Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's decision to return to the United Kingdom spells the end of their chances of making it in Hollywood, a PR expert told Newsweek. Eric Schiffer, the chair of Reputation Management Consultants, told Newsweek: "This is the kiss of death to stardom in America for both of them. They got beaten like a rented mule during this process." The Duke and Duchess of Sussex returned to Britain at the end of August but have not sold their home in Montecito, California, and some reports suggested the move might be temporary.
Harry and Meghan still have several Netflix TV projects in the pipeline, including adaptations of Carley Fortune's romance novel Meet Me at the Lake and British military officer Major Adam Jowett's Afghanistan War memoir, No Way Out. It remains unclear whether the couple wants to keep pursuing new film and TV projects in America and whether they still need to earn more money to sustain their lifestyle. However, if they plan to keep chasing a hit TV show, the move may affect how Hollywood sees them.
Harry and Meghan began their U.S. lives on a high, signing multi-year Netflix and Spotify deals in their first nine months and launching their Archewell Foundation, now rebranded as Archewell Philanthropies. However, more recent years have been tougher for them. In 2023, Harry's memoir Spare was met with ridicule, including in relation to passages describing his experience of getting frostbite on his penis.
Their Spotify deal collapsed that June after just one podcast, Meghan's Archetypes series; Spotify executive Bill Simmons called the couple "f****** grifters" on his own show. Meanwhile, Meghan's lifestyle TV show, With Love, Meghan, got searing reviews, while its second season and festive special failed to make the top 1,000 shows on Netflix for the six-month period in which they were released. The couple was already under pressure to prove the success of their U.S. endeavors when they relocated to the U.K.
"This was cemented with their retreat back to Britain," Schiffer said. "They became in part the enemy of the people through self-inflicted wounds. There was devastating incompetence in navigating their own march to stardom in the U.S., and the death rattle really began with Harry's book.
"That was the inflection point. The consistent whineyness and this lack of accountability for their own actions. Where they were doing a great job is when they were advocates for causes that young people care about.
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