Six years ago, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left Britain convinced that their future lay thousands of miles away from the Royal Family. California promised freedom, privacy, financial independence and something even bigger: the chance to turn their extraordinary global fame into an entertainment and lifestyle empire entirely on their own terms.
For a while, it looked as though they had pulled it off.
There was a reported $100 million Netflix agreement, a reported $20 million Spotify deal, a $15 million mansion in Montecito and almost limitless curiosity about what the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would do next. Hollywood doors appeared wide open. Every interview became international news. Every announcement generated headlines.
Now, six turbulent years later, the Sussexes are preparing to take their family back across the Atlantic.
Harry, 41, and Meghan, 45, are understood to be returning to Britain before the end of August for an “extended period,” with Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, believed to have been enrolled at a British school.
They are not returning as working royals. They are not giving up their Montecito home, and they also retain a residence in Portugal.
Yet the symbolism is impossible to ignore.
The country Harry and Meghan left behind in 2020 is about to become a major part of their children’s lives — just as the extraordinary commercial promise surrounding their move to America looks very different from what it did six years ago.
California once looked like the perfect second act
When Harry and Meghan arrived in America in 2020, few celebrity couples possessed anything approaching their commercial potential.
They brought royal titles, worldwide recognition and a story that fascinated audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.
Their departure from royal life had transformed them from senior members of the monarchy into two of the most talked-about people in global entertainment.
The money followed quickly.
In September 2020, Harry and Meghan signed a huge Netflix agreement through Archewell Productions, with plans to create documentaries, films, children’s programming and scripted entertainment.
Three months later came Spotify.
The reported $20 million audio agreement appeared to confirm that the Sussexes had achieved exactly what they had sought when they stepped away from royal duties: enormous earning power without the restrictions of palace life.
Montecito became the physical symbol of that new existence.
Their sprawling $15 million California property placed them among wealthy entrepreneurs and A-list celebrities, far removed from the royal residences, photographers and palace machinery they had left behind.
America offered sunshine and privacy, but more importantly, it offered control.
Harry and Meghan could choose what they produced, what they discussed and how they presented themselves to the world.
At first, public appetite for them appeared almost insatiable.
When Harry and Meghan were the story, millions watched
The Sussexes’ first years outside royal life produced several undeniable blockbusters. Their 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey became a global television event.
Harry and Meghan spoke openly about their experiences inside the Royal Family, their struggles with royal life and the circumstances surrounding their departure.
Millions watched. Netflix then released Harry & Meghan in 2022. Across six episodes, the couple revisited their relationship, the pressures they said they had faced, their battles with the media and their deteriorating relationship with the royal institution.
Again, the world paid attention. Harry followed with Spare in January 2023.
The memoir went further still, taking readers inside his childhood, his relationship with King Charles and his increasingly fractured bond with Prince William.
It became a publishing sensation, selling more than six million copies worldwide.
Together, Oprah, Harry & Meghan and Spare demonstrated something important. The Sussexes could command an enormous audience.
But there was also a problem that would become increasingly difficult to ignore. The audience seemed most interested when the subject was Harry, Meghan and the Royal Family.
Once the royal revelations began to run out, their next challenge was proving that audiences would follow them somewhere else. That proved considerably harder.
The projects kept coming — but the frenzy did not
Archewell Productions attempted to broaden its output beyond Harry and Meghan’s personal story. Netflix released Live to Lead, focusing on inspirational leaders and activists.
Then came Heart of Invictus, following competitors preparing for Harry’s Invictus Games. The subject was deeply connected to one of Harry’s most important causes, but the documentary failed to approach the attention generated by Harry & Meghan.
Next came Polo. The five-part series took viewers inside the elite equestrian sport long associated with the Duke of Sussex. Again, the reception was muted.
The series failed to reach Netflix’s global Top 10 and received a 25 percent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes. Meanwhile, some projects never reached viewers at all.
Pearl, Meghan’s planned animated children’s series, was scrapped by Netflix in 2022.
An adaptation of Carley Fortune’s bestselling novel Meet Me at the Lake was announced with considerable publicity but did not materialize during the Sussexes’ original Netflix agreement.
The pattern was becoming difficult to miss. Harry and Meghan themselves could still generate headlines almost effortlessly. Their productions could not always generate the same excitement.
Spotify became the most uncomfortable setback
If Netflix produced mixed results, the Sussexes’ relationship with Spotify ended far more dramatically. The couple’s reported $20 million agreement had arrived with enormous expectations in late 2020.
Eventually, Meghan launched Archetypes in 2022.
The podcast explored stereotypes and labels applied to women and featured a succession of high-profile guests.
But the series produced only 12 full episodes.
By June 2023, Spotify and Archewell Audio announced that they had “mutually agreed to part ways.”
Then came the comment that ensured the split would remain part of the Sussexes’ Hollywood story.
Spotify executive Bill Simmons attacked Harry and Meghan on his own podcast, notoriously describing them as “grifters.”
Simmons also mocked his experience attempting to develop ideas with Harry, saying he wanted to tell the story of a Zoom conversation they had about a potential podcast.
For a couple who had entered America with one of the most lucrative audio agreements in the industry, it was a bruising end.
Meghan eventually returned to podcasting through Lemonada Media with Confessions of a Female Founder.
But the atmosphere had changed.
The sense that virtually anything carrying the Sussex name would automatically become a cultural event was fading.
Meghan tried another reinvention
Television and podcasting were only part of Meghan’s post-royal ambitions.
She also attempted to establish herself in the enormously lucrative lifestyle market.
In March 2024, American Riviera Orchard appeared.
A carefully produced Instagram video showed Meghan cooking and arranging flowers, while the brand’s name referenced the wealthy Santa Barbara region surrounding the Sussexes’ Montecito home.
Then came the jam.
Numbered jars of strawberry preserves were sent to celebrity friends, who displayed them on social media.
It was a clever way to generate curiosity.
But the expected full-scale launch did not immediately follow.
Months passed.
Then, in February 2025, American Riviera Orchard disappeared and was replaced by a considerably simpler name: As Ever.
Meghan explained that the original identity had restricted what she could sell and that As Ever gave her room to expand.
The eventual range included preserves, teas, flower sprinkles and other lifestyle products, with some releases selling out.
It demonstrated that Meghan could still turn attention into sales.
What it had not yet done was establish her as the Martha Stewart-style lifestyle powerhouse some supporters had once imagined she might become.
With Love, Meghan offered another test
Netflix also gave Meghan an opportunity to bring her lifestyle ambitions to television.
With Love, Meghan placed the Duchess in a polished California setting, cooking, entertaining and sharing hosting ideas.
It was a very different Meghan from the woman viewers had seen discussing royal tensions with Oprah or revisiting her departure from Britain in Harry & Meghan.
The series lasted two seasons.
But it did not receive a third.
That distinction again reflected the central difficulty of the Sussexes’ American chapter.
Public fascination with Harry and Meghan had never disappeared.
Turning that fascination into a sustainable entertainment franchise was another matter.
Other big ideas quietly faded
Some Sussex ventures disappeared almost as quickly as they arrived.
For Meghan’s 40th birthday in 2021, she launched 40×40.
The initiative asked 40 friends and prominent supporters to donate 40 minutes of their time to mentor women returning to work.
Meghan predicted that those individual contributions could create a wider “ripple effect.”
Celebrity names joined the campaign.
Then 40×40 largely disappeared from public view.
Her children’s book The Bench produced a similarly mixed story.
Inspired by Harry’s relationship with Archie, it reached the New York Times children’s picture-book bestseller list in America.
But it also attracted harsh reviews from some British critics and never developed into the broader children’s publishing venture that might have followed.
Individually, none of these projects defined the Sussexes’ fortunes.
Together, however, they told a story of repeated experimentation — and repeated attempts to discover what a lasting post-royal Sussex brand should actually look like.
Then came an especially awkward box-office comparison
The difficulties became impossible to separate from the headlines when Cookie Queens reached theaters.
Executive produced by Harry and Meghan through Archewell Productions, the documentary follows four Girl Scouts navigating the competitive world of cookie selling.
Meghan helped promote the project and discussed her own childhood experience as a Girl Scout.
But its opening weekend produced a comparison Hollywood publicists would rather avoid.
Reported Box Office Mojo figures placed Cookie Queens at approximately $354,000 from 446 theaters.
Meanwhile, CatVideoFest 2026 — roughly 70 minutes of viral internet cat footage — reportedly earned around $569,000 from only 255 screens.
The Sussex-backed documentary had been beaten by internet cats.
Royal commentator Kinsey Schofield seized on the symbolism.
“There’s no getting around the optics of finishing five places behind a 70-minute compilation of internet cat videos,” she told Fox News.
Her broader argument was more serious.
Harry and Meghan, she suggested, remained extraordinarily capable of generating publicity.
But publicity and paying customers were not necessarily the same thing.
“There was a period when simply attaching their names to something guaranteed enormous curiosity,” Schofield said. “I’m not convinced that’s true anymore.”
That may be the single biggest change between 2020 and today.
The Sussex name still attracts attention.
What it no longer guarantees is that audiences will follow wherever that name appears.
Their biggest successes shared one ingredient
Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams has similarly pointed toward the enormous success of the Oprah interview, Harry & Meghan and Spare.
All three had something in common.
They placed the Sussexes’ relationship with royalty at the center of the story.
By contrast, projects including Heart of Invictus, Polo, With Love, Meghan and Cookie Queens have struggled to create comparable cultural moments.
Fitzwilliams argued that the publicity surrounding Harry and Meghan remains extraordinary.
But publicity alone does not build an entertainment empire.
That contradiction has followed them throughout their years in California.
Harry and Meghan can dominate headlines without necessarily dominating television ratings, podcast charts or box-office receipts.
Their fame has endured.
The commercial formula around that fame has been far less predictable.
Hollywood itself has become part of the story
The Sussexes’ difficulties have not been limited to individual productions.
Over the years, the couple have experienced repeated staff changes, including departures among senior communications executives.
Meghan’s position within America’s celebrity establishment has also become a subject of persistent speculation.
Her absence from the Met Gala this year attracted attention.
So have reports surrounding her relationships with prominent figures including Lauren Sánchez Bezos, members of the Kardashian family and Vogue’s Anna Wintour.
Fitzwilliams claimed earlier this year that Meghan had developed what he called a “disastrous habit of falling out with Hollywood’s top power brokers.”
Such assessments remain commentary rather than established fact.
But their existence illustrates how dramatically the narrative has changed.
In 2020, the question was how powerful Harry and Meghan might become in Hollywood.
Six years later, commentators are debating how much cultural influence they still possess there.
Yet writing off the Sussexes would be too simple
For all the setbacks, Harry and Meghan remain internationally famous.
That has never been in serious doubt.
Meghan continues to operate As Ever.
Archewell Productions remains active.
The couple’s projects still receive coverage that most producers could only dream of generating.
They are also expected to keep their Montecito property, meaning Britain will not replace California entirely.
Their Portuguese residence provides another base.
The next phase of Sussex life may therefore be less about abandoning America and more about creating a transatlantic existence.
What has changed is where the center of gravity appears to be moving.
And that brings the story back to Harry.
Harry’s reunion with King Charles changed the mood
The timing of the family’s return is particularly striking because it follows a significant development in Harry’s relationship with his father.
Sources close to the Duke recently described him as “buoyed,” “very happy” and “really energized” after a reunion with King Charles.
One additional comment stood out.
“He wants to spend more time in the UK with his family.”
Now he appears ready to do exactly that.
Harry, Meghan, Archie and Lilibet are understood to be preparing to return before the end of August.
The children are believed to have been enrolled at a British school.
And unlike one of Harry’s brief visits for a court hearing, charity engagement or family occasion, enrolling two young children in school changes the nature of the move completely.
It suggests routine.
It suggests roots.
And potentially, it suggests years rather than days.
King Charles will have his son — and grandchildren — closer
The family are expected to establish themselves in a private, non-royal residence.
King Charles, who is understood to have learned of Harry’s plans only on Sunday, is said to welcome the opportunity to spend more private time with his younger son and grandchildren.
For Harry, that could be one of the most important consequences of returning.
His relationship with his father has endured years of strain following Megxit, the Oprah interview, the Netflix documentary and Spare.
Archie and Lilibet, meanwhile, have grown up thousands of miles away in California.
A British base changes those practical realities immediately.
But Buckingham Palace’s position on Harry and Meghan’s official status is understood to remain unchanged.
There will be no restoration of their former roles.
No return to being working royals.
No reversal of the arrangement created after their departure in 2020.
Harry and Meghan will return as private individuals who happen to belong to the world’s most famous royal family.
That distinction is crucial.
They are coming back — but not going backward
Harry and Meghan’s return should therefore not be mistaken for Megxit in reverse.
They are not surrendering their independence and walking back through the palace gates.
They are not abandoning California.
And there is no suggestion that Meghan is closing As Ever or that Archewell Productions is ending its work.
Instead, the Sussexes appear to be building something that would have seemed almost unimaginable when they first left Britain.
A life divided between the world they escaped and the world they created afterward.
Britain can offer Harry proximity to his father.
It can give Archie and Lilibet a childhood with stronger connections to their father’s country and family.
America can remain the center of Meghan’s commercial ambitions and a base for Archewell.
Portugal gives the family another foothold in Europe.
It is a far more complicated arrangement than the clean break that appeared to be taking shape in 2020.
And perhaps that is why the move feels so significant.
Six years later, the picture looks very different
When Harry and Meghan arrived in California, the possibilities appeared almost unlimited.
They possessed royal fame without royal duties.
Hollywood money without palace restrictions.
A global audience waiting to hear their story.
And, for a while, that formula worked spectacularly.
Oprah became must-watch television.
Harry & Meghan became a Netflix event.
Spare sold millions.
But the projects that followed exposed a harder truth.
Being fascinating people does not automatically make every television series fascinating.
Being globally famous does not guarantee every podcast becomes essential listening.
And generating headlines does not always translate into audiences, subscriptions or ticket sales.
Spotify disappeared.
Pearl was canceled.
Meet Me at the Lake failed to materialize under the original Netflix deal.
American Riviera Orchard became As Ever.
With Love, Meghan stopped after two seasons.
Other projects arrived with enormous publicity and left with considerably less.
The glittering American second act was never the straightforward triumph that once seemed possible.
Neither, however, was it a total collapse.
Harry and Meghan made enormous amounts of money, produced genuine global hits and created a life independent of Buckingham Palace.
Perhaps the most revealing development is simply that independence no longer appears to require staying 5,000 miles away from Britain.
The Sussex story has come full circle
In 2020, Harry and Meghan believed distance was part of the solution.
They left royal Britain behind, crossed the Atlantic and placed an enormous bet on California.
Six years later, they still have the Montecito mansion.
They still have businesses.
They still have worldwide fame.
But now their children are preparing for British classrooms, Harry is rebuilding contact with his father and the family is establishing a home in the country they once felt compelled to leave.
The Sussexes are not returning to the life they abandoned.
That world has changed too much — and so have they.
But after six years of blockbuster revelations, multimillion-dollar contracts, canceled projects, corporate reinventions and relentless scrutiny, Britain is once again becoming part of their future.
The American dream has not vanished.
It has simply turned out to be far more complicated than the dream Harry and Meghan carried with them to California in 2020.
And perhaps the greatest irony of their post-royal journey is that after traveling thousands of miles to build an entirely new life, the Sussexes’ next chapter is bringing them right back to where the story began.
