amount of money, she would be able to produce a lot of content for them, not just her royal stuff, but also her own ideas.
However, she did nothing with it. It took them way too long to release any content. I remember when Harry and Meghan came out with their first podcast episode, and I thought it was lazy. They had other people record their experiences during the pandemic and sent it to them. They didn't create any original content. That turned out to be their approach the entire time. Spotify, in particular, was not happy about it.
They paid Harry and Meghan for content, but in two and a half years, they only created one series of 12 episodes, along with a trailer and one episode of a holiday special. If you do the math, that's $1.5 million per episode. Spotify could have spent that much per episode in two and a half years. The numbers initially seemed lower when I miscalculated, but it's still a significant amount. I don't believe a podcast should cost that much unless you're hiring the highest-profile individuals. Spotify shared the same sentiment and decided to drop them.
Then there's the Netflix deal, which could be worth up to a hundred million dollars. While they did have one successful series, their next project flopped. Now, they have one more potential project, but there are doubts about its success. They also have the publishing deal, with Harry's memoir doing well, but Meghan's book, "The Bench," not performing as expected. So far, it seems that the only thing Harry and Meghan can sell about themselves is their time within the royal family.
However, Meghan Markle was only there for a little over a year and a half, so how much more can she really say? That's what Spotify and others are concerned about. They paid for certain expectations, and the rest of their ideas don't seem to be working out.
Meghan Markle was eager to sell "Archewell Audio" Season 2 to Spotify, but they weren't interested. It could be due to cost or creative differences, but I believe the catalyst was that Spotify didn't see exceptional success with the first season and wanted to move on. Meghan Markle, on the other hand, was insistent on continuing "Archewell Audio" because she's still trying to sell it, despite being advised otherwise.
Looking at this entire debacle of their crumbling empire, it's clear that Harry and Meghan believed they didn't have to do much work. They are among the laziest Duke and Duchess, expecting everything for free and not wanting to put in any effort. They expected everyone to fawn over them, but that's not how real businesses work. You need to deliver results, and you need to work for it.
Could say in Royals, I know in certain Royal circles people complain about Crown Prince Frederick, Crown Princess mattress is married. There's complaints about Royals where they say, 'Well, they don't think they work as much as they should.' But there's a difference there because, for reals, at the same time, they are somewhat grandfathered, and then they do have the opportunity to let's say not do as much work as they should.
But when you're singing for your supper, when your life must be that you must produce content in order to eat, you can't sit on your behind, take a six-month maternity leave when you have a house full of nannies and a housekeeper and just say, 'Well, we're not going to do anything for six months because, oh, we have a baby,' even though they have a ton of Health, oh wait, we can't do it, we have a baby.
And I think they use that excuse, and I think Spotify was like, 'Yeah, that's not an excuse. We have sympathy for that, sure, but that's not an excuse because a podcast is something you can do from your home.' And as it turns out as well is that this another story has been recirculated, and that's the fact that Megan did an interview, really anybody for her podcast but the celebrities.
She let her producers do the rest of the interviews, and then she would technically ask the question. That's not difficult to do. I edit all the time. It is really easy to slip in something real quick, especially I have if I misspoke or something and I have to add an additional copy, I basically put a picture over it and re-record and slap it in there, and it does just fine.
I know that probably bursts some people's bubbles, but it's not hard. And if you were doing a high-volume podcast, let's say you're doing something every single day, I can understand having your producer do some of the interviews because you just have so much to do because this podcast is every single day. But what this screams to me is how exceptionally lazy Megan is. She produced 12 episodes in two and a half years, and she still had to have her producer interview somebody else. And what you got with Megan's podcast is not something that was organic.
It was something very manufactured, very, you could say almost fragmented because they had to Frankenstein it together. Because Megan would do her interview with celebrities, and then they'd have to, 'Oh, we need to do an out to talk to a professional about such and such.' It's like, well, did anybody really care? What if we had the three of you guys doing a round table together? But Meghan Markle was also a terrible interviewer. She couldn't interview well, and she talked about herself constantly. Everything had to be brought back to Megan.
She talked about herself endlessly, and I'm sure some of the guests, perhaps you could even say maybe complained about it because she's not, again, this is not her forte. She can't talk about anything but herself. She needs a shallow podcast where she can talk about her love of travel, food, Tignanello wine, whatever. That's what she needed.
She didn't need to talk about existential or bigger issues because she's really at the heart of hearts not a bigger issue person. She's the Dane vapid and shallow person, and it came through in her podcast. And I think Spotify picked up on that, and I'm like, you know what? Unless you're doing something different, we really can't fund this needless podcast again because we're paying a lot of money for not a lot of return, and you.
She's vapid, and she tries to mask all of that by saying, 'Oh, you know, Archewell is about changing the conversations surrounding women.' Has it done that at all? No. Has it changed the conversation around Megan? Yeah. Has it helped anybody associated with it?
Really, no. Most of the people who helped Megan create it have left. Now Spotify has left. Megan should have stuck to her lane, which is an influencer, someone who talks about and does all those contorted poses, trying to be sexy for her Instagram profile.
Because at the heart of hearts, that's what Megan is. She is an influencer. Not even, you could say, a good influencer. Somebody who tries to add value to the greater public. No, she is somebody who cares only about herself. It's a vanity project.
That's what she needs. And so Harry and Megan's supposed media empire was always going to collapse. There's nothing else it could have done because Harry and Megan have made it so it can't do anything else. And so as they go on these next ventures, it'll be fascinating to see if the relationship, the separation, the professional divorce that they're going through, will their marriage last?
Or is this another step towards divorce? Because once you start divorcing professionally, people who said, 'Oh, we have basically side-by-side chairs in our offices, we do everything together. We're like salt and pepper,' a personal divorce isn't far behind.
