The Sussexes have relaunched their brand so they can monetize their status as royals – this time with a new website, Sussex.com, and a rather ridiculous weapon.
You may find the timing strange. This latest controversy comes as King Charles begins treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer.
Hardly what the doctors ordered, but what can you expect?
The Sussex cupboard is starting to look a bit bare. Without new sponsorship, without a new Hollywood deal, there are few obvious sources of the money needed to maintain their luxurious lifestyle.
Needs must.
The Duke and Duchess have been on a roll with their various claims and revelations in their Netflix documentary and in Harry’s spooky memoir, Spare, but what else is there to say?
The climate appears to be changing in the United States and the welcome the Sussexes enjoyed when they first arrived in California in 2021 is disappearing.
Americans care less and less about Meghan and Harry. Interestingly, the Sussexes were not among the many celebrities who enjoyed themselves at the Super Bowl last weekend.
Maybe they had better things to do that night.
The new homepage of Sussex.com features an image of Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex at the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games in September 2023
The royal coat of arms of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex is prominently displayed on the new website Sussex.com and can therefore cause tensions
While the naked opportunism may seem obvious, Sussex.com is, to me at least, further evidence of how hardened Harry and Meghan have become in their opposition to the monarchy.
Those who bleat that the king’s illness is a wonderful moment for reconciliation between father and youngest son do not understand the true state of the relationship between the Sussexes and the royal family.
It’s terrible.
In this light, Harry’s flight to London after learning of his father’s cancer can be interpreted as a cynical ploy.
Did Harry really believe that a transatlantic trip to see King Charles would endear him to an audience that once adored him?
His stricken father seems to have known better. No doubt encouraged by Queen Camilla, the king gave his son a little more than 30 minutes before Harry left to sleep, not in a royal palace, but in a hotel.
No doubt Meghan would have played a full role in their decisions. Remember, this is a woman who refuses to reconcile with her ailing father and is accused of ghosting her (former) best friends.
The Sussexes’ recent trip to Jamaica was particularly inappropriate and perhaps even tantamount to treason.
In the wake of the Cambridges’ unfortunate visit there in 2022, amid the island’s demands for reparations and rumors of the British monarch’s abandonment as head of state, Meghan must have known that the Jamaican’s hospitality government would embarrass Great Britain.
I suspect she loved it, not to mention the private jet, the five-star hotels and the royal treatment from the Prime Minister of Jamaica.
Harry and Meghan will be carefully briefed, but Sussex.com is flirting with danger – perhaps a sign that the stakes are now so high.
The move exposes them to accusations of breaching a pledge to Queen Elizabeth not to commercialize relations with the royal family.
What else can we conclude?
It is surely time for the King to revoke their titles and revoke the titles of their children.
So far, Charles has been too tolerant of the Sussexes’ money-grubbing antics.
The king failed to beat the Sussexes after Oprah Winfrey’s show. That would have been a wiser course of action.
Instead, he gave their children the titles of prince and princess and invited them to his coronation. Only Harry came – and then left for America at short notice.
During this time, King Charles has been too lenient towards a couple who made a living from damaging the royal family and Britain. It’s time for that to change.
This latest breach of trust – a clear attempt to cash in on their royal status – must be punished.
Once the king recovers from cancer, he must make it clear that Sussexes are no longer members of the royal family and are not welcome in Britain.
Tom Bower is the author of Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors, published by Simon & Schuster