‘Rock bottom’: Huge Meghan rumour could crush royals

With the Duke and Duchess of Sussex back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, questions are mounting about Meghan’s future plans.

One of the stories on the front cover of the current issue of the UK’s Closer mag is “I found a hotter husband on my hen do”. Proud bastion of journalistic excellence, this is not.

However, it’s summer in the northern hemisphere, the telly is dead boring and the entire royal family have absconded up north to thrill in the aristocratic delight of killing small birds and not having to make small talk with regional mayors.

And that is probably why a story in Closer has been doing the rounds this week, speculating that Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex is writing a book.

Have we been here before? You betcha. Have there been whispers and reports and claims circulating for years now that the duchess was a dead cert to follow in husband Prince Harry’s footsteps and to pen several hundred pages of soul-searching and the occasional bit of score-settling? Bien sûr.

But timing, as waggish sorts and cliché-susceptible writers know, is everything. And for Harry and Meghan, we are approaching last roll of the dice territory.

We have now passed the 150-day mark (or five months in old money) since Meghan debuted her embryonic lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard (ARO) on Instagram with a retro-ish video that was far more Betty Crocker than Betty Friedan.

There is as yet no launch date, actual products to buy and no staff have been hired as far as is publicly known.

We have now passed the 150-day mark since Meghan debuted her lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard (ARO) on Instagram. Picture: American Riviera Orchard/Instagram

And Harry? This year has seen him take several brutal hits. The African Parks charity he is closely aligned with is facing allegations that their paid guards have raped and tortured indigenous peoples in multiple countries and then last month, he faced stinging backlash after being announced as this year’s recipient of a prestigious public service award.

The Sussexes could really do with a nice, fat win.

This week they arrived in Colombia for a four-day trip that has universally been described as

“quasi royal”, not least by me, given that they are no longer actual representatives of the crown and have precisely zero diplomatic standing.

This is the stuff they do best – the charming, the hugging, the speech-giving – and we have seen them back in their natural milieu, busily reminding Crown Inc how much they stuffed up in letting the Sussexes slip through their gouty fingers.

However, zoom out and the wider picture makes for far less rosy viewing.

After ARO’s stylised Insta debut in March and then 50 select intimates of the duchess receiving gift baskets featuring handmade ARO strawberry jam, the business has yet to, you know, actually materialise.

No date has been set for when actual products might go on sale or specifically what they might be. (Trademarking applications for ARO showed plans for ARO to sell plates, cookbooks, household linens, pantry items including jams and spreads, gift wrap, stationery, candles, yoga mats and pet food).

Nor has ARO hired any staff that we know of, and back in April, the Mail reported that “the initial CEO search has not panned out so far”.

The chance for Sussex fans to shell out their hard-earned cash on Meghan-backed butter knives seems unlikely to come to fruition this year, with a merchandising source telling Page Six back in March (yes, March) that it was “almost getting too late” then for her to be able to have products ready to go for Christmas.

For several months this year, the Duchess of Sussex has filmed an as yet-untitled lifestyle and entertainment series for Netflix. This week the Daily Mail reported that the streamer “is taking over the commercial exploitation of the [ARO] brand”, which is a curious turn of events given they are not exactly known for being in the business of selling table runners or dog biscuits.

Of this new series, reporting has previously suggested that it won’t arrive on TV screens until next year, which – for anyone paying attention and taking notes – is the same year that the Sussexes’ deal with the streamer is set to run out.

The Sussexes could really do with a nice, fat win. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation

There have been other ARO teething problems.

In July, the US Patents and Trademarks Office sent the duchess’ lawyers Notices of Irregularity, seeking clarification on her ARO trademarking application, though this sounds like some fairly garden variety bits of red tape. Still, that ARO was announced with great fanfare before the boring paperwork-y bits had been sorted out is interesting.

The wider issue that ARO would seek to answer is, what are Harry and Meghan going to do with the rest of their lives, and to generate some sort of income stream? And an income stream that is not dependent on them dishing royal dirt on the reg like two people with new spades and plenty of spare time?

Page Six has previously reported that Mandana Dayani, the former president of the Sussexes’ Archewell arm, “was supposed to figure out a business that makes money, but she left … but I know she pitched Meghan on a bunch of ideas”.

As the five-year mark of Megxit approaches (I know, were we ever truly so young?) the Sussexes find themselves in a tricky position. They are no longer the new and exciting kids on the block whom big companies will throw vast armfuls of cash at to sign up and to get on their books. Their story has been told over six hours of prestige TV, a 400-page book and more interviews than you could poke an ornamental, filigreed stick at.

Their charity work is to their credit, but it is yet to be on any sort of large-format, conversation-changing scale. Meanwhile, Harry has developed a tendency to turn up at awards nights to accept gongs.

So far they have failed to really get out from under the shadow of their own making, in that they arrived in the US, did Oprah and defined themselves in opposition to the royal family.

But now, take the House of Windsor part of their story out of the equation, and what are you left with?

Spare was the biggest-selling book of 2023. Picture: Adam Berry/Getty Images

They have yet to create a brand that is actually built on them and what they have to offer and not on the Great Royal Escape, and that has implications for their future money making prospects too.

While the world might know their story intimately and there might be a certain Sussex fatigue, the facts are that Harry’s Spare sold like the most sizzling of hot cakes. It broke the Guinness World Record for the fastest-selling nonfiction book of all time on the day it was released and even in the UK, where the duo enjoy approval ratings somewhere around that of a persistent ear infection (the duke, according to YouGov polling in May, is on net -32 and the duchess is on net -43), Spare was the biggest-selling book of 2023.

Money, meet spinner. Bank account, meet wheelbarrows full of cash.

Also, what does Meghan have to lose anymore?

The last time that Harry was in the UK, in May, King Charles was reportedly too busy to see his son and recent reporting from the Daily Beast suggests that their relationship has “completely collapsed” over the question of the Sussex family’s UK security arrangements. (Arrangements which, it must be noted, are organised and looked after by an independent government body and not Buckingham Palace).

That is, it’s not like Meghan has to worry about angering her father-in-law or negatively impacting Montecito-London relations, given things sound like they are at about rock bottom.

The duchess herself has dropped some very tantalising hints over the years that have given rise to speculation she could pen an autobiography. Earlier this month, the 43-year-old said during a TV interview that she had not “really scraped the surface” in terms of speaking out about her experiences inside the royal family.

A story in Closer has been doing the rounds this week, speculating that Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex is writing a book. Picture: CBS Sunday Morning

“When you’ve been through any level of pain or trauma, I believe part of our healing journey, certainly part of mine, is being able to be really open about it,” she told CBS’ Sunday Morning news show.

In her 2022 interview with The Cut, she said, “It’s interesting, I’ve never had to sign anything that restricts me from talking. I can talk about my whole experience and make a choice not to”.

If Meghan was to suddenly come out with a book and, shocker, it painted Crown Inc in a harsh light, she would likely get a pasting from the usual quarters given that both father-in-law Charles and sister-in-law Kate, the Princess of Wales are undergoing treatment for cancer.

However, I reckon at this stage, opinions about the Sussexes are firmly, firmly entrenched so what’s she got to lose?

People who think the duke and duchess are brave, valiant individuals who have stood up to a powerful institution and spoken truth to tweedy power will love them no matter what. And people who are rabidly and illogically committed to the notion the couple are ‘orrible sorts intent on bringing down the monarchy would not change their position if the Sussexes managed to cure childhood cancer.

Maybe Meghan should think sod it and do it anyway.

With ARO still an unknown quantity, with previous reports that Netflix could call time on their deal with the couple and with a new podcast series yet to be announced, speaking out, via book, might not only help her “healing journey” but that of the Sussex bank accounts too.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.