Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s bombshell decision to move their family back to Britain six years after fleeing royal life is likely to be seen as the most dramatic admission yet that their grand plans to conquer America have failed.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex swept into California in 2020 with Hollywood seemingly at their feet, armed with their royal titles, global fame and blockbuster deals worth tens of millions of dollars.
There was a reported $100 million Netflix agreement. A $20 million Spotify contract. Podcasts, documentaries and television shows were promised.
Archewell Productions was supposed to turn the Sussexes into serious Hollywood power players, while Meghan later attempted to reinvent herself as a lifestyle entrepreneur.
They settled into a $15 million mansion in sun-kissed Montecito, surrounded by billionaires and A-list celebrities, as they embarked on what was supposed to be an extraordinarily lucrative second act.
But six turbulent years later, the couple are heading back across the Atlantic.
News that Harry and Meghan plan to return to Britain for an extended period and enroll Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, in an English school suggests the couple have accepted that their American adventure has not delivered the glittering commercial empire once envisaged.
The Spotify deal is long gone. Their original Netflix contract has ended. The duchess’s With Love, Meghan lasted two seasons.
Harry and Meghan laid bare their grievances with the Royal Family in their explosive six-part Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, released in 2022
In 2021, to mark her 40th birthday, Meghan Markle launched the 40×40 initiative on Zoom
A string of heavily promoted projects either struggled to find audiences or never materialized at all.
Even the couple’s first jointly produced feature documentary, Cookie Queens, endured a humiliating opening weekend this month when it was beaten at the US box office by a compilation of internet cat videos.
And their difficulties have stretched far beyond television.
Meghan’s lifestyle business endured an embarrassing start when American Riviera Orchard, a name unveiled with enormous fanfare in 2024, was eventually abandoned and replaced with the considerably shorter As Ever.
Her first Spotify series, Archetypes, ended along with the couple’s lucrative deal with the streaming giant, while her subsequent Confessions of a Female Founder podcast failed to generate anything approaching the cultural impact of the couple’s earliest post-royal ventures.
There have also been repeated reports of staff upheaval, including the departure of senior communications executives, while critics have questioned whether Meghan has managed to secure a place among America’s celebrity elite that once appeared to be hers for the taking.
The Duchess was absent from the Met Gala this year and reports have even claimed she was attempting to secure invitations to Paris Fashion Week events as her standing in the fashion world came under scrutiny.
Against that bruising backdrop, the timing of the Sussexes’ return to Britain is remarkable.
Woman of Vision Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex speaks onstage with Gloria Steinem and Teresa Younger during the Ms. Foundation Women of Vision Awards in May 2023
Meghan Markle launched her lifestyle brand As Ever in March 2024
Sources close to Harry briefed at the weekend that his family reunion with King Charles last month left the Duke feeling ‘buoyed,’ ‘very happy’ and ‘really energized.’
Crucially, they added: ‘He wants to spend more time in the UK with his family.’
He will now get his wish.
Harry, 41, and Meghan, 45, are understood to be returning to Britain before the end of August for an ‘extended period,’ with their two children believed to have already been enrolled at a British school.
The family are expected to establish themselves in a private, non-royal residence and could remain in Britain while Archie and Lilibet complete their education.
But there will be no return to life as working royals.
The King, who is understood to have been informed of Harry’s plans only on Sunday, is said to welcome the opportunity to spend more time privately with his younger son and grandchildren.
But Buckingham Palace’s position on Harry and Meghan’s official status is understood to be unchanged.
There will be ‘no alteration’ to their roles as private individuals and non-working members of the Royal Family, in keeping with the arrangements established after their sensational departure in 2020.
The Netflix documentary also showed the couple in deeply difficult moments, with Meghan seen in tears and Harry describing the intense media scrutiny, family tensions and emotional turmoil they said ultimately drove them from royal life
Sources have also insisted that the Sussexes are not plotting a return to the royal fold.
The Sussexes are expected to retain their sprawling Montecito estate, meaning their return is not a clean break with California. They also have a residence in Portugal.
When Harry and Meghan arrived in America, they were among the hottest properties in global entertainment and the money followed almost immediately.
For the couple, America represented freedom.
The move offered financial independence, privacy, sunshine and the chance to build a global media empire free from palace courtiers and the constraints of royal protocol.
In September 2020, the couple signed their enormous Netflix agreement through Archewell Productions, promising documentaries, films, children’s shows and scripted entertainment that would ‘inform’ and ‘give hope.’
Three months later came their lucrative Spotify deal.
It appeared that Harry and Meghan had achieved precisely what they had wanted when they left royal life: independence, enormous earning potential and control over their own global platform.
Initially, the strategy appeared to work as their explosive Oprah Winfrey interview in 2021 became a global television event, although it was not part of either streaming deal.
Meghan also tried her hand at publishing with her 2021 children’s book The Bench, inspired by Harry’s relationship with Archie, which topped the New York Times children’s picture-book bestseller list but received scathing reviews from some critics
Then came Netflix’s Harry & Meghan in 2022. It was a ratings success in a six-part documentary series, packed with deeply personal claims about their experiences inside the monarchy.
Harry followed it in January 2023 with Spare, his candid memoir detailing everything from fights with Prince William to tensions with Charles and his experiences growing up inside the Royal Family. It made more than 6 million global sales.
The problem for the Sussexes was what happened when the royal revelations began to run out.
The audience appeared far less interested when Harry and Meghan were no longer the subject.
Netflix’s Live to Lead made little cultural impact.
Heart of Invictus, centered on competitors preparing for Harry’s Invictus Games, failed to approach the same attention generated by Harry & Meghan.
Then came Polo, a five-part series about the elite equestrian sport beloved by the Duke.
It failed to crack Netflix’s global top ten and received a dismal 25 percent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Other grandly announced projects disappeared before audiences ever had the chance to judge them.
Meghan and Harry’s docuseries ‘Polo’ on Netflix, failed to make an impact
Pearl, an animated children’s series being developed by Archewell, was scrapped by Netflix in 2022.
A planned adaptation of Carley Fortune’s bestselling romance novel Meet Me at the Lake was announced with considerable excitement but failed to materialize during the Sussexes’ original Netflix deal.
Spotify proved even more disastrous.
Harry and Meghan signed their reported $20 million agreement with the audio giant in late 2020, with enormous expectations surrounding the kind of programming two of the world’s most famous people might produce.
Yet Meghan’s Archetypes ultimately ran for just 12 full episodes in 2022, plus a Christmas special released under the couple’s earlier Archewell Audio banner.
By June 2023, Spotify and Archewell Audio announced that they had ‘mutually agreed to part ways’.
Then came a brutal public broadside from Spotify executive Bill Simmons.
On his own podcast, Simmons notoriously branded the couple ‘f***ing grifters’ and mocked his experience of attempting to develop ideas with Harry.
‘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,’ he said.
‘It’s one of my best stories… F*** them.’
Meghan eventually returned to podcasting with Confessions of a Female Founder, this time through Lemonada Media.
Meghan eventually returned to podcasting with Confessions of a Female Founder, this time through Lemonada Media
But by then the dizzying excitement surrounding the Sussexes’ arrival in America had faded.
The Duchess also attempted to establish herself as a lifestyle mogul.
American Riviera Orchard was unveiled in March 2024 with a hazy Instagram video showing Meghan arranging flowers and cooking in a kitchen.
The name appeared to be a nod to Santa Barbara, the wealthy coastal region that encompasses Montecito and is sometimes dubbed the American Riviera.
What followed was a painfully drawn-out rollout.
Jars of numbered strawberry jam were dispatched to celebrity friends and photographed on social media, but months passed without the anticipated full-scale launch.
Then, in February 2025, American Riviera Orchard abruptly became As Ever.
Meghan acknowledged the original name had limited what she could sell, saying she had secured the As Ever name in 2022 and was now returning to it.
As Ever subsequently launched products including preserves, flower sprinkles, teas and other lifestyle goods, with some releases selling out.
But the brand has not yet transformed Meghan into the Martha Stewart-style commercial force her most enthusiastic supporters once envisioned.
Other ventures have similarly vanished.
When Harry and Meghan arrived in California in 2020, they appeared to have the world at their feet – armed with global fame and multimillion-dollar deals with Netflix and Spotify – but over the years the seemingly golden promise of their post-royal life began to lose its shine
Meghan’s 40×40 initiative was launched with celebrity backing on her 40th birthday in 2021, asking 40 friends to spend 40 minutes mentoring women returning to work.
The Duchess predicted the initiative could create a global ‘ripple effect.’ Instead, it also quietly disappeared from public view.
Her children’s book, The Bench, became a New York Times bestseller in the United States but received savage reviews from some British critics and failed to become the beginning of a broader children’s publishing empire.
Meanwhile, Meghan’s attempts to establish herself as a television personality culminated in With Love, Meghan, the glossy Netflix lifestyle series featuring the Duchess cooking, entertaining and dispensing hosting tips from a rented California home.
It survived two seasons but was not renewed for a third.
In yet another flop, Cookie Queens, executive produced by Harry and Meghan through Archewell Productions, follows four Girl Scouts as they compete in the high-pressure world of cookie selling.
Meghan personally helped promote the documentary, discussing her own childhood experiences as a Girl Scout before its theatrical release.
Yet according to reported Box Office Mojo figures, the film managed approximately $354,000 from 446 theaters on its opening weekend.
CatVideoFest 2026, essentially 70 minutes of viral cat footage, took approximately $569,000 despite playing on just 255 screens.
The royal couple had been beaten by skateboarding cats.
Whatever the quality or commercial success of their output, Harry and Meghan have never struggled to generate publicity – their every project still attracts global headlines, even when audiences have proved far less enthusiastic about the content itself
‘There’s no getting around the optics of finishing five places behind a 70-minute compilation of internet cat videos,’ royal commentator Kinsey Schofield told Fox News.
‘Hollywood can forgive a lot, but being beaten by CatVideoFest is the sort of indignity that writes its own punchline.
‘Harry and Meghan remain extraordinarily effective at generating headlines, but headlines and paying customers are two very different things,’ she said.
‘There was a period when simply attaching their names to something guaranteed enormous curiosity. I’m not convinced that’s true anymore.’
Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams similarly pointed to the Oprah interview, Harry & Meghan and Spare as the couple’s genuine blockbusters.
‘What is undoubted is the publicity that accompanies everything they do,’ he said.
But he claimed audiences had proved less interested in projects including With Love, Meghan, Heart of Invictus, Polo and now Cookie Queens.
‘So it’s all about buzz and nothing else, save their link with real royalty,’ he suggested.
The couple have also cycled through a striking number of employees since their relationship began, including repeated changes among senior communications staff.
Commentator Fitzwilliams claimed earlier this year that she had developed a ‘disastrous habit of falling out with Hollywood’s top power brokers’.
Her absence from the Met Gala became another talking point.
So too did reports about her relationships with figures including Lauren Sánchez Bezos, the Kardashians and Vogue’s Anna Wintour.
The Sussexes unquestionably remain famous.
Their every move still generates headlines across the world, Meghan continues to operate As Ever and Archewell Productions remains active.
They will also retain their Montecito mansion, leaving open the possibility of continuing to work in America.
But their return to Britain represents a remarkable full-circle moment.
In 2020, Harry and Meghan left the monarchy believing their future lay 5,000 miles away in California.
They had royal fame, Hollywood money and almost unlimited curiosity on their side.
Six years on and a string of abandoned projects later, they are coming home.
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