Anyone who followed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s quasi-royal tour in Nigeria last weekend could be forgiven for being a little confused. There were Harry and Meghan, beaming at glitzy state receptions, receiving military welcomes and stopping for selfies with adoring crowds – precisely the sort of thing they suggested they had no interest in when they walked away from their royal duties in 2020. Because though the British high commissioner may have said the couple were visiting in a “private capacity”, make no mistake – their Nigeria trip was a royal tour in everything but name, with the only thing missing being a working member of the royal family.
With the couple having just celebrated their sixth wedding anniversary, it feels as though they are sending out increasingly mixed messages. It’s been just over four years since Megxit, with the couple only spending just under two years as working royals, yet their trip looked as close to a royal duty as anything the King and Queen or the Prince and Princess of Wales have carried out over recent years. Both Charles and William are said to be “absolutely furious” about the situation, with royal commentator Tom Quinn stating it had left the King “angrier than anyone has ever seen him". With the tour following hot on the heels of the launch of Meghan’s new lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard, and the announcement of two more Netflix projects in the pipeline, it’s left royal watchers scratching their heads and wondering what exactly the Duke and Duchess are trying to achieve.
The trip was originally orchestrated to mark ten years of the Invictus Games, which Nigeria joined for the first time last year. Harry and Meghan were personally invited to visit by the chief of the country’s defence staff, with Nigeria keen to host a future instalment of the games. But despite this ostensibly being the reason for their trip, critics were quick to point out that the tour swiftly dissolved into the ‘Sussex show’.
Avid followers of Meghan’s Archetypes podcast will remember the Duchess revealed in one of the episodes that she’d taken a DNA test and discovered that she was 43 per cent Nigerian. So, what better way to mark such a revelation than with a trip to the homeland of her ancestors? Indeed, Meghan took every possible opportunity to refer to Nigeria as “my home” on the whirlwind three-day tour, thanking the nation for “welcoming me home” on the day she arrived. The Duchess also suggested she would use the trip to explore her Nigerian heritage, though what exactly that involved was never explained. It will surely make excellent fodder for a future Netflix documentary, though.
Skilfully orchestrated by the couple’s top aide, Miranda Barbot – a PR expert who was part of the team behind Barack Obama’s re-election – others noted the tour had a distinctly presidential feel to it. It has long been suggested that Meghan has her sights set on politics, and even the White House, in the future, and the trip certainly had shades of a state visit. Controlled with an iron hand, every element of the tour was expertly controlled to present the Duchess in the best possible light.
For while it certainly looked like a royal tour, there were a few key differences. The most glaring of which was the vastly reduced press pack allocated to cover the trip, which included just one reporter and one photographer – no doubt hand-picked to deliver nothing but fawning coverage. The couple’s close friend and trusted photographer Misan Harriman – who famously took the barefoot, black and white shot the couple used to announce the impending arrival of their daughter, Lilibet – also came along for the ride, presumably to capture suitably glossy behind-the-scenes snapshots.
The couple were representing themselves rather than the monarch, which meant they were also free to choose their own schedule. That meant less formality and many more opportunities for hand-holding and sharing stories about their children – at one point, the Duchess told a gaggle of school kids her two-year-old daughter had recently looked in her eyes and said, “Mama, I see me in you.” Though she meant this literally, Meghan said she “hung onto those words in a very different way”. Royal watchers also archly noted that it was rather surprising the Duke and Duchess managed to squeeze a visit to a polo match into their jam-packed schedule. Might that have something to do with the fact that one of their new Netflix projects is a documentary about the world of polo and the people who play it?
“The Nigeria tour reinforced why the Sussexes didn’t fit within the official royal fold,” says Kinsey Schofield, LA-based royal commentator and host of the To Di For Daily podcast. “They were significantly late to multiple events and appearances. They spoke of themselves instead of using their platform to spotlight some of the injured service people they met throughout their trip. These are the types of PR errors that a palace courtier would have managed and avoided. It made the entire execution appear self-serving.”
The Nigeria tour reinforced why the Sussexes didn’t fit within the official royal fold
After the trip, Harry and Meghan landed back in LA with a couple of rather bruising bumps. It has since been revealed that the couple were flown in Nigeria by Air Peace airline, whose CEO and chairman is Dr Allen Onyema, who is currently wanted in the US over an alleged £16 million money laundering and bank fraud racket – allegations which he denies. The controversial Onyema was also part of the welcoming committee of dignitaries who met the Sussexes when they arrived in Nigeria. It was also revealed their Archewell Foundation had been sent a “delinquency notice” by Californian authorities for failing to file its annual report or related fees on time. It later emerged that Archewell had sent a $200 (£158) cheque which had not been processed by the Attorney General’s office. A statement was then released by California’s Department of Justice on Tuesday night which said the delinquency notice had been removed and that the Archewell Foundation was “current and in good standing”. But despite the matter being resolved quickly, it remained an acute embarrassment for the Duke and Duchess.
“We've heard two different excuses from Archewell – one is that they filed an extension and the government just hadn't acknowledged it yet, the other is that the check was lost in the mail. Either way, someone dropped the ball and it reflects poorly on a couple that are trying so hard to shake off their grifter reputation,” says Schofield. “This charity grants Harry and Meghan access to people and places they would not be given access to otherwise. It's important that their charity remains in good standing because aside from Harry's Invictus Games, it's one of their only credible branding points.”
Some have suggested the lapse may have stemmed from the fact that Harry and Meghan appear to get through staff at an alarming rate. In the six years since they married, 17 of their employees have left to pursue other opportunities, amid allegations of bullying. Though these have always been denied by the couple, they were strong enough for the Palace to commission an investigation, the results of which have since been buried. Meghan’s former royal aide, Samantha Cohen, recently confirmed that she was questioned by the Palace about the allegations, which has put a spotlight back onto the investigation and its unpublished findings.
Harry and Meghan will be hoping to break that cycle with their latest hire, London-based PR man Charlie Gipson, who in the past has worked on brands including Mars, Lucozade and Domino’s. Gipson has been tasked with managing the public relations for the Duke and Duchess in the UK and Europe and it’s said Meghan is keen for him to boost the work of their foundation on this side of the pond, as well as address her ‘popularity problem’. “Harry and Meghan go through employees the way we go through socks,” says Schofield. “The fact they don't have reliable team members, that they cycle through so many employees, plays into the gossip that they are difficult to work with.”
Gipson will no doubt have his hands full with the numerous projects the couple are currently aligned with. First up are the two new television shows recently announced by Netflix, both of which will feature the Duke and Duchess front and centre. The first is a cooking series on which the Duchess will act as executive producer, which will “celebrate the joys of cooking and gardening, entertaining and friendship”. The other promises to “pull the curtain back on the grit and passion of professional polo”, a sport loved by the Duke, with both Harry and Meghan serving as executive producers. Meghan also recently signed a deal with the US podcasting company Lemonada, which comes after she was unceremoniously dropped by Spotify after just one season of her Archetypes podcast.
“Harry and Meghan will both appear on camera in their upcoming projects after months of Team Meghan planting seeds that she intended to be a production powerhouse behind the scenes,” says Schofield. “Their Harry and Meghan docu-series has been the only commercial success for the Sussexes. Heart of Invictus, Live to Lead – those were massive failures. They've managed to maintain their relationship with Netflix, but there was clearly a compromise made that they weren't willing to make with Spotify.
Of course, there’s also Meghan’s new lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard, which so far has only released a limited-edition batch of strawberry jams, 50 of which were sent out in cute lemon-filled baskets to Meghan’s nearest and dearest (which include former Suits co-star Abigail Spencer, fashion designer Tracy Robbins, wife of the president of Paramount Pictures, and Delfina Blaquier, wife of Harry’s polo-playing pal Nacho Figueras). Critics have been swift to point out that the brand’s trad-wife aesthetic – in its promotional video, Meghan is seen wearing an apron in the kitchen, as well as wafting around a Montecito mansion in a ballgown – feels at odds with the more presidential chords struck in Nigeria.
It feels as if Harry and Meghan really don’t know who they are right now, and they need to pick a lane. They are failing because they don’t have a clear message
“It feels as if Harry and Meghan really don’t know who they are right now, and they need to pick a lane,” says LA PR guru Jane Owen. “They are failing because they don’t have a clear message.” Fellow LA publicist and pop culture expert Dawn Miller agrees. “My advice to them would be to avoid spreading themselves too thinly. Right now, less is more – they need to focus on a few really meaningful endeavours and do them authentically. I’d like to see Meghan rolling her sleeves up and getting involved in a more hands on way.”
Whichever path they choose to go down, we should brace ourselves for more ‘royal tours’ in the future – after Nigeria, the couple put out a press release stating they hoped it would be “the first of many memorable trips”. Perhaps they’ve finally achieved the post-Megxit scenario they always dreamed of. “Who are Harry and Meghan without their connections to the royal family?” says Schofield. “Meghan a cable actress, Harry a generic nepo baby. Bigger picture, it all comes down to one thing: money. Harry and Meghan need the royal connection to continue to maintain their lifestyle, so they will play pretend as long as they have to.”
