Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s ‘last-ditch’ effort revealed

The couple is now firmly back in the spotlight – and after months of frenzied speculation, it’s revealed some huge clues about the state they’re in.

COMMENT

In just over 24 hours, the curtain will fall on the sixth Invictus Games – along with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s last chance to turn the tide for a very long time.

When they finally retreat to their Dusseldorf hotel room late tomorrow night, after their final appearance at the Closing Ceremony, they’ll presumably collapse on the couch (with a glass of her favourite drop, a Tignanello red) and pray to God they’ve managed to land the plane.

Over the past week, the strategy has been clear: ditch the double act and give Harry the space to do his thing; with Meghan in the supporting role.

For context: in case you somehow missed it, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s public image is in free fall.

Their increasingly-polarising brand simply cannot survive another year like the last – let alone the two that will pass before they’re back on the world stage for the Toronto Games in 2025.

With things this dire, paparazzi sightings every other month simply won’t cut the mustard.

It was evident from the moment the Games got underway that they were throwing everything but the kitchen sink at this last-ditch attempt to finally flip the narrative for good.

The couple shared a cute moment with some kids during the event. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Meghan – widely reported weeks ago to be hosting a closing ceremony segment herself – was quietly scrubbed from the official program at the last minute, and made her entrance a full four days after the competition had gotten underway.

The result: focus was firmly on an emotional Harry as he addressed the crowd of his fellow veterans and their families at the Opening Ceremony, and mingled with them all in the days that followed.

No one could repeat the oft-heard claim that Meghan was once more trying to hog the spotlight.

Instead, she quietly ducked into Germany on Tuesday and made a quick transition from the plane to a reception, where she delivered a short, charming speech which included a sheepish “sorry” for her tardiness.

It was a well-watched arrival after plenty of speculation about her plans – but the main message pushed out to the media by Sussex “sources” as it all unfolded?
Meghan travelled “without a stylist and did her own hair and makeup”, and got herself ready in a $220 Banana Republic outfit in “just over an hour”.

Duchess Difficult? The Diva Duchess? Not this time!

Meghan did her own hair and makeup for this event, apparently. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

And as the couple stepped out this week – hands firmly fused back together, beaming smiles on their faces – they offered a rare display of what they’re capable of doing when they’re not being enticed by large sums of money to complain about things.

Harry and Meghan can draw a crowd to the most worthy of causes and use their star power to amplify those who deserve to be heard.

Since 2020, their philanthropic approach has appeared fairly scattergun. But in the Games, they have purpose, co-ordination and an inspired audience.

We’ve had Oprah tell-alls, Netflix tell-alls, book tell-alls and other projects which never even got off the ground (RIP to Meghan’s animated series Pearl and Harry’s Putin podcast plans, we hardly knew ye).

The Invictus Games are the one thing they absolutely nail, every time.

Right now, it’s also going to decide their fate.

If Brand Sussex were an Aussie prime minister, they’d have copped a #spill many, many polls ago. Harry and Meghan need a miracle to somehow execute a U-turn with the cargo ship of toxicity that has become their post-royal image.

And boy, do they know it.

The Games have always served as something of a ceasefire between the couple and their favourite sparring partner, the press – where all focus is on Harry, doing what Harry undoubtedly does best: fronting the competition he founded, supporting servicemen and women, and relaxing into the cheekiest version of himself.

You can see it on his face – this is where he’s at his happiest. He’s said it himself, multiple times.

During the week-long sports extravaganza, people who may have teetered (rather dramatically) in their support of the once-rock star royal are reminded of exactly why we all once loved him.

In his element at the 2016 Games in Orlando. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images for Invictus

But en route to Dusseldorf, the start of the Games was almost overshadowed by another wave of headlines about Harry’s rift with his family, as it became blindingly obvious they had no intention of even inviting him over for a cup of tea during his stopover in London.

Just last week came the unfortunate headline that Meghan’s approval rating was sitting at just -2.

Sure, that’s a slight improvement from her -13 after their Netflix documentary and Harry’s memoir – but it’s also a steep fall from the +23 she was at in the days before Harry & Meghan was released. Basically, no one’s popping the Krug at Chateau Sussex.

Huge efforts have been made to spin their story amid all the commercial blows (“they’re not ‘f**king grifters’, they simply weren’t given enough direction!”), but the fact they’ve clearly now separated the once-powerhouse joint Brand Sussex into two separate entities means they know what they’ve been doing hasn’t been working – and that they’re in big trouble.

“They are trying now to undo the damage they did with the Harry & Meghan documentary and Spare, which made them into a toxic couple,” brand expert Nick Ede quoted a friend of the couple’s in the Daily Mail recently, adding that Meghan needed to “get away from the victim narrative”.

Really, their glamorous joint return to the spotlight for Meghan’s Women of Vision Award in May, with the duchess resplendent in a stunning gold gown, should have been an easy triumph for the pair.

This came just a couple of weeks after the coronation, and should really have served as a relaunch - but it went awry. Picture: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

Instead, it will forever be remembered by the binfire surrounding the “near-catastrophic” paparazzi car chase that came later that night.

All other recent efforts have gone largely the same way.

Nothing has ever been more inadvertently on the nose than earlier this month, when the A+++ list of guests at the Lionel Messi match in LA was shared on X (formerly Twitter) – featuring a roundup of literally the most famous people on the planet, Harry and Meghan included.

Unlike every single other celebrity, their job titles were left glaringly blank. Cue ridicule – and Sussex existential crisis.

One-time royals, former podcasters, occasional gripers: the Invictus Games is the one instance when all the other noisy drama is forgotten, and their place on the world stage is made clear.

As the dust settles this year, the court of public opinion will soon retire to decide whether the new, positive Sussex era has finally begun.

If they’ve pulled it off – let’s hope they stick to what they do best.