The Sussexes have relaunched their brand in order to monetize their status as royals, this time with a new website, Sussex.com, and a rather ridiculous coat of arms.
You may feel like the timing is strange. This latest controversy comes as King Charles embarks on treatment for a yet undisclosed form of cancer.
It’s hardly what the doctors ordered, but what can you expect?
Sussex’s closet is starting to look a little empty. Without new endorsements, without a new deal with Hollywood, there are few obvious sources of money needed to maintain her lavish lifestyle.
Needs must.
The Duke and Duchess have made good business of their various claims and revelations in their Netflix documentary and in Harry’s ghost memoir, Spare, but what more is there to say?
The climate appears to be changing in the United States and the welcome the Sussexes enjoyed when they first arrived in California in 2021 is fading.
Increasingly, Americans don’t care much about Meghan and Harry. It’s surprising that the Sussexes weren’t among the many celebrities who partied at last weekend’s Super Bowl.
Maybe they had better things to do that night.
The new Sussex.com homepage features an image of Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex at the Invictus Games closing ceremony in September 2023.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s royal coat of arms features prominently on the new Sussex.com website and could cause tensions as a result.
If naked opportunism seems obvious, Sussex.com is further proof, to me at least, of how hardened Harry and Meghan have become in their opposition to the Monarchy.
Those who say that the king’s illness constitutes a wonderful moment for reconciliation between father and youngest son fail to understand the true state of relations between the Sussexes and the Royal Family.
It’s horrendous.
From this point of view, Harry’s flight to London after learning of his father’s cancer can be interpreted as a cynical ploy.
Did Harry really believe that a transatlantic race to see King Charles would endear him to a once-adoring public?
His grieving father seems to have known better. No doubt encouraged by Queen Camilla, the king gave his son just over 30 minutes before Harry went to sleep, not in a royal palace, but in a hotel.
No doubt Meghan will have participated fully in his decisions. This, remember, is a woman who refuses to reconcile with her sick father and has been accused of cheating on her (former) best friends.
The Sussexes’ recent trip to Jamaica was notably inappropriate, perhaps even tantamount to betrayal.
In the wake of the Cambridges’ unhappy visit there in 2022, amid the island’s bid for reparations and its talk of abandoning the British monarch as head of state, Meghan must have known that the Jamaican government’s hospitality would embarrass Britain. .
I suspect she loved it, not to mention the private jet, the five-star hotels and the royal treatment provided by the Prime Minister of Jamaica.
Harry and Meghan will be carefully advised, but Sussex.com flirts with danger, a sign perhaps that the stakes are now high.
The move exposes them to accusations of breaking a solemn promise to Queen Elizabeth that they would not commercialize the relationship with the Royal Family.
What else can we conclude?
Surely the time has come for the King to cancel his titles and withdraw the titles from his sons.
Until now, Charles has been too tolerant of the Sussexes’ money-grabbing antics.
The King failed to suppress the Sussexes after the Oprah Winfrey show. That would have been the smartest course of action.
Instead, he gave his children titles of prince and princess and invited them to his coronation. Only Harry arrived, and then he left for the United States in a short time.
Throughout this time, King Charles has been far too lenient towards a couple who made a living by harming the royal family and Britain. It’s time for that to change.
This latest breach of trust – a clear attempt to make money from his royal status – should be punished.
Once the King recovers from cancer, he should make it clear that the Sussexes are no longer members of the Royal Family and are not welcome in Britain.
Tom Bower is the author of Revenge: Meghan, Harry, and the Windsor War published by Simon & Schuster.