Cast your mind back to the ‘Sandringham Summit’ of January 2020.
Seems like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it?
And yet it remains an event that has acute relevance, at least in royal terms, today.
Putting aside the inter-family tensions and drama, at the heart of it was an elderly woman faced with the devastating professional and personal loss of an adored grandson.
And yet, as much as she loved Harry and was deeply, deeply pained by his decision to walk away from the institution she had devoted a lifetime of service to, Queen Elizabeth’s mind was clear.
There was no world whatsoever in which Harry and his wife, Meghan, could or should be allowed to operate as ‘half in, half out’ royals.
That would, to her mind, completely blur the clear delineation needed between public service and personal gain.
Harry was told to keep the day job and shut up, or walk away. He chose the latter… but not without throwing a few well-aimed grenades in his wake.
In recent months, however, an uneasy truce (if indeed it can even be called that) has settled between the parties.
The Palace accepts that Harry and Meghan are no longer working royals and have bills to pay.
And as long as their actions aren’t too heinous and they keep their barbs to a minimum, then peace may reign.
Fast-forward to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s pseudo-royal tour of Australia this week, however, and one half-wonders whether the couple has actually managed to outplay the institution in the end.
Billed as a low-key mixture of philanthropic work with a little commercial ‘endeavour’ thrown in, much of the focus has understandably been on the couple’s planned speaking engagements – he on mental health and leadership, her at a ‘besties’ weekend in Sydney.
But, as has become abundantly clear barely 24 hours into their trip, this is only the tip of the iceberg as far as the Duke and Duchess of the Almighty Dollar are concerned.
Hours after they were feted for visiting a hospital in Melbourne, posing with young cancer patients, it was revealed by (the Sussex-friendly) People magazine in the US that the duchess was ‘merching’ the very clothes off her back via a new AI fashion portal that she is now investing in.
Not just her £922 Karen Gee dress (an Australian designer, natch) but her £575 Real Fine earrings and even her Christian Dior shoes.
Billed as ‘Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’, her platform features dozens of pictures of her in recent months, many pointedly showing her hand-in-hand with the late Queen’s grandson (still fifth in line to the throne), all with links to buy her outfits.
OneOff is an AI-powered fashion platform and app that allows users to shop ‘curated’, celebrity-inspired looks.
It has been described as the ‘Spotify of fashion’ – perhaps a rather unfortunate description in the Sussexes’ case given the disaster of their mega-bucks deal with the streaming giant, whose head of podcast innovation and monetisation labelled them ‘grifters’.
Stars who are verified, such as Meghan, can earn affiliate revenue every time a fan purchases an item.
The current revenue split on a sale is, apparently, 10 to 25 per cent from the retailer to OneOff, which is then shared with the creator.
It is not clear how much the duchess expects to make, but the firm said of its deal with Meghan: ‘She cares about fashion and was motivated to invest not only to expand her portfolio, but to help uplift the fashion designers she is a fan of.’
It also, perhaps, explains why last year’s plan by Meghan to share affiliated clothing and accessories links through Instagram, on which she also earned commission through another platform, ShopMy, was suddenly and inexplicably pulled without explanation.
It was also announced Meghan had secretly broken off from the couple’s programme of public engagements to film an appearance on MasterChef Australia, which breathlessly revealed the news by saying ‘a passionate foodie with global influence graced the kitchen’.
It said Meghan would feature as a guest judge on the show, joining a ‘prestigious list’ including celebrated chef Rick Stein.
In a short clip released on social media, Meghan can be seen beaming from ear to ear as she strides onto the set, after being introduced as ‘royalty’ and ‘the Duchess of Sussex’.
None of this would actually be a problem in royal circles, I am told, if the couple had simply gone to Australia – where Harry’s father, King Charles, let us not forget, is head of state – as private individuals looking to make a fast buck.
After all, Harry’s cousin, Zara Tindall, has a long-term and lucrative ambassadorial deal with Magic Millions, an Australian bloodstock auction house and racing event organiser, which sees her spend a significant amount of time on the Gold Coast each year publicising it without any complaint. She is, of course, an Olympic-standard horsewoman in her own right.
What makes Harry and Meghan’s approach so egregious to many, however, is the way in which they have organised their trip as ‘cosplay royals’, kicking off with a string of highly choreographed and very traditional royal tour-style public engagements (hospital, tick; sports event, tick; armed forces and wreath-laying, double tick).
The photographs of Harry at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, medals on display, surrounded by dignitaries and children in school uniform, could easily have been taken on his and Meghan’s official 2018 tour to the country.
All of this has cleverly made them headline news just before they embark on a series of presumably lucrative commercial gigs.
Even the ‘operational note’ outlining details of the trip sent out to selected journalists bears an uncanny resemblance to those regularly issued by Buckingham Palace.
Neither has there been any pushback from their normally quick-to-criticise PR team over the way in which Australian media has taken to describing their time in the country as a ‘royal visit’.
And this is why I hark back to Sandringham.
A source involved in those highly tense negotiations six years ago once told me that the ‘focus’ of the talks, as far as the Palace was concerned, was not on the issue of security or HRHs, but ‘always on Harry and Meghan’s status as working royals and protecting all those concerned’, as well as ‘preserving the commercial-free nature of the institution’.
So do their activities in Australia this week, which seem to fail to delineate in any way between their notoriety as former working royals and their new lives as entrepreneurs, push matters to the point of provocation?
Well, yes and no.
While there is a definite sense of irritation in royal circles, there have been no renewed conversations, I am told, about the King stripping them of their titles and Harry’s place in the order of succession (something that the public, at least on social media, have begun to call for loudly again).
The Palace fears any suggestion of defenestration would only add to the Sussexes’ sense of injustice, particularly given how long it took for the former Prince Andrew, who is currently being investigated over a serious criminal offence, to be stripped of his.
‘It’s clearly irritating, but the feeling is that the institution just needs to roll with the punches in order to keep moving forwards,’ once source with knowledge of their thinking remarked tactfully.
Another added, slightly more testily: ‘I think the general public made up their minds about that pair a long time ago. Probably best to let it lie at that.’
They may have been forced to walk away in abject humiliation that January – their grand plans to ‘collaborate’ with the late Queen as ‘progressive’, financially independent members of the Royal Family in tatters – but have Harry and Meghan eventually got what they wanted by the back door after all?
However, one cannot help but think back to the late Queen Elizabeth, who by coincidence will be the focus of the Royal Family’s thoughts and deeds next week at events to mark the centenary of her birth – an anniversary many had dearly hoped she would have been here to celebrate in person.
One well-placed source, previously close to the late monarch, told me of the Sussexes’ Australian jaunt: ‘While I am not going to speculate on what Her Late Majesty would have thought about all this, I can tell you with utmost certainty that this is exactly what she tried to ensure wouldn’t happen.’
