Millions around the world tuned in to Oprah Winfrey's explosive interview with Harry and Meghan on March 7, 2021. Photo / Harpo Productions
OPINION:
"We have been brought together for a reason," declared Prince Harry, praising his "incredible" wife as they accepted a top accolade at last month's annual NAACP Image awards.
Appearing together at a public event for the first time in weeks to accept the President's Award, which recognises special achievement and distinguished public service, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex once again reaffirmed their "shared commitment to a life of service".
"I think it's safe to say I come from a very different background to my incredible wife, yet our lives were brought together for a reason," said Harry.
Meghan added: "I couldn't be prouder that we're doing this work together."
Twelve months on from their Oprah Winfrey interview, however, and onlookers could be forgiven for wondering what exactly it is that the couple are doing after a year that, well, wasn't.
The NAACP, which stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, was set up in 1909 in response to ongoing violence against black people. Previous winners of the prestigious President's Award include boxing legend Muhammed Ali and former US secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell. Eyebrows have therefore been raised, not just at the Sussexes' comparatively modest achievements but also the fact that the media for the NAACP Image Awards is managed by Sunshine Sachs, a New York-based PR firm that has been advising Meghan for years.
While there is no suggestion either party has exerted any undue influence, it is perhaps telling that apart from NAACP, it is unclear who else considers Harry and Meghan's year to have been particularly prize-winning, despite their self-styled status as two of the world's leading philanthropists.
Indeed, despite their bombshell revelations to the US chat show host, even Oprah missed out on a coveted Emmy last year, losing the award for Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special to Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy. (The 90-minute prime time blockbuster didn't win a Television Critics Association Award or a People's Choice Award either.)
This is despite millions around the world tuning in on March 7, 2021 to hear Meghan discuss her suicidal thoughts, accuse the Royal family of racism and blame the Duchess of Cambridge for making her cry at a bridesmaids' dress fitting, when I had previously reported that the reverse had happened.
In the interview, which came the year after the couple announced their decision to step down as working members of 'The Firm' in January 2020, they also suggested they "didn't have a plan" when they moved to the US and had to seek commercial opportunities because, as Harry put it, "my family literally cut me off".
Notwithstanding the fact that they held meetings surrounding "well-developed proposals" with the now-defunct streaming service Quibi a year before their departure, meeting with Jeffrey Katzenberg and other executives throughout 2019, there was a sense that they were gearing up to go solo and unleash an exciting new Sussex era.
As the website for their Archewell website, launched in January 2021, breathlessly stated: 'EACH OF US can CHANGE our COMMUNITIES. ALL OF US can CHANGE THE WORLD.'
Yet apart from their various legal wranglings with the press, and more recently, the Home Office, which Harry is suing over the loss of their police protection (he has offered to pay for it), the "shared purpose and global action" that was promised has not quite materialised.
To be fair to the Duchess, she has spent much of the past year on maternity leave after giving birth to their second child, Lilibet, on June 4, 2021. The Queen is still to meet her great-granddaughter, with a reunion looking unlikely until Harry solves his security concerns.
At this stage it seems highly unlikely that the couple will attend the Duke of Edinburgh's memorial service at the end of the month – with their presence at June's Platinum Jubilee celebrations also in doubt. It is fair to say royal relations across the pond haven't exactly been helped by news that Harry is publishing his warts-and-all autobiography this autumn, a move that has reportedly prompted the "exasperated" 95-year-old monarch to instruct her lawyers, fearing further "attacks" on the monarchy.
While Prince Charles is thought to be in regular contact with his youngest son, Harry's relationship with William has still not recovered from Oprah, after he suggested both his father and his brother felt "trapped" in the royal family. As one source put it: "As the Queen has always said, they remain much loved members of the family but it's not been easy. It's hard enough for any family to get along but when such intimate details are made public on prime time TV? It's difficult to put that genie back in the bottle."
Whether Meghan will ever return to the UK remains to be seen.
Absent from Prince Philip's funeral last April because of her pregnancy, the first time we saw the Duchess after Oprah was when she made a cameo appearance in the first official trailer for The Me You Can't See, an Apple TV docuseries featuring Harry, Lady Gaga and Glenn Close.
It came less than a year after the couple signed a multimillion-dollar deal to make shows for Netflix in September 2020 – a move that is yet to herald any programming, although two series, Heart of Invictus, about Harry's Invictus Games initiative, and an animated show called Pearl, about a girl inspired by influential women throughout history, are thought to be in the pipeline.
So what else have they done?
Just days after 7lb 11oz 'Lili' was born at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, Meghan released her children's book The Bench, inspired by a Father's Day poem she wrote for Harry. It became a New York Times bestseller within a week of release.
Two months later, on her 40th birthday on August 4, she filmed a video with the US actress Melissa McCarthy to launch her 40x40 mentorship campaign, saying: "Over two million women in the US alone and tens of millions around the world have lost their jobs due to Covid, and I think if we all do it and all commit 40 minutes to some sort of act of service, we can create a ripple effect."
Although celebrities including Adele, Katie Couric and Sarah Paulson participated, there has so far been little evidence that it has sparked the intended "global wave of service", despite its undoubtedly noble aims.
Yet the move, along with the Sussexes' other charitable efforts, was enough to win them a place on Time's list of 100 Most Influential People a month later, with chef and humanitarian Jose Andres declaring: "They don't just opine. They run toward the struggle."
Days later, they made their first joint public appearance since their daughter's birth to participate in Global Citizen Live, a 24-hour event broadcast live from New York's Central Park. Aimed at promoting equal access to the Covid vaccine and featuring an all-star line-up, from Ed Sheeran to Lizzo to Elton John, the event saw the couple meet with New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Harry told the cheering crowds: "Since this pandemic began we've been talking to experts about how we can do our part. This week we sat with independent global health leaders to further understand how we get closer to vaccine equity and ending this crisis.
"But we are battling more than a virus, this is a battle of misinformation, bureaucracy, lack of transparency, and lack of access. And above all, a human rights crisis."
Their participation in the high-profile event came after Global Citizen won Organisation of the Year at the 2021 American Business Awards, known as The Stevies, after being nominated by none other than… Sunshine Sachs.
Meghan then made a rare public appearance at the NYT Dealbook Conference when she urged people not to read the tabloids, suggesting "they come with a warning label like cigarettes do".
The couple then returned to the Big Apple for November's Salute to Freedom Gala, which honours military veterans for their service, with Meghan stunning in a bright red dress by Carolina Herrera, featuring a deep neckline, dramatic train and fitted bodice.
The next we saw of the couple, after the Duchess won her privacy case against the Mail on Sunday in December, was via their black and white Christmas card, which read: "This year, 2021, we welcomed our daughter, Lilibet, to the world. Archie made us a 'Mama' and a 'Papa', and Lili made us a family."
Such a low-key professional presence might suggest that the Duke and Duchess have been busier in their private lives, but all the evidence points to it being similarly sedate.
Harry provided his own clue to what life is like Chez Sussex when he revealed in February that he sets aside about 45 minutes every morning to "build resilience" and meditate.
Addressing an online conference in his role as chief impact officer of BetterUp, a mental wellness app, he admitted he had personally experienced burnout after "burning the candle at both ends", before he learnt how to embrace what he described as "inner work".
It is an apt description for a life that – despite their very public protestations about media intrusion – appears to operate very much below radar. Part of the reason there have been so few paparazzi pictures of the couple is that they are still thought to be in a legal wrangle with one agency over shots taken in their previous Beverly Hills home, which they rented from US actor Tyler Perry.
Although the couple have shared information about Archie's new chicken coop and their new dog Pula (which means 'hope' in Harry's beloved Botswana), by all accounts Harry and Meghan have been conspicuous by their absence in Montecito, where they bought a US$14.65 million (NZ$21.4m) mansion in the summer of 2020.
So private was the transaction that their names do not appear on the deeds. Instead the nine-bedroom, 16-bathroom property was sold to a trust that shares an address with the offices of Meghan's Hollywood business manager Andrew Meyer.
Russian businessman Sergey Grishin bought the estate in 2009 for US$25.3m and tried selling it for over a decade before finally accepting a US$10m-plus loss.
Rumours that the couple are already planning to move out of the estate, which boasts a spa, cinema, separate guesthouse, tennis court, and a swimming pool, appear wide of the mark.
As the Montecito Journal reported in January: "This one was started by a hopeful realtor listing a property in Birnam, who wanted to gin up interest in it, but had no idea that worldwide press would jump on anything that mentions these two."
Surrounded by eight acres of lush green gardens and overlooking the sea, the couple appear understandably reluctant to leave the comfort of the sprawling property, which also has a wine cellar, a pub games room and a gym where Meghan does her personal training, apparently with the help of a Pilates reformer machine.
Indicating its support for Harry and Meghan, who it gratefully reported were the "first to donate" to the town's First Annual Montecito Holiday Car Parade of Lights in December, The Montecito Journal added: "We're pretty good around here at respecting people's privacy. Realtors who want to overhype a listing – be warned."
Yet despite its commendable loyalty, the local newspaper does not appear to get everything right. Despite exclusively revealing last September that Harry "has been honing his mallet skills 'stick and balling" at the Santa Barbara Polo Club, an employee of the club confirmed he has never played there – although he has apparently been spotted running through the polo fields.
He has, however, introduced Archie, 2, to the sport beloved of his great-grandmother, the Queen, according to Richard Mineards, who writes about social events. As he reported last August: "'My niece just gave Archie his first riding lesson,' a friend of mine whispered to me at my birthday party in July. 'She was thrilled but won't give any of the details'. We both knew the elegant private stables where her niece is the riding master. But we won't tell where it is."
Around the same time, Mineards also reported in Georgetowner, a small Washington DC area paper, that the media frenzy surrounding the couple's arrival in the exclusive 'celebrity enclave' had died down, adding: "The sightings are rare. Harry is seen occasionally driving through the village in his Range Rover and walking his dog on the beach. But Meghan is rarely seen. Many in Montecito are disappointed they haven't been more involved in the community – though that may be because of the pandemic."
Speaking to The Telegraph, he revealed that when the Oscar Meyer wienermobile, a giant yellow and orange car hot dog-shaped car, was in Montecito, "Harry spied it, approached it and requested that he drive it and he did." Mineards chuckles: "Harry must've wanted to be a HOT dog!"
Yet contrary to the suggestion they have not been very community-minded, they joined The Montecito Association as soon as they arrived, although they are not on the board and it is understood that they do not attend meetings.
According to former board member Kathy King: "They've sponsored a few events and been supportive of Montecito Association events like the holiday parades."
Confirming they had joined the nonprofit community association, its executive director Sharon Byrne adds: "They showed up at the July 4 parade in 2021. They waved at everyone and were very casual, just like everyone else."
One neighbour who has lived near the Sussexes' property for decades has never seen them: "I've only ever seen their security; no sightings of them on their road at all. I used to walk that mile every night."
Another local adds: "They live quietly and privately."
An insider revealed that the couple were spending "thousands" on security, with bodyguards patrolling the property 24/7 in golf carts.
The couple do venture out occasionally, though. Harry has been seen buying groceries in town several times, while December saw Meghan photographed carrying bags from Pierre la Fond, a local upscale delicatessen and bakery. She has also been snapped browsing at the Montecito Country Mart, an upmarket shopping mall.
A resident who frequents the deli tells me: "Robert Mitchum used to go there. Everyone goes or went there, Oprah, Julia Child, and Steve Martin too. But I've never seen the Sussexes there. Perhaps it's different because of the pandemic."
It is said the family has been spotted riding bikes on the Santa Barbara boardwalk, and last March they posted video footage of Archie playing on the beach. They are also thought to have dined at Lucky's Steakhouse, a restaurant popular with locals and area celebrities, where a 12oz filet mignon will set you back US$95.
They were first spotted there in October 2020 when they joined music mogul David Foster and his actress wife Katharine McPhee for a meal after the pair announced they were expecting their first child together. Other celebrities in their social circle apparently include Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry, but they never talk about them publicly. Interestingly both couples, along with the Sussexes' other good friends, George and Amal Clooney, are thought to support a campaign to bring in a privacy law for California protecting their families from being photographed by the media without consent.
Harry and Meghan have also dined at Caruso's, a fine dining Italian restaurant that is part of Montecito's luxury Rosewood Miramar Beach Hotel, where flip-flops are considered "too informal". But, according to one source, they have not ventured into Los Angeles much, despite their A-list status.
"The Sussexes are rarely seen in LA and certainly not in the Hollywood party scene," says the source. "They have ducked offers from all major ceremonies including Golden Globes. BAFTA LA has not had any dealings with the Sussexes either."
BAFTA LA would be well placed to connect Harry and Meghan to companies and stars doing major business in Hollywood – although one stumbling block may be that Prince William is the organisation's president.
According to another insider: "Harry and Meghan only move when they need to. The pair like to use their home as an office and base camp even though they have business offices in downtown LA, which is 100 minutes away by car."
No one in LA-related circles appears aware of the "arrangements for their business deals". However a Sunshine Sachs insider noted that there is "concern" that Prince Andrew's out of court settlement with Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre could "interfere with media promotion" around the launch of his upcoming memoir and charity endeavours. There are also fears Harry may face media questions about Andrew when he promotes his autobiography, which is being published by Penguin Random House in late 2022.
The fiercely private couple have never discussed their childcare arrangements, although it is thought they have help. In January it was reported that they are sending Archie to a nursery that teaches "emotional literacy" and often pick their son up from school, where his classmates have "no idea" he's a member of the royal family, according to a fellow parent.
A year on from all the noise generated by their extraordinary Oprah interview, Harry and Meghan certainly seem to be living a life less ordinary.
- Additional reporting: Kara Kennedy
The new Christmas tree set to illuminate the city from November 23.