Life After Royalty: The Duchess of Sussex

After Meghan Markle married Prince Harry in 2018, she experienced an inevitable culture clash. The British Royal Family is known for its reserved nature and traditional values. Meghan, however, is a former actress from Los Angeles, California, a place associated with liberal values and a laid-back attitude. 

CALIFORNIAN EXILE

The apparent contrast between Meghan and the Royal Family and even British culture in general, provoked attacks from the UK media, which she once described as “almost unsurvivable.” In 2020, those attacks drove Meghan and Harry to abandon their royal duties and move thousands of miles away, to Montecito, California. 

Now the couple and their two children, Archie and Lilibet, have settled into their lives on the sunny Californian coast. And Meghan is bringing Hollywood glamour and fame to her royal position, by establishing herself as a Netflix star, lifestyle guru, and social media influencer.

A lifestyle brand

The same year that Meghan and Harry moved to California, they founded their own company, Archewell Inc., and signed a deal with Netflix, reportedly valued at $100 million. Two years later, they starred in the mega-successful Netflix series Harry & Meghan, about their lives together. This year, however, it’s all about Meghan! In March, Netflix releasedWith Love, Meghan, a lifestyle series in which Meghan cooks, curates, decorates, and talks about her life growing up in Southern California. 

WITH LOVE

The series is filmed at a luxury farmhouse in Montecito and promotes an aspirational lifestyle. Some people have criticised it for being out of touch with reality. However, it debuted in Netflix’s global top 10 most-watched programmes and has been renewed for a second season, which will debut this fall. 

Meghan is also busy establishing her lifestyle and cooking brand, As Ever, which began selling herbal teas, honey, and other artisanal products in the US in spring. And early this year, she returned to Instagram, where she has already accumulated over three million followers. 

A normal life

Despite her royal status and celebrity career, Meghan says she and her family have a relatively normal life in Montecito, far from the imperial gaze of the British monarchy. She told People magazine she goes to group yoga classes, with forty to fifty other people from the local community. “I mean, that’s part of how you connect. I love it.” 

And she praised the locals for allowing her to live a normal life. “Once you know us, I think you want us to have the same normalcy as parents and for our children as they do, despite [sic] however unique our situation is,” she said.