VANITY FAIR’s February Cover Story Dives into Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Life 5 Years After Their Royal Exit

Posted on January 17, 2025

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In a new cover story for VANITY FAIR’s February Issue, contributing editor Anna Peele pulls back the curtain on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. She speaks to those who have worked with and lived alongside the couple, discusses the obstacles they’ve faced, and gives readers a look at Harry and Meghan’s relationship and life behind the scenes five years after their royal exit.

In her editor’s letterVanity Fair’s editor-in-chief Radhika Jones asks, “In a modern world where tech bros, finance bros, and former reality TV stars hold ultimate sway, how do an actual duke and duchess, whose ties to royalty are at once their biggest draw and their bête noire, stay relevant?”

“Meghan is the type of woman who would check a menu out online before going to a restaurant to pick what she was going to eat,” says Tom Fitzgerald, a fashion and cultural commentator who, with his husband, Lorenzo Marquez, comprise the brand Tom and Lorenzo. (A resident of Montecito who ate lunch in the same restaurant as Meghan said the server told her Meghan had called ahead to ask about the privacy of the seating arrangement.) “So the idea that she didn’t know she was supposed to curtsy for the queen, I just didn’t find it particularly believable, because [based on] everything she ever told us about herself, I cannot imagine that she went into meeting the royal family completely cold, with no research whatsoever.” Fitzgerald also points to Meghan’s repeated claims that she was forced to wear neutrals during her time in the palace in order to avoid upstaging or competing with Queen Elizabeth and other senior members of the family, noting that Meghan’s wardrobe is now primarily composed of that palate.

 

On their challenges/perception in business and media endeavors:

  • A former spotify employee who worked on their podcast project, ‘Archetypes’, says Harry and Meghan “didn’t do what celebrities do on podcasts, which is turn on the mic and talk. They wanted a big theme that would explain the world, but they had no ideas”.

  • Harry was interested in doing a “sociopath” podcast where he essentially would interview men with complicated pasts and what made them into sociopaths. A person who worked closely with the couple on audio projects recalls Harry saying, “I have very bad childhood trauma. Obviously. My mother was essentially murdered. What is it about me that didn’t make me one of these bad guys?”

  • A source who worked in media projects says Meghan would be warm and effusive with employees at the beginning. When something went poorly, often due to Meghan and Harry’s own demands…Meghan would become cold and withholding toward the person she perceived to be responsible. The source says it was “really, really, really awful. Very painful. Because she’s constantly playing checkers—I’m not even going to say chess—but she’s just very aware of where everybody is on her board. And when you are not in, you are to be thrown to the wolves at any given moment.” In practice, they say, that manifested as “undermining. It’s talking behind your back. It’s gnawing at your sense of self. Really, like, Mean Girls teenager.”

  • Two sources say a colleague with ties to ‘Archetypes’ took a leave of absence after working on three episodes, then left Gimlet altogether. Several others described taking extended breaks from work to escape scrutiny, exiting their job, or undergoing long-term therapy after working with Meghan. The person who interacted professionally with her says, “I think if Meghan acknowledged her own shortcomings or personal contributions to situations rather than staying trapped in a victim narrative, her perception might be better.”

On an alleged divorce book being shopped around by Meghan’s team:

  • A few years ago a rumor began circulating around the book world about another prospective project for Meghan. This story, which a person with knowledge confirms the broad details of, was that Meghan’s team had a conversation with a publishing house to gauge interest in the idea for a potential book. The concept, for which there was no written or formal proposal, was post-divorce. Not that there was actually one in the works! Just…if this a priori divorce ever came to be, would this publisher theoretically be interested in a book that took place in its aftermath?

On Harry’s life after their royal exit:

  • A person who interacted professionally with Meghan says he’s socially marooned beyond his nuclear family. “She was up-front about the fact that Harry hadn’t made many friends yet,” the source says of Meghan’s assessment of her husband. The person who worked in media projects with the couple also has a guess. “I think Harry doesn’t know what he wants because he grew up in a fishbowl, and so he doesn’t know what real life really is,” they say. “I think he probably wants to be left alone and be able to go kiss babies every once in a while, but not have to worry about money. I don’t think he wants to be famous the way Meghan wants to be famous.”

On Harry and Meghan’s relationship:

  • Harry and Meghan are, in the estimation of everyone Vanity Fair spoke with, deeply in love. “They are so hot for each other,” the person who worked closely with them said. “Like, you know how you meet those couples where you’re like, the way they’re looking at each other, I should probably not be here right now?”

On their life in Montecito:

  • Harry & Meghan have become local villains, according to several people who spoke with VF. They attribute the increase in housing prices to them…and point to out-of-towners coming in, driving too fast, and taking up all the street parking by local trails like the one Meghan was photographed hiking on while Harry was in the UK for Charles’s coronation. You can’t just walk into Lucky’s for dinner anymore.

  • American Riviera Orchard, Meghan’s lifestyle brand, is located in Montecito.  “It’s such a kind of hucksterism,” one resident says. “It’s just finding every way she can to monetize something.” …and in doing so, bringing more attention to the place.

 

[Photo Credit: PA Images/Alamy, Vanity Fair Magazine]

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