Meghan Markle ‘seriously considering’ lucrative book deal

After a week of royal media skirmishes, a new book could threaten the monarchy further. And this time Meghan would be holding the pen.

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Of all the expos​é​s that have hit Buckingham Palace over the last 30-odd years – the infidelity-admitting TV interviews, the bombshell-dropping biographies – there is one significant line that has never, ever been crossed: no member of the royal house has ever put pen to paper and actually lifted the lid on the inner workings of the world’s most famous family.

Maybe, that is, until now.

This week saw the publication of The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister: Part 1 by Samantha Markle, Meghan Duchess of Sussex’s half sister, a debut that is hardly likely to set the literary world on fire.

The book, four years in the making, had promised that “truth is stranger than fiction” and that Markle’s tale would reveal “hidden truths”.

Duh, duh, DUH.

Released in the UK and the US this week, it is instead more of a dull, recycling of various spurious allegations that the 56-year-old Markle has previously lobbed at her sister in the press such that Meghan was “mean” to their father Thomas Markle and that she was “controlling”.

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Samantha Grant, aka Samantha Markle, is the half sister of Meghan Markle.

The title’s release does not appear to have fazed the now California-based royal who has yet to officially comment. However, one of the royal’s friends, speaking to Vanity Fair, has revealed that Samantha’s book has “barely registered on (the Duchess’) radar”.

“Meghan has not seen Samantha for years so the idea that she is worried about the book is nonsense. Meghan barely knows Samantha, they haven’t seen each other for nearly 20 years.”

However, that same report also raises the tantalising, fascinating prospect of a true literary sensation which could be in the offing: Meghan might be getting ready to pen a book of her very own.

According to Vanity Fair’s Katie Nicholl, “Meghan is also considering writing a book and has had numerous approaches and lucrative offers from respectable publishing houses.”

The same Sussex friend told the magazine, “Meghan has some very serious book deals on the table. They are all up for consideration.”

(The mind boggles at how many zeros there would be on the cheques attached to those proposals.)

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Meghan Markle watching Serena Williams at Wimbledon in 2019. Picture: Ella Pellegrini

Only a year ago, the very notion that a member of the Queen’s family might be willing to entertain the idea of accepting a (most likely) lucrative deal for some sort of memoir would have seemed too far-fetched.

Members of the royal house might occasionally take on certain acceptably on-brand publishing projects (Prince Charles’ guest editing of Country Life and Meghan’s turn at the helm of an issue of British Vogue) but they don’t dig out their laptops and have a crack at lengthy, personal musings.

(To be fair, Charles has authored or co-authored dozens of books, all about gardens or old stately houses in gardens and all pretty much guaranteed to put you to sleep with their lengthy discussions of hedgerows and 19th century stonewalling techniques.)

But life has changed, spectacularly, seismically, and irrevocably, over the last 12 months (obviously in many, many ways).

In the recent past, the possibility that a prince of the realm would sign a deal with Netflix would have been simply far too fanciful to warrant entertaining. The idea that two HRHs (even if they aren’t allowed to style themselves thus) would be putting out a chatty, personal podcast would have been written off as simply absurd.

Likewise it would have been downright comical to even contemplate a world where Oprah would take time out of her day to spruik a vegan latte brand in which a member of the house of Windsor had a business stake.

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Like many of us, the royal family has had an unprecedented 12 months. Picture: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

Clearly, the world has moved on dramatically since those more innocent days and in 2021 the idea of Meghan writing a book seems … pretty reasonable. Having conquered the worlds of TV and podcasting, staking her claim in the publishing world seems only logical.

Now, should the 39-year-old decide to become the Carrie Bradshaw of the Montecito set, it seems unlikely she would tap away on her keyboard to produce some sort of deliciously insidery palace tell-all (though dear god would that sell like hot cakes!).

Rather, given that she is building a brand and philanthropic portfolio focused on positivity and compassion, chances are any sort of book would be in line with these values. That is, it would be some sort of title that elevates women’s voices and is an inspiring, Michelle Obama-esque read.

However, pretty much any sort of book written in the first person would require her to share some of her own thoughts and experiences and even that would be a departure from the status quo and even the slimmest hint of some literary soul-baring seems unlikely to warm the cockles of any courtiers’ hearts.

And if they are a tad nervous and sweating in their bespoke loafers right now, they might have every right to be.

A book by Meghan Markle would inevitably involve some soul-baring. Picture: Michele Spatari/AFP

This week saw the Duchess and Buckingham Palace face off in a very public fashion over who was responsible for the decision to edit her given names out of her son Archie’s birth certificate.

Her seeming refusal to meekly back down or accept the narrative the royal house was pushing raises the spectre of whether there might ever come a day when Meghan decides it’s time for no more Mrs-Nice-Duchess. That is, when she decides she fancies getting very, very real and telling the world exactly what really went on inside the house of Windsor in the roughy two-and-a-half years between the Sussexes’ engagement and Megxit.

Factor in too Harry’s pushback, via the British media, in recent days over whether he will be able hold onto his prized honorary military titles under the terms of the couple’s royal ‘divorce’ deal and the picture looks like the Sussexes’ are more increasingly willing to stand up to the palace when they see fit.

These prevailing, potentially adversarial winds would suggest that it seems unlikely to be plain sailing for the royal house when it comes to the Sussexes in the near future.

Last year during a pro-voting event in the lead up to the US presidential election, Meghan said she knew “what it’s like to feel voiceless”.

Those days are long gone. Today, Meghan not only has a voice but, reportedly, a stack of publishing deals to boot. This year, long may the written word reign!

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