Ten years ago, a member of Britain’s royal family and an American actress met at London’s Soho House restaurant for a date arranged by a mutual friend. The attraction was instant, and so began the love story between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, which sounded like it had come straight from a Hollywood film.
But a decade on, When Harry Met Meghan has had many plot twists and turns, most unhappy. And not only has it been a roller-coaster ride for the leading man and lady, but there’s also been a profound effect on the rest of the cast – the royal family.
Initially, royal watchers responded positively to the star of TV series Suits, hoping she would be a breath of fresh air and “sprinkle a bit of stardust” on the monarchy. But some coverage and comments about Harry’s new love quickly became very negative, focusingon the fact that she was biracial and divorced.
The first signs of a royal fallout
A furious Harry stood up for his girlfriend. The couple announced their engagement in November 2017, and royal commentators were excited about them joining forces with Harry’s brother,
Prince William and his wife Catherine, then Duchess of Cambridge, to support good causes as the “Fab Four”.
They married in May 2018, and by the time the new Duke and Duchess of Sussex went on their first overseas tour to New Zealand later that year – and announced Meghan was pregnant with their
first child – royal watchers saw them as a crucial part of Team Windsor.
But despite the happy arrival of a baby boy, Prince Archie, in May 2019, all was not rosy. A TV documentary about their visit to South Africa showed Meghan clearly unhappy and revealed that Harry
had an issue with William.
Meanwhile, rumours emerged that Meghan had bullied staff and had a run-in with her sister-in-law that ended in tears. The Sussexes split their combined household with William and Catherine, both 44, into two separate entities and walked away from their joint charity, The Royal Foundation, to set up one of their own.
The sympathy soon began to fade
Meghan, 45, and Harry, 41, officially pulled the plug on their roles as senior working royals in January the following year, and stayed on Vancouver Island in Canada, a country Meghan had lived in while filming Suits, before relocating to Meghan’s home state of California.
At that stage, there was still sympathy for Meghan, but she and Harry did themselves no favours by launching a series of attacks on the royal family, firstly in their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, then in the Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan and in Harry’s memoir Spare.
Allegations of racist comments from an unnamed family member, along with descriptions of Harry’s stepmother Queen Camilla as a dangerous villain and claims Meghan’s mental health woes were ignored, came at a time when the royals were dealing with the deaths of Harry’s grandfather, Prince Philip and then the Queen.
While the Sussexes pursued legal cases against British newspapers and the Home Office and dealt with Netflix and Spotify dropping them, the King and Catherine faced shock cancer diagnoses.
The ties they can’t afford to break
Meanwhile, Meghan’s efforts to make money through her lifestyle TV show, With Love, Meghan and her product website, As Ever, did not result in the massive success she hoped for. A Hollywood production expert described them as “grifters”.
On social media, they portray their life in upmarket Montecito with their two children – Princess Lilibet was born in 2021 – as idyllic. But they know they must maintain their ties to the royal family to earn a living that will cover their expenses. The fact that Meghan and the children joined Harry when he visited his father, the King, 77, in the UK last month – albeit sneaking into the country and staying under the radar – may be a sign that they’ve realised how much they need Harry’s family.
“It was very telling that they decided to do that, despite saying it wasn’t safe for them to come to the UK,” says an insider.
“It could be time for some serious damage control.”
It’s hard to know if Meghan and Harry would have done things differently had they been able to look 10 years into the future when they went on those first dates back in 2016. But the palace source expects the royal family probably wishes they had.
“The choices they have made have divided the family and there’s no turning the clock back. But hopefully, it’s still not too late to fix things, if that’s what everyone wants.”
Meghan through the years:
2016
Meghan and Harry keep their romance under wraps for four months before it is revealed the UK’s most eligible bachelor is dating a US TV star.
2017
Harry proposes to Meghan in November after first getting permission from his grandmother the Queen, who tells him, “I suppose I have to
say yes.”
2018
Five months after their wedding at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, it is announced that Meghan is expecting their first child.
2019
Successful tours and the arrival of Archie Mountbatten-Windsor are cause for celebration, but it soon becomes clear that Meghan is struggling with royal life.
2020
After the shock announcement that they’re leaving royal duties, Meghan and Harry make their final official appearance at a tension-filled Commonwealth Service.
2021
Meghan drops several bombshells during her Oprah interview, including saying a royal family member raised the topic of the colour of Archie’s skin.
2022
Meghan makes her last public appearances in the UK in September at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, and at an awkward walkabout with William and Catherine days before.
2023
Spotify ends its multi-million-dollar deal with the Sussexes after just one season of Meghan’s podcast Archetypes. It’s alleged they didn’t meet productivity targets.
2024
Reinventing herself as a food and lifestyle guru, Meghan launches her product line As Ever, selling jam, dog treats, homewares and flower sprinkles.
2025
Meghan’s lifestyle show, With Love, Meghan, premieres on Netflix. The flower sprinkles are put to good use in frittata and doughnut recipes, but the show’s reviews aren’t great.
2026
After a high-profile visit to Australia, Meghan stays under the radar when she travels to the UK to see her in-laws for the first time in four years.
