By royal biographer Emily Andrews
BRACE YOURSELVES EVERYONE…
Prince Harry and Meghan have launched their newly rebranded website.Archewell? That’s old hat.
It’s all about sussex.com. Yes that’s right, those royal titles that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex promised they wouldn’t use for commercial purposes are front and centre of the new rebrand, complete with Meghan’s royal coat of arms.
The regal blue home page (reminiscent of the actual Royal Family) trumpets the ‘Office of Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’.
Despite spending the past four years criticising the institution (and family) they left behind, you can’t help but feel that this is actually a royal rebrand.
The website even links to their old sussexroyal.com website that they were forced to abandon (interesting that they never shut it down) when the late Queen Elizabeth said they couldn’t use the word ‘royal’ to promote themselves.
As admirable as the achievements listed across nearly 1,000 words on their website are (Prince Harry a ‘humanitarian’; Meghan ‘one of the most influential women in the world’), they have so far meant little without their royal status.
And to accompany this royal rebrand is a quasi-royal tour.
Ostensibly, Harry and Meghan visited Vancouver and Whistler earlier this month to celebrate the first winter Invictus Games and countdown to the competition next year.
But was it about promoting the Invictus Games, or was it more promoting the Office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex?
In a world where they need to build their brand to pay the Californian mortgage and ever-present security bills, they also need to generate publicity.
There were hugs aplenty, Meghan looking ravishing in cream/white ensembles and a feel-good speech from Harry. Will this help sell more seats for next year’s games (the future of Invictus depends as much on ticket sales as corporate sponsorship) or will it help rehabilitate Harry and Meghan’s failing reputation?
In his speech, Harry celebrated how special Canada has become to him and his wife (Meghan used to live there while filming Suits and they lived there together with baby Archie after they ‘fled’ the UK in 2020).
It is just the sort of message th
