A major new article by Vanity Fair magazine has looked over the five years that have elapsed since Harry and Meghan stepped down from their senior roles in the British Royal Family.
Despite initially signing major deals with streaming giant Netflix and podcaster Spotify, with one or two exceptions, the couple are widely not considered to have produced any work of note.
Among their rare success stories are the pair’s controversial Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, during which they shared information about the Royal Family.
Prince Harry, 40, famously released a memoir Spare, in which he described his brother Prince William, 42, as physically attacking him, and described his hair loss as ‘alarming baldness’.
Other projects have not had as much success: the couple only released one podcast via their Spotify deal – Meghan’s Archetypes, which sought to dismantle the stereotypes put on women, and included her interviewing celebrity friends including Serena Williams.
Spotify and the couple’s Archewell Audio released a statement confirming they had mutually agreed to part ways in June 2023.
Among the claims made in the article – for which the Sussexes declined to comment – was that some people who worked with Meghan ended up needing therapy.
Here, FEMAIL looks at the top 10 revelations from Vanity Fair’s savage takedown of Prince Harry and Meghan…
Vanity Fair (pictured) has published an article about the the five years since Mexgit have panned out for the Sussexes
1. ‘Staff needed therapy after working with Meghan ‘
While allegations of bullying of staff by Meghan have been made – and strenuously denied by the Duchess, the issue once more popped up in the Vanity Fair piece.
According to two unnamed sources, after working on Archetypes, one colleague took a leave of absence following a three-episode on the stint.
This is before they left Gimlet altogether.
It’s claimed others described ‘taking extended breaks from work to escape scrutiny, exiting their job, or undergoing long-term therapy after working with Meghan’.
The source told the writer she felt that if Meghan chose to ‘acknowledge her own shortcomings or personal contributions to situations’ instead of adopting a perpetual victim role, her perception might be ‘better’.
The couple were famously disparaged by podcaster Bill Simmons who worked with the Sussexes at Spotify. In June 2023, he famously referred to the couple as ‘f******* grifters’, adding: ‘I have got to get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea. It’s one of my best stories.… F*** them. The grifters.’
2. ‘They have become local villains’
Meghan Markle is pictured in her office in the home she shares with Prince Harry in Montecito (seen in August 21)
As a Montecitan told the outlet, the former royal couple is known as the prince and ‘the starlet’ locally.
And according to several more residents of the high-end celebrity enclave, the couple are considered ‘local villains’ by some.
Among the negatives attributed to the pair are increased visits from out-of-towners, it being impossible to get a walk-in booking at Lucky’s, a steakhouse the pair have frequented several times, and increased house prices.
3. ‘Meghan did not come up with the idea for Archetypes’
The article also claimed that during the couple’s deal with Spotify, during which they only yielded one project – Archetypes – Meghan dd not create the idea for the series
Vanity Fair cites a source saying that the idea for the Sussexes’ solo creation Archetypes did in fact come from another employee.
However, the noted, the ‘employee didn’t own any of the intellectual property’.
Because of Archewell Audio taking so long to handle production, Spotify’s studio Gimlet was called in, meaning the production was costlier and required more resources from the podcasting giant than expected.
4. ‘Meghan “re-parents” Harry’
A source familiar with the couple described their dynamic as Meghan having a ‘caregiver and facilitator’ role in which she is the one who ‘makes things happen’.
They noted that Harry has changed since entering the relationship, saying he would previously pop into the Palace’s press office, where he may seem a little bored while asking questions, but also keen.
However, they added, they cannot imagine the Harry of today being willing to engage with the media ‘in search of purpose’.
They concluded: ‘I don’t want to be like, oh, it’s an Oedipus thing or whatever, but it kind of feels like she’s reparenting him in a way.’
5. ‘Harry “didn’t understand’ repercussions of tell-all book
One source claimed that Prince Harry simply did not understand the implications of publishing his memoir during such a fractious time
A source told Vanity Fair that they believed Prince Harry simply hadn’t believed that selling a tell-all book about his famously private family would have the impact it did.
This, they added, was particularly impactful as the tome was published during a the middle of the public relations crisis between the Royal Family and the Sussexes – one which had rumbled on for years.
They added that they wondered if Harry understood the ‘power of the written word, and the power of the narrative’ while undertaking the project.
6. ‘They are the most entitled, disingenuous people on the planet’
A further disgruntled Montecitan described the couple as ‘the most entitled, disingenuous people on the planet’.
They added that while the Sussexes claimed they left England to avoid media scrutiny, they appear to constantly court media attention in the States.
7. ‘I don’t believe she didn’t know she’d have to curtsey for the Queen’
Much was made of Meghan’s theatrical bow during Netflix’s Harry & Meghan docuseries – but some don’t believe the former actress wouldn’t know she would have to curtsey to the Queen
Fashion and cultural commentator Tom Fitzgerald, who also lives in the Sussexes’ home time of Montecito, recalled a story where a server at a restaurant told him Meghan had called the eatery ahead of eating there, in order to ask about how private the seating arrangement was.
Because of her reputation for research and planning, Fitzgerald told Vanity Fair that he didn’t find it ‘particularly believable’ that she ‘went into meeting the royal family completely cold, with no research whatsoever’ – adding that his opinion is based on on information Meghan has shared about herself.
8. ‘It’s huckerism: they try and monetise everything’
Another project that came under fire in the article was Meghan’s brand American Riviera Orchard.
According to Vanity Fair, it is in fact Santa Barbara that is today known as the American Riviera – with all Montecitans interviewed for the piece saying they hadn’t heard their area referred to in that way.
One resident said: ‘It’s such a kind of hucksterism,” one resident says. “It’s just finding every way she can to monetise something.’
9. ‘They had no ideas’
Despite the major opportunities offered to the Sussexes upon their arrival in California, in the shape of Netflix and Spotify deals, they failed to yield consistent, successful content.
According to a former employee of Spotify, they were unlike other celebrity podcasters, who will ‘turn on the mic and talk’.
Instead, the former employee said, the couple ‘wanted a big theme that would explain the world, but they had no ideas’.
10. ‘Harry was “challenging” to engage with”‘
Prince Harry (pictured in September 2023) was described as ‘challenging to engage with’ by a former Spotify staffer
One former Spotify staffer described Prince Harry as ‘challenging to engage with’.
They added that while the couple were interviewing someone for a job, Prince Harry gave of an air of ‘why should I do this?’
The prompted the employee to wonder: ‘Didn’t Spotify pay you a lot of money to do this?’
A person who knows the couple added that it was their belief that Harry would be happy for Meghan to make all the money.
Instead, they believe, Harry would prefer not to have to, and to instead concentrate on charity work.
