Money and fame.
Due to the couple’s popularity as royals, they believed they could break away and see their popularity translate into dollars, allowing them to live a life of luxury in California.
While they’re certainly never going to be caught short for a few bucks, it hasn’t worked out quite as they’d hoped. So far, anyway.
It’s been well documented that since leaving their royal life behind, both Meghan and Harry have seen their popularity take a considerable dip.
In October, a YouGov poll documented the Sussexes fall from grace, with Prince Harry suffering a 19 point drop, while Meghan Markle saw an astounding 18 point drop in the same timeframe.
Of course, we’ve seen fans of both Meghan and Harry claim that the drop in popularity is associated with factors such as racism, xenophobia, and misogyny (although quite how any of those elements plays into Prince Harry’s popularity dipping is another matter) and that while they may be unpopular, they’re still relevant, which is key to the success of their brand.
After all, it doesn’t matter if you love them or hate them. So long as you’re paying attention, right?
Well, it seems the tide is also turning on that front.
While the Sussexes may have been losing the popularity battle with the British public, they were still considered relevant by most.
But is this still the case?
Speaking to the Royally Obsessed podcast, royal commentator Ingrid Seward, who is the Editor in Chief of Majesty magazine, commented:
We stopped having Harry and Meghan on the cover a while ago. It just wasn’t selling. The magazine wasn’t selling when they were on the cover. “HELLO! magazine actually told me the same thing. Obviously, there are some beautiful pictures of them.
Before we see Sussex Squad zealots lose their minds and start claiming that these royal magazines and news outlets are dropping the Hollywood Royals from their covers out of dislike for Meghan Markle, it’s worth noting that Ingrid absolutely wants to cover Meghan and Harry.
She continued:
I would like to have them on the cover, but it just doesn’t seem to work. I find that weird and interesting.
A theory I have, which has been hammered by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s fans, is that the couple became so popular because they were royals.
The mistake they’ve made is in believing their own hype. They assumed that the high levels of interest and popularity were based entirely on them as people, which sadly seems not to be the case.
The future is all kinds of uncertain for the couple, with even the Netflix deal not guaranteed to deliver the hundreds of millions of dollars many fans believe.
I’m no Netflix expert, but I don’t think it works that way. The streaming giant isn’t just handing Prince Harry and Meghan Markle a check for hundreds of millions of dollars regardless of the success of the content they provide.
I believe that they could potentially earn that kind of money if the Netflix content they deliver is a roaring success.
But what’re the chances that it will be? Talk of educational and inspirational programming sounds great, but having heard what Netflix is expecting from them, I don’t think that kind of content will get the job done.
I believe Netflix signed this deal because they want access to Prince Harry and the royal angle he can lend to projects.
Don’t be surprised if we see him in front of the camera on a Princess Diana documentary, which will anger his brother and father, no doubt.
And that trashy reality type show that was beneath them a month or so ago? Yeah, I wouldn’t bet against that proposition becoming appealing to them real quick if this nosedive in popularity and relevance continues into next year.