Meghan has ‘returned to the spotlight’ – without husband Prince Harry

The Duchess of Sussex has revealed a massive new professional push – and interestingly, her husband was nowhere to be seen.

As far as I’m aware, there are only two times that Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex has been filmed with a gospel choir.

The first was May 19, 2018 when millions of giddy Brits wearing plastic tiaras refilled their picnic bubbly flutes and hiccuping-ly toasted to great love, as a royal wedding for the ages played out in Windsor.

And the second was at a restaurant in Venice in Los Angeles for a hair care brand launch last week.

Well, that about sums it up doesn’t it?

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After months of away time, off, out-of-frame, staying under le radar and not venturing near any of the LA restaurants surrounded by a Milky Way of paparazzi, Meghan has returned to the spotlight for the debut of her hairstylist Kadi Lee’s new Highbrow Hippie range.

What can I tell you, but the duchess smiled (while glowing), hugged Lee (who was holding roses reportedly from the duchess’ own garden) and wore a new $2800 gold and diamond necklace engraved with her children's’ names (cue the ‘awws’).

It was just the latest example of the increasingly separate public lives that the Duchess of Sussex and her ultimate status symbol, royal husband Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex have been living.

Consider that Meghan was not just at the Highbrow Hippie event as a starry supporter of Lee’s, but as an actual backer in the brand, telling InStyle “I am so proud to invest in her as a friend and as a female founder”.

Meghan was at the Highbrow Hippie event as a starry supporter of Lee’s, but also as an actual backer in the brand. Picture: Tiffany Rose/Getty Images for Highbrow Hippie Haircare & Wellness

The pair are pals. Picture: Tiffany Rose/Getty Images for Highbrow Hippie Haircare & Wellness

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This injection of her funds comes after the duchess has been increasingly building out her own, individual portfolio including putting money in vegan latte company Clevr and in bag brand Cesta Collective.

In August she told the New York Times, “investing in [these companies] has helped me line up for this chapter where I’m investing in myself”.

Megan’s independent money-making moves come at a point at which the Sussexes no longer share any confirmed projects, with no joint TV series, podcasts or books in the works (he’s been filming horsies for Netflix, she’s been filming almond milk-making or some such and never the twain shall meet).

Their co-production of Meet Me At The Lake has not been heard from in so long they should put the script’s title page on a few milk cartons.

On November 7, they delivered a message via video to a UN global ministerial conference about online child safety, but it is not known when it was shot and the whole thing hardly serves as a fell-swoop rejoinder to reporting about their ever more self-sufficient, two-stream professional lives.

Socially, they are also keeping a much lower profile. There have been no date nights, no events, no red carpets, no interviews and no outings that have seen them venture beyond their no doubt large and forbidding hedges, at least as far as has been reported, photographed or even rumoured.

It is now more than two months since they were snapped leaving Tyler Perry’s birthday party while doing their normal one-two step – Harry looking glowering and thunderous at the waiting press; Meghan with a smile positively Araldited in place.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle recently appeared together in a video for the Global Ministerial Conference on Violence Against Children in Colombia – but it is not known when it was shot.

For anyone else, a nice break from having to frock up and front up to places would be a blessing, but the Sussexes are not just two ordinary marrieds. We are talking about a couple who literally work side-by-side at the home office in their guesthouse and who have spent years so closely enmeshing and hand stitching together their images and working lives such that they probably now share the same blood type.

Meanwhile, as Meghan puts her hard-earned dosh into “investing in herself” and becoming the Warren Buffett of the Westwood set, Harry is off doing his own thing too, namely single-handedly bankrolling the London legal industry. (Sales of good claret and Turnbull & Asser ties have never done so well, methinks).

On Friday, legal documents filed by the duke’s team, read out in court, alleged that King Charles had tried to block his son from suing the The Sun’s publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN). The papers also revealed that the 40-year-old is one of two people still undertaking legal action for alleged unlawful information gathering, with 39 other claimants having reached settlements since the case was last in court in July. (NGN is owned by the same parent company as News Corp Australia, publisher of this masthead).

Prince Harry is pushing ahead with his court cases. Picture: Kate Green/Getty Images

While the duchess has hardly hidden her aggrieved light behind a bushel when it comes to her treatment by Fleet Street, that is not to say that, according to reports earlier this year, that she is particularly pleased about the pugnacious route that her husband is going down either.

Still, throughout this all, the view from Montecito has been consistent – just because the Sussexes are not busy holding hands while making some 14-part docuseries about indigenous land rights together, that is in no way a reflection of their personal lives.

In October, a royal insider told People, “What we are seeing is a functional and healthy relationship with two working partners, not the contrary”.

“It’s clear that a twin-track approach is evolving,” a friend told the magazine.

“The Duke and Duchess have now hit their stride as individuals – not just as a couple.”

“Twin-track” is all well and good, but 2024 has clearly marked a real turning point in the Sussexes’ story. Moments like Meghan shimmying to a gospel choir in a LA restaurant at a celebrity hair colourist’s launch while Harry reaches level 877 on Candy Crush in their lesser downstairs informal sitting room (I’m guessing) are now looking increasingly par for the course.

And so, let us leave the Sussexes to their striding, because they have places to go, money to put into chic businesses, lawyers to pay and level 878 to reach.

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