Prince Harry andMeghan Markle made a return to public life last week in a video filmed in their Montecito garden – four months after last having been seen together. The appearance was to promote the launch of the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund, an initiative to fund online safety projects for young people. In the video shared on the website of the couple’s Archewell Foundation, they were seen personally phoning recipients of the funding with the video’s captions describing them simply as ‘Harry and Meghan’.
The ostensibly straightforward appearance was, however, reported – even by the BBC – as the couple putting on a ‘united front’ amid a series of reports about the state of their relationship and finances.
The BBC described the video as the couple putting on a ‘visible show of togetherness’ to make a clear message about their future. It’s true that the past four months, since the former royals were last seen at an awards ceremony in New York, have been a roller coaster for the pair. They’ve been involved in a paparazzi chase, lost their $20 million Spotify podcast deal and been subject of rumours about their financial future, with reports even claiming they could be forced to sell their £14.5 million Montecito home, putting strain on their relationship. Another recent report suggested that Harry and Meghan had ‘fallen out’ with Victoria and David Beckham, who were guests at their wedding. A source has since hinted to Grazia that this story may have been a slightly ‘exaggerated’ one, as the couples were not ‘incredibly close’ to begin with, but it throws light on the reality that their new inner circle looks very different to when they were based in the UK.
Some trusted confidantes remain. Meghan is still close to designer Misha Nonoo, photographer Misan Harriman – who she introduced at his recent TED talk – and her old Suits co-stars Sarah Rafferty and Abigail Spencer. Others have taken a back seat as Harry and Meghan continue to establish their post-royal lives in California. Meghan hasn’t been seen publicly with Jessica Mulroney (whose children were page boys and a bridesmaid at the Sussexes’ wedding) since the latter became embroiled in a race row with an influencer in 2020.
‘Harry and Meghan’s circle is certainly smaller, but they’ve also somewhat retreated from public life this year, too, while they find their feet on a new path,’ says a source close to the royal couple. ‘They haven’t been photographed much recently, and that’s intentional. They’re hard at work building the new Brand Sussex, making new bonds, and not at as many public or social events.’
That’s meant their inner circle is now closer to home – quite literally. The group is dubbed the ‘Montecito Mafia’, full, as it is, of powerful names who live in the small but rich Californian town 83 miles from LA.
Perhaps the closest neighbour to Meghan is Victoria Jackson, an entrepreneur who runs her own cosmetics line. Meghan has said she counts Jackson and her husband Bill Guthy as close confidantes, calling Jackson a ‘safe harbour’ since they moved to the neighbourhood in 2020. Jackson lent her Santa Barbara ranch to the duchess for a shoot with New York Magazine last year. Meghan was introduced to the couple by mutual friend Gloria Steinem, another star of the Montecito Mafia, whom Meghan met when they worked on a voting activism campaign in 2020. ‘Meg is herself, smart, authentic, funny, political,’ said Gloria at the time. In 2021, Jackson launched Kind Science, an age-positive skin care line, with Ellen DeGeneres, someone else who Meghan and Harry are said to be drawn to – along with her wife Portia De Rossi.
'There is a core group of confidantes who share their love of privacy'
Others they rely on are Oprah Winfreyand Gayle King. It was, of course, Winfrey who undertook the couple’s first bombshell TV interview in 2021, and she is said to be ‘protective’ of Meghan. Other Montecito power players include Ari Emanuel, whose talent agency (Endeavor) signed Meghan earlier this year, along with his wife, Sarah Staudinger, who designed a suit Meghan wore to a Lakers game in April (her label is STAUD). Meanwhile, Amanda Leone has become Meghan’s local hairstylist, with the former royal seen going into her salon the day before Archie’s fourth birthday.
Of course, it makes sense that Meghan is forming new power-relationships as she and Harry build their new lives in the USA. She was photographed dining at Sushi Bar Montecito with Gwyneth Paltrow in May (along with Cameron Diaz and Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd), a friendship Grazia’s source has said the duchess is keen to nurture as she works on the relaunch of her wellness blog The Tig as a Goop-style brand. Meghan is getting ready to make an Instagram comeback, sources tell Page Six; @meghan, thought to be her ‘placeholder’ account, already has over 30k followers, although there have been no posts so far. Meanwhile a professional coup for Harry comes in the form of his passion project, The Invictus Games, due to take place in Germany next month – something which is also the subject of a forthcoming Netflix documentary, Heart Of Invictus. On 7 August, Penguin Random House confirmed that the Duke and Duchess’s production company, Archewell, had secured the rights to the New York Times best seller Meet Me at the Lake, a romantic novel by Carley Fortune, and will be producing it for Netflix. The story follows the love story of Will and Fern, who meet one day in their twenties and quickly fall for each other. However, when they make a plan to meet up one year later, Will never shows up – leaving Fern heartbroken. Yet a decade later, she realises that’s far from their end. While it may not make immediate sense as a subject matter, it does follow a storyline about the loss of a parent in a car crash, and is set in Toronto where Meghan lived when she was filming Suits. This push into film production is all said to be part of the couple's move to eclipse their former Royal status - and become true Hollywood power players.
But while A-listers are common in LA, Meghan is careful who she trusts. ‘There is a core group of confidantes who share their values and love of privacy,’ says the source. ‘That’s still most important to them, perhaps more than anything else.’