All language subtitles for harry.and.meghan.going.their.separate.ways.2024.1080p.web.h264-cbfm_track3_[eng]

IMOGEN STUBBS: Harry and Meghan...
CROWD CHEERS

..once the ultimate power couple...

CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICK

..and darlings of the monarchy.

It really energised
the royal family.

All of a sudden, the royal family
looked a bit more glamorous,

looked a bit more progressive,
looked a bit more modern.

I have the two best guys
in the world, so I'm really happy.

But since leaving the royal family,
the Sussex brand has suffered -

despite books,
interviews and TV shows

hoping to set the record straight.

It felt like a good time
to own my story

and be able to tell it for myself.

I think the public are tired
of the victim narrative,

the bitterness,
because that's all they hear.

And that's what
Meghan and Harry's brand has become.

With some big-money deals
falling flat...

Eventually,
Spotify got rid of their contract.

I think that was about $20 million.

I think one executive
referred to them as

"a couple of grifters."

..has the couple
made a strategic change?

One that shows off
what they do best as individuals?

It looks surprising now
to see them doing things separately,

and it does look quite deliberate.

Taking back control
and taking back the power.

You just get the sense that Meghan
is back in her familiar territory

and she's enjoying it.

What we've seen
is vintage Prince Harry.

It was absolute
Prince Harry textbook of old.

HARRY: 'Keep being you.'

You've got this, and we've got you.

MAN SPEAKS:

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
Thanks.

But is it enough
to rescue the Sussex brand?

Currently, Harry and Meghan are
trading on being Harry and Meghan -

glamour, attraction,
royal family heritage.

We don't really know
if they're gonna be able

to shed the baggage that they have.

As a couple, Harry and Meghan

are one of the most
recognisable brands in the world.

Hello, how are you?

And back when they met in 2016,
it was a fairy tale romance.

It was so romantic.

Glamorous, exciting.

You had a royal prince
who'd been a soldier

marrying an actress from Hollywood.

And this really
captured the imagination.

While she wasn't
exactly a household name,

Meghan brought a new type of glamour
to the royal family,

thanks to her starring role
in the compelling TV drama Suits.

I'm Rachel Zane.
I'll be giving you your orientation.

Wow. You're pretty...
Good. You've hit on me.

We can get it out of the way
that I am not interested.

But that was
just one string to her bow.

She ran her own glossy, aspirational
lifestyle blog, The Tig,

and was an advocate
for women's rights,

having even spoken at the UN.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

ANNOUNCER:
'Please welcome Meghan Markle.'

I am tremendously honoured
to be UN Women's Advocate

for political participation
and leadership.

She was very, very aware
of building a brand.

I think Meghan understood that
if you're gonna become a big star,

you have to become
a bit of a role model.

Here was a young woman
who could stand on her own two feet,

who could demand respect
and who could be heard.

I think the public took to her
immediately.

They thought she had a lot to offer.

BELLS RING

Oyez, oyez!

Buckingham Palace
proudly announce the engagement

of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

God save the Queen.

INTERVIEWER:
Can we start with the proposal?

When did it happen?
How did it happen?

It's a standard,
typical night for us.

Just a cosy night. It was...
What were we doing?

Just roasting chicken and...

Roasting a chicken.
Trying to roast a chicken.

It was so sweet and...
and natural and very romantic.

This quiet, low-key proposal
sent a message to the public

that despite the privilege,
fame and fortune,

perhaps they weren't so different
from us after all.

It generated
huge amounts of positivity,

particularly
in terms of Meghan's background,

being American and mixed race.

It was remarkable.

And, I think, initially, it was
a big outpouring of love for that.

All of a sudden, the royal family
looked a bit more glamorous,

looked a bit more progressive,
looked a bit more modern.

It really energised
the royal family,

but also the royal family fans
as well,

and brought in
a whole new demographic of people.

I remember in Brixton,
in South London,

the crowd went wild...

..and there were people...

There were girls who were
just kind of screaming for her.

The Meghan effect had pushed
Prince Harry's approval rating

even higher than the Queen's.

Hoping to spread that magic
even further,

the pair appeared
alongside William and Catherine

for a Royal Foundation event.

The royal family and the courtiers
around the family

knew how valuable that was
to sell the royal family,

particularly to a younger generation
and a younger market.

Women don't need to find a voice.
They have a voice.

They need to feel empowered
to use it.

And people need to be encouraged
to listen.

If that foursome had worked,

they'd have made headlines
around the world.

They were very strong as a brand.

Worldwide interest
made Harry and Meghan's wedding

one of the most important
in modern British history.

The nation came to a standstill
to watch her join the royal family.

It was a coming together
of the historic royal family

with modern, multicultural Britain.

And probably the high point
for the Harry and Meghan brand.

It was a marriage between
the United States and the UK.

It was a marriage between
the royal family and Hollywood.

Nobody could have written that pitch
better.

Their union was watched
by 1.9 billion people,

an estimated quarter
of the world's population.

But despite its success,

their honeymoon period
was short-lived.

Within weeks,
the couple were being battered

with a seemingly endless flow
of negative headlines.

Meghan made Kate cry,

Meghan was demanding over
the choice of tiara for her wedding.

She was labelled
"Duchess Difficult",

"Hurricane Meghan".

All of this was a drip-drip effect,

and her profile,
certainly among the wider public,

started to go downhill.

Amidst all of this
came some good news.

Meghan was pregnant
with her first child.

But when Archie was born
in May 2019,

the couple showed they were still
determined to do things their way

by choosing to not immediately
inform the press.

There's this kind of whole aura
of secrecy.

It was all part of them trying
to control the media narrative.

And I have the two best guys
in the world,

so I'm really happy.

And it backfired on them very badly
because, actually,

they were very generous
with their time and their access.

It was how the story was managed.

Taking the American approach
of a brief maternity leave,

the family set off for a royal tour
of South Africa.

And at first glance,
things were on the up.

The South Africa tour was brilliant.
I was on it.

The tour was exciting.

Picture-wise, it worked.
It was brilliant.

We will always seek
to challenge injustice

and to speak out for those
who may feel unheard.

The tour took them
to deprived neighbourhoods,

where she met
with survivors of abuse.

But then a bombshell...

as Meghan gave
a heartfelt TV interview

about her own troubles
behind the scenes.

Not many people
have asked if I'm OK.

But it's, uh...

..it's a very real thing to be
going through behind the scenes.

REPORTER: And the answer is...

Would it be fair to say?
..not really OK?

As in, it's really been a struggle.
Yes.

Her decision to speak so openly
divided opinion.

Meghan's approach to interviews
goes alongside the PR playbook

that you see a lot of celebrities
going down.

This sense that they wanna
get their side of the story across.

Unfortunately,
it backfired for a lot of people.

I think a lot of the British public
felt that perhaps

she should have maintained
a stiff upper lip

when travelling around
quite impoverished townships

in South Africa.

It certainly didn't look good.

For some,
this was when the couple's brand

started to shift from romance
to recrimination.

But the biggest twist in their story
came just three months later.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex
have announced

that they are carving out
what they call

"a new role for themselves".

The details were released
on Instagram,

along with a newly designed website,

sussexroyal.com.

The pair said they wanted to become
financially independent

while still supporting the Queen.

Harry and Meghan pulled the trigger,

dropped that announcement
and created, well, chaos.

We were all agog.
How was it going to work?

They wanted the royal titles.

They still wanted
to have the royal patronages.

How can Harry and Meghan
make their own money

but still be working royals?

The two things
just don't go together.

The PR fallout for the couple
was a disaster.

Sources inside Buckingham Palace

claimed to have been blindsided
by the news.

Because there's so much love
for Queen Elizabeth II,

I think that's what the public
really struggled with.

It was a sense of,
"How dare you say no to this,

"this amazing life
that you've been given.

"You guys are coming across
as ungrateful."

People took real offence to that.

The royal family gathered
for a crisis meeting

and, ultimately,
the Queen put her foot down.

She made it pretty clear to them

he couldn't be half in and half out
of the royal family

and monetise, you know,
other projects.

Their beautifully produced website,

with their manifesto
and their intentions -

everything had to be scrapped,
everything had to be rethought.

It was a humiliating climb-down,
but in the space of two months,

they were off, leaving
their royal life behind forever.

I think people were stunned
that Harry and Meghan

were taking this very dramatic step.

I mean, it wasn't an abdication,

but it felt like an abdication.

This was Prince Harry,
this was the spare,

choosing to stand down.

And not just to stand down,
but to leave Britain.

It was huge.

IMOGEN STUBBS: In recent months,

we've seen Harry and Meghan
pursuing separate projects

with a number
of solo public appearances.

Thank you, everyone.

I'm delighted to be here again
this evening

to present this award
to our youngest winner.

But back in 2020,
things were very different.

In spring that year,

the couple had started a new life
across the Atlantic

in Montecito, California.

After breaking ties
with the royal family,

they prepared to present their
newly independent brand Sussex

to an eager American audience.

Americans love the idea
of British royalty.

And I say love the idea of it,
probably don't really understand it,

but love the idea
of British royalty.

So I think Americans were probably
a little bit excited at the prospect

of having a bona fide member
of the British royal family

living in Hollywood.

Having settled in America,

one question that was asked
of Harry and Meghan

was how they would fund
their lavish lifestyle.

They need to continue earning
at a very high level

to maintain the lifestyle
that they now are used to.

There was very much an intention

to continue carrying on the work
they were doing

whilst carving out private,
individual roles

where they could be
financially independent.

And, of course,
that was the sticking point.

That was where
the puzzle just didn't fit.

They can't just look like
they're money-grabbing.

I think that's the problem.

They've got this very,
very difficult line to tread

where they obviously want to make
money and establish their brand,

but they don't wanna do it
in a way that looks crass.

Harry and Meghan's drive to create
a financially independent brand

was boosted when they struck
big deals with two streaming giants.

Agreeing to produce podcasts
for Spotify

and signing with Netflix

in a partnership
reportedly worth $100 million.

Signing up with Netflix
where they could produce content

that's in line
with their philanthropy.

They really had the potential
to sort of do whatever they want,

create this content around
the things that they believe in.

I think people thought
they were gonna use Netflix

and Spotify as a really great
sort of springboard

to highlight causes
which they found really interesting.

These are the deals
that people dream about.

The problem is the content.
What was the content going to be?

Why were we buying into them?

And also, why would the
general public want to watch them?

But despite
their philanthropic efforts,

in March 2021,

there was one key reason people
wanted to watch Harry and Meghan,

and that was to hear more about
their dramatic exit from royal life.

A subject revisited
in this gripping interview

with the queen of US TV,
Oprah Winfrey,

the trailer for which
dropped like a bombshell.

Were you silent
or were you silenced?

I just wanna make it clear
to everybody

there is no subject
that's off limits.

I remember speaking to people
around them at the time

who just said, "Brace for this

"because this is going
to be massive."

In the week
before the interview aired,

Harry and Meghan
dominated column inches.

Reports surfaced Meghan had been
accused of bullying by palace aides,

allegedly leaving one in tears
during the couple's 2018 royal tour.

Team Sussex is very clear today,

calling the allegation
"a misleading smear".

One source told me there's
no actual detail to the allegation -

that the PAs concerned
didn't even know

that somebody else
had put the complaint forward

and when they found out,
they asked for it to be withdrawn.

They're obviously keen
to refute these allegations

or to fight back some way.

It can be problematic
if your business is based

on an individual's personal brand

because it does mean

that if something negative happens
to your public profile,

if there are bad stories
in the press,

then it can really
damage the business.

You started to see
the war of words

bubble out into the public.

Clearly, some courtiers,

some people around Buckingham Palace
were getting concerned

at what was going to come out
in that interview

and thought they wanted
to get their story out there

before Meghan and Harry
had a chance to do so.

When the interview eventually aired,

50 million people across the world

were gripped by revelation
after revelation...

..as Meghan made damning claims

about her life
inside the royal family.

In those months when I was pregnant,
all around this same time...

..so we have in tandem
the conversation of

he won't be given security.

He's not going to be given a title.

And also concerns and conversations

about how dark his skin might be
when he's born.

What?!

These were all kind of, you know,
a lift behind the veil

that we'd never really heard
from anyone before.

This interview was always going
to be blockbuster -

attracting global attention.

But the question now
is just how deeply,

how fundamentally,
this could change the royal family,

people's view of it, and in turn,
British society.

In response to the allegations,

the Queen released
an unprecedented statement...

..saying that while
the issues raised were concerning,

she concluded
some "recollections may vary".

It was a brutal interview,

and it didn't really
take any prisoners,

and it wasn't really
thought through.

And there were possibly ways back
then, but they chose not to do that.

They chose to go DEFCON 1.

I think the Oprah interview

was a way to distance
Harry and Meghan from the past.

I think it was a marker.

They needed to say to people that,
"We are starting again",

that, "We are not the royals
who we were before."

That, "We're gonna be outspoken,
that we're going to tell our story."

In terms of what that did
for their brand,

you had Harry and Meghan showing up,
giving their side of the story,

and that kind of showed
a sense of strength.

It was their opportunity
to set the record straight.

And why shouldn't they have that?

Their interview with Oprah
made clear the Sussexes' intentions

to firmly separate themselves
and their brand

from the royal family.

So when they announced the birth
of their second child,

their choice of name
raised some eyebrows.

To have chosen Lilibet as the name
for their young daughter,

which was, of course,
the family nickname of the Queen,

it didn't seem to fit with the
narrative that they were pursuing,

that they had left
the royal family behind them.

They still associated themselves
with the royal family.

They use that royal idea,
and it's all about messaging,

and I don't think they've got
the messaging just right yet.

More than a year
after their tell-all interview,

Harry and Meghan made their first
joint trip back to the UK

for Queen Elizabeth's
Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

But onlookers noted a potentially
frosty reception for brand Sussex.

MIXTURE OF CHEERS
AND BOOS

Their brand has gone from being

the most popular members
of the royal family in 2018,

to four years later,
there were boos.

I heard them,
there were people booing.

And that kind of encapsulated,
really, where they were,

both in the standing
of the royal family

and indeed the UK population.

Then, with the Sussexes'
public image at crisis point,

the family faced its ultimate loss.

The Queen died peacefully
at Balmoral this afternoon.

The end of an era,
the start of a new one,

we'll just have to see
where we go from here, won't we?

Yeah.

Harry and Meghan did have
to put the Sussex brand to one side,

and they did have to focus more

on a family grieving the loss
of a much-loved mother,

grandmother, great-grandmother.

In a show of unity,

the former Fab Four were reunited,

greeting mourners
outside Windsor Castle.

APPLAUSE

It was really nice to see
Prince Harry, Prince William

along with Kate and Meghan
at Windsor Castle,

greeting the crowds.

And it's clear that
all four of them wanted to show up

for the Queen on that occasion.

And I certainly think
it gave them a little boost

to their popularity
and gave a boost to brand Sussex.

But I actually think in that moment,
that's not what it was about.

In this moment, it was about
showing up for Queen Elizabeth II.

WILLIAM: Bye, everyone, thank you
so much. Thank you, everyone.

But with tensions seemingly thawing,

Harry and Meghan prepared to make
yet more revelations.

CHEERING

Oprah was the preface
for what they were going to do next,

which was, you know,
essentially to lift the lid

on why they had to leave

and painted a narrative
of themselves as victims.

But the world was about to learn

Harry's crusade of truth
was not over.

There's a book to come
in the new year. There's more.

There was still plenty left
in his arsenal of ammunition.

Placing the spotlight
on Harry's fractured relationship

with his brother.

Intimate details
of private conversations

that were had
at Prince Philip's funeral.

It was a sensational autobiography,
quite unlike anything before.

I was shell-shocked.

IMOGEN STUBBS: In recent months,

Harry and Meghan have made
public appearances separately.

Is this a sign of a change
of strategy for the Sussex brand?

A family rift
saw them break their royal ties

and start a new life
in sunny California,

where they did
a sensational tell-all interview

with Oprah Winfrey.

Were you silent
or were you silenced?

But there was another revelation
to come.

In December 2022,

an explosive trailer for
a brand-new Netflix series drops.

It's really hard
to look back on it now and go,

"What on Earth happened?"

'Do you hear that? That is the sound

'of hearts breaking
all around the world.'

'She's becoming a royal rock star.'

And then...

PRINCE HARRY: Everything changed.

The Netflix deal was one of the
biggest deals Netflix has ever had.

It was reported to be worth
an impressive $100 million.

They paid this money
because they wanted great access.

They wanted great intel.

They also wanted great storytelling.

Netflix will want
to have something

that creates clickbait headlines and
controversy all around the world.

And make sure that millions
of people watch the shows.

HARRY: There's also
planting of stories.

It was also a PR spin, too,
you know?

Nobody interviewed on that show

was particularly negative
about anything.

The fly-on-the-wall series
helped to build their brand,

offering exclusive access
into their new life in California.

Hey, Grandma!

Mentioning Beyonce Knowles

or mentioning various different
celebrities, you know, in that,

it gave people these nuggets
of Hollywood, which everybody loves.

So to have the two of them
talking about their lives,

what was good and what was bad
in their lives,

from royal family
through to stardom, etc,

was, you know,
a massive coup for them.

But back home, insiders reported
that royal feathers were ruffled.

The royal family here in the UK

were deeply shocked
by the Netflix documentary.

They had no prior warning
of what was in it.

They didn't get advance copies
of it.

They saw it pretty much
at the same time as the rest of us.

HARRY: No-one sees what's happening
behind closed doors.

It was quite explosive
within Netflix.

They gave a lot of details

about how difficult it is
being in the royal family,

the fact that Harry asked
his family to stand up to the media

and they had said no.
The fact they'd felt so lonely.

They covered a lot of their life.

There was a lot
of really nice stuff, actually,

how they first met,
how Harry had seen Meghan

on the social media feed
of one of his friends,

and she had some,
like, goofy puppy ears.

And he was like, "Oh, that's cool,
I need to meet that woman."

Their first date
had some really nice things.

Wow.

H just got a text.
H just got a text from his brother.

But the six-part series
was also used as a vehicle

to once again air their grievances
with the royal family.

OK, bye. Thank you.

They just repeated that narrative

that they were the victims,
that they were put upon.

Everything negative
had happened to them.

I think that was the first time
that we began to see

that there wasn't some strong people

at the heart of them,
directing them,

being that critical friend,

which anybody in power
sort of needs.

It was self-made.

It's the equivalent

of writing your autobiography
through, you know,

a chosen ghost and having
total editorial control.

Despite some criticism,
the Sussex-Netflix partnership

was deemed a success for the brand.

It doesn't really get any bigger
than Netflix.

You know, Harry and Meghan
are the king and queen of content.

The series debuted

with over 80 million hours watched
in its first week.

Commercially,
it's been a huge success,

but it's been a massive price
for Harry to pay

in terms of his relationship
with his family.

For the royal family,

another bombshell
was just around the corner.

I think, as Harry put it for
himself, they were always destined

to kind of leave and live
the life that they're now living.

And that's probably the conclusion
we all have to come to.

But there's a book
to come in the new year.

There's more.

The news that Harry
had written an autobiography,

albeit had it ghost-written,
was very shocking.

And I think there were a lot
of people thinking,

"Oh, well, it'll probably be
a bit vanilla.

"It'll probably be a bit bland."

Well, more fool anybody
that was assuming that

because there was still plenty left
in his arsenal of ammunition.

Fair enough.

Harry wants to tell his story
in his own words,

and I thought I could...

I absolutely understand that,

he's had his whole life

of having people like me
tell his story for him.

I thought, "Brilliant, he should
absolutely be allowed to do that."

It was excruciating,
and it was really honest.

It's just page-turner
after page-turner.

There were so many revelations
in that book, you know,

from what really happened over
that row over bridesmaids' dresses

or tights involving
Princess Charlotte,

to William and Harry
coming to blows,

to intimate details
of private conversations

that were had
at Prince Philip's funeral.

It was a sensational autobiography,

quite unlike anything that had
been written by a royal before.

HARRY: It all happened so fast,
so very fast.

He grabbed me by the collar,
ripping my necklace,

and he knocked me to the floor.

I landed on the dog's bowl,

which cracked under my back,

the pieces cutting into me.

I lay there for a moment, dazed,

then got to my feet
and told him to get out.

I mean, I was staggered
by what he'd put in.

I was shell-shocked.

It made them the most talked-about
couple in the world.

The interest was extraordinary.
You couldn't go out and get a coffee

or go and get a glass of wine
in your pub without someone saying,

"Oh, my God,
have you read this Spare book?

"I can't believe this, you know?"

And these are people
that aren't always interested

in the royal family.

I mean, it had that real shock value
to it.

1.4 million copies of Spare
were sold on the first day,

making it the fastest-selling
non-fiction book of all time.

Harry's Spare was worth around
about 30 million.

That was his advance.

Was it good for them?
Not good for their brand.

Was it good for their pockets?
Really good for their pockets.

And I equate Harry and Meghan
to people

who come out of the Big Brother
house in America or the UK.

When you... In its heyday,

you would basically be able
to make millions in a week.

And it felt like
that's what they were doing.

They were doing these deals
and snapping them up.

But in snapping up the deals,
had they given away too much?

Harry just does what he feels.

He shoots from the hip.
There is no real strategic thinking.

There is no kind of
thinking of the bigger picture.

He just does what he thinks
and how he feels,

and that makes him
a brilliant person to be around

and really funny and engaging.

But it also means that, I think,

he can do things
that he might really regret.

And I do think he might
really regret

writing Spare
in the way that he did it.

Because it wasn't
just what he'd written in Spare,

it was the publicity tour
that he did around it.

Very good to see you.
Tom, nice to see you.

Harry did a revealing
tell-all interview

with Tom Bradby for ITV.

I think I do have to start with
a simple question, which is "Why?"

Why have you written it?

38 years.

38 years of having my story told
by so many different people,

erm, with intentional spin
and distortion,

felt like
a good time to own my story.

I think, for me, it was Spare.

It was absolutely
the nail in the coffin

of Harry's relations
with his family.

HARRY: "Meg's difficult," he said.

"Oh, really?"

"She's rude, she's abrasive.
She's alienated half the staff."

Not the first time he'd parroted
the press narrative.

You've just put enormous amounts

of private conversations
in the public domain.

Wouldn't your brother say to you,

"Harry, how could you do this to me
after everything we went through?"

When you are paid a lot of money,

they expect a kitchen sink
to be thrown in.

They wanna sell books.

And it did sell,
but the amount of bitterness

and ingrained sort of hurt

was very damaging
to the royal family.

The oversharing clearly defines
where Harry was going,

and that wasn't good.

No-one has to empty out

every last painful moment
of his life

and not expect
to hurt other people as well.

I think Spare really did cause
a lot of damage,

not only to the royal family,

but really to Prince Harry's brand
in itself.

Just five months later,

Harry and Meghan's highly lucrative
Spotify deal runs into difficulties.

Whilst Harry and Meghan benefited

from the increased demand

for Netflix and Spotify
and other platforms

as a result of lockdown
and the pandemic,

they, of course, fell victim
to the diminishing demand.

And therefore, Netflix and Spotify
started to cut back contracts

that they had signed
with people like Harry and Meghan.

They were also called grifters.

The implication was that they
hadn't sung enough for their supper.

When the organisations
paid you a lot of money

to be part of their game
and they call you a grifter,

that was significant.

People looked at them
in a totally different way.

You want to keep the people happy

who've paid you a lot of money
by delivering for them.

The brand is always caught
in a state of crisis.

I prefer to say it is now
in a profound state of flux.

We have two enormous celebrities who
can generate headlines by, you know,

dropping a teaspoon in a restaurant.

So while you've got that power,

you've got to think about
how you use that power.

Did this criticism lead Harry and
Meghan to re-evaluate their brand?

Of course, their big brand,
really, is drama, isn't it?

It's controversy. It's drama.
You think of the Sussexes,

you think of drama about the tiara

or drama about the naming of Lili,
or drama of the moving

or the "freedom flight",
as Harry called it.

You know,
getting out of Canada to get to LA,

just as the kind of
curtain came down because of COVID.

Can they ever get away from that?

I think there is a sense now that
they have milked this narrative dry.

I think they want to step away
from that victimhood mentality.

For Harry and Meghan,

is it now the case
that the very institution they left

could now be what they need
to revitalise their brand?

There is talk of a drive
to rehabilitate his image

over here in Britain.
Yes, it is time for a rebrand.

It is time to see them do something
different, to leave the past behind.

At the Coronation
of King Charles III,

Harry cut a lonely figure

when he travelled to London
without Meghan.

It is good that Harry came
to the Coronation

cos I think it'd have been terrible
for him,

for his brand, for the family,
if Harry hadn't come - so "tick".

Well done, Harry, for coming.

But, I mean, boy, was he made
to pay for what he'd done.

I think the cameras were instructed
just not to linger on him at all.

He literally made
a flying appearance.

He came to Westminster Abbey.

He didn't talk to any members of his
family apart from Jack and Eugenie,

who he was sitting near and is
still on very good terms with.

Immediately after the ceremony,

Harry headed to Heathrow
to fly back to LA.

But was this a sign of things
to come for the Sussex brand?

A solo trip for Harry
back in a royal setting.

Finding yourself
in a downward spiral,

who do you reach out to,

you know, for that lifeline,
and how do you recalibrate it?

Buckingham Palace has just announced
that the King has cancer.

REPORTER: How are you feeling?

'I think health
is a great leveller.'

And at times like this, when
you have a crisis in the family,

you put all those things to one side
and you show up for each other.

IMOGEN STUBBS: Three years
after leaving the UK for LA,

by 2023, rifts between the Sussexes
and the royal family

may not have been healed,
but some things were changing.

Harry was making solo flying visits
back to his home country,

and in February 2024,

there was a more personal reason
to do so.

We have some major breaking news
for you tonight.

We're going to stay on air
until 6.30

because Buckingham Palace has just
announced that the King has cancer.

When Harry was told by his father

that he'd been diagnosed
with cancer,

Harry's instant reaction was,
"I must fly over to be with you."

The King did change his plans,
actually,

so that he could stay
at Clarence House

to have that meeting with Harry.

I think the fact
that he'd stayed back,

he wanted to see his son,

was an important step
in thawing relations.

It's great that he managed to make
the time to come and see him.

It's a shame that he doesn't feel
he can stay longer,

but I think health
is a great leveller.

And at times like this,

when you have a crisis
in the family,

you put all those things to one side

and you show up for each other,
and that's what he did.

And as this year has gone on,

seeing Harry out on his own
has been a more common occurrence.

Harry has been working
on his charitable projects.

So he was at Climate Week
at the United Nations in New York.

He'd come over to the UK
for Invictus.

CHEERING

Much was made of the fact that
he didn't have a family reunion,

when, really, the focus should
have been on the tenth anniversary

of the Invictus Games
and Harry very much being solo.

This was his project.
It's his passion.

Prince Harry was in London in
September for the WellChild Awards,

and this is something
he has supported

and been part of that charity
for years.

Keep being you.
You've got this and we've got you.

HARRY CHUCKLES

And then he was in South Africa

looking at his charitable
organisations there,

including Sentebale.

And I think that's all
about Prince Harry, you know,

really being passionate
about what he's passionate about,

with or without
the Duchess of Sussex.

He did that before he met Meghan.

He's still doing it now,
and I think that's brilliant.

REPORTER: How are you, Meghan?

Meghan, too, returned to her roots,
the Hollywood red carpet.

We did see Meghan
back on the red carpet

in a fabulous red dress,

supporting the
Children's Hospital of Los Angeles,

so she has been doing
her philanthropic work as well.

She's looking at me like,
"What are you doing?"

Have fun tonight.

And even when they are together -

on their joint trips
to Nigeria in May,

and Colombia in August this year -

they're still focusing
on their own projects.

CHEERING

The trips to Nigeria
and Colombia were not royal tours.

They were tours for Harry and Meghan
in a private capacity

to go over and promote their causes,

Invictus Games, their charities,

their patronages,
and also, really crucially,

an opportunity for them
to be on the world stage.

It looked,
to all intents and purposes,

like a royal tour,
even though it wasn't,

and that is the pulling power
of their brand.

You know, that is the star appeal
of Harry and Meghan.

WHISTLE TOOTS

APPLAUSE

While we're used
to seeing Harry and Meghan together,

this marks a new period
in their professional lives.

But what does it signal
for their brand?

Harry and Meghan
have been such a unit for so long

that it looks surprising now
to see them doing things separately,

and it does look quite deliberate.

The reason for Harry and Meghan

to do their solo things
at the moment

is about establishing
the different elements of the brand.

You know, Meghan does want
to appeal to a certain demographic.

Harry can go and do his thing
and show his dedication

to philanthropic causes.

Meghan's got that star power.
She can command a lot of things.

And I think, on her own, she's just
as powerful as when she is with him.

I think the same thing for him.

PHOTOGRAPHER: Meghan. Meghan.
Meghan. Meghan.

That's for you, you see?

But can the Sussexes
maintain their relevance,

and are they trading on their royal
and Hollywood prestige?

Currently, Harry and Meghan are
trading on being Harry and Meghan -

glamour, attraction,
royal family heritage.

I think what Harry and Meghan
have realised

is that their importance
and influence

does depend, at the moment,
and up until now,

on their role
within the royal family.

And if they're not in
the royal family,

what have they got to say
about the royal family?

What information
have they got left to divulge?

Well, of course,
very little because most members

of the royal family
are no longer speaking to them.

They're definitely still trying
to trade on their clout

and their royal names.

I think it's fascinating that,
you know, they want the HRH titles

for their children, but they're
no longer working royals.

So how do Harry and Meghan
move their brand forward,

and are they able
to cut ties with the firm?

Where this journey has run

is because of the strength
of the royal family.

It possibly is an experiment.

Possibly, it is a reboot.

Um, all those things suggest

that they have very different
sort of visions

of what the Sussex brand
should mean.

I think their brand is confused
because, yes,

you have the lifestyle element
that they're looking for,

but there's so much baggage

with their conflicts
with the royal family,

we don't really know
if they're gonna be able

to shed the baggage that they have

and to move forward with the
lifestyle-influencer side of things.

But it's definitely
their biggest single challenge

when it comes
to their public relations.

And with Harry contracted
to write three more books

and a lucrative Netflix deal
to fulfil,

there's a lot more to come
from brand Sussex.

When you consider the next projects

that are going
to come out on Netflix,

it's going to be a series
that Harry has produced on polo.

Meghan is doing a sort of
cookery show with,

I'm sure,
celebrity guests and friends.

They have to be coming up
with original content.

That deal with Netflix
will only continue

while they're coming up
with content.

With a renewed focus on charity
and his philanthropic ventures,

we may see Harry return
to more familiar territory.

But the things
that Harry has done recently,

they could have come from any page
of his royal diary pre-2020.

It was absolute
Prince Harry textbook of old.

It was royal rota central.
It was brilliant.

When we see Harry on his own,
we often see Harry at his best,

doing the projects
he's passionate about,

doing the work
that he absolutely loves

and reminding us all
of the old Prince Harry,

who I think
many people really miss.

CHEERING

We may see Meghan, too,
return to her roots.

Along with media deals,

she'll launch
her new lifestyle brand,

American Riviera Orchard,

which she teased
in this glitzy Instagram video.

It shows the duchess at home,
cooking in a rustic kitchen.

We know that that's
very important to her,

and that's going to be
all about her.

It feels like she's going back
to her roots when she had The Tig,

and, hopefully, it will be
a really positive thing for her.

Some people want to be part
of her life.

The future seems promising
for the former royals

turned lifestyle influencers
and philanthropists.

So what are the next steps
for brand Sussex

and the people behind it?

"What next?" is a big question
for Harry and Meghan,

and I suppose it's the one that
we're all sitting here watching

because, with this couple,

you never quite know
what you're going to get.

I think with Meghan,
it's about lifestyle,

it's about homeliness,
it's about being a good mother.

It's about being altruistic,
which she certainly is,

and it's about being a caring person
within a community.

Harry wanting to go back
to the old Harry,

trying to be the quieter Harry.

"This is what I'm about" Harry,
the philanthropy,

the charities, the children.

As long as they keep their eyes
on the path

and the prize of showing up,
doing good,

continuing
in their philanthropic work,

I think that they'll be great.