Meghan and Harry in ‘extremely high demand and negotiating ‘big media deal’: Insider

An insider has revealed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are in ‘extremely high demand and negotiating a ‘big media deal’, as they work on making 2024 their ‘year of redemption’.

It wasn’t quite on the scale of the royal family’s infamous Annus Horribillis, but Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are hoping to leave 2023 behind with an Annus Redemptionis.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have resolved that 2024 will be their “Year of Redemption” after 12 months of humiliating mockery, creative failures and near-catastrophic accusations of exaggerating a paparazzi car chase.

While finding sales success with Prince Harry’s memoir Spare and the Netflix series, Harry & Meghan, the couple were widely lampooned as “lazy grifters”, saw donors flee Archewell, and were named among Hollywood’s “biggest losers”.

“Harry and Meghan think 2024 will be the year of redemption,” a Sussex insider told Us Weekly, with another adding they’re “in extremely high demand” with a “big media deal” in the works.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry see a “Year of Redemption” ahead in 2024. Picture: Supplied

It would be a remarkable turnaround after a 2023 that royal observers hold in esteem just shy of 1992, when the Queen famously lamented a year where three of her children divorced and a fire ripped through Windsor Castle.

“In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an “Annus Horribilis,” she said to mark the 40th year of her reign.

The Sussex “plan for a Hollywood comeback” was revealed this week at the same time Ms Markle made a bizarre appearance in the background of a coffee company commercial.

According to the leaks from sources close to the couple, their marriage is stronger than ever “despite being tested” and offers have been flooding in for the in-demand pair.

“They’ve actually been shocked by how popular she is. Her team has never seen anything like it,” the insider said.

“There’s this perception that Harry and Meghan have been snubbed in the entertainment industry. But the way they see it, they’re choosing quality over quantity instead of grabbing every opportunity that comes their way.”

A Year of Redemption will be a turnaround form a year the Sussexes were lampooned as “grifters”. Picture: Comedy Central

Those Hollywood opportunities, which the couple are considering moving homes to be closer to, include film roles and multimillion-dollar fashion and beauty deals.

But Ms Markle is “laser-focused” on the Archewell Foundation, the source said, with the Duchess announcing the Welcome Project to support “women-led programming for recently resettled Afghan women”.

“Meghan’s been tight-lipped about potentially revisiting [Suits], but there’s hope that if the timing is right, something can be worked out,” one insider said after the series’ success sparked talks of a reunion.

“Meghan would consider it. There have already been discussions,” another added.

The rosy picture for 2024 comes after they were named on The Hollywood Reporter’s annual list of “most embarrassing missteps” amid their “pretty nuts” year.

Meghan is in ‘high demand’, according to those familiar with Meghan’s thinking. Picture: Getty Images

“After a whiny Netflix documentary, a whiny biography (Spare — even the title is a pouty gripe) and an inert podcast, the Harry and Meghan brand swelled into a sanctimonious bubble just begging to be popped — and South Park was the pin,” the magazine opined.

“The show’s 20-minute ‘Worldwide Privacy Tour’ take-down in March was savage, and was followed by Spotify dropping Archetypes, with a top executive labelling the duo ‘grifters’.”

After their “sanctimonious bubble” was burst by South Park, the couple came in for further ridicule by The Family Guy, while the release of Omid Scobie’s Endgame further embroiled the couple in the royal family feud they’d largely put aside after the release of Spare.

The year was capped off by the release of the Archewell Foundation’s finances showing a massive exodus of wealthy donors to the charity.

The foundation’s 25-page report for 2022-23

showed Prince Harry and Ms Markle worked one hour per week at the foundation, while in the past year only two donors contributed USD $1 million ($A1.5m) each — down from the US $13 million ($A19.8 million) the foundation received in 2021.

While the foundation secured revenue of USD $2 million in the past year, the expenses of $2.6 million left a financial shortfall of USD $674,485 ($A1m) in 2022-23. The year before the foundation reported a USD $9 million ($A1.37m) profit.

Originally published as Meghan and Harry in ‘extremely high demand and negotiating ‘big media deal’: Insider