“It’s been a universally tough year for everybody,” Prince Harry said recently, neatly summing up the global mood. But Harry’s comments also seemed deeply personal in the wake of what’s been a particularly tough and challenging year for the Sussexes— one a friend of the couple has appropriately described as a rollercoaster.
From two international moves to a high-profile tabloid to a devastating miscarriage this summer, 2020 is one the Sussexes will likely look back on with mixed emotions. For all the highs—watching their much-loved son Archie turn one, celebrating their own birthdays and second wedding anniversary, moving into their dream home in California, and signing a lucrative multi-million dollar deal with Netflix—there have been some challenging and deeply testing moments too
“It’s been a big year for sure and one that has been a rollercoaster,” said a friend of the couple’s. “2020 has seen them leave the royal family, leave Britain and move to LA to their dream home where they are finally able to lay down new roots.”
No one knew on January 8, when Harry and Meghan first announced they were stepping down as senior royals, what a turbulent year would follow. But their bombshell statement, posted on their brand-new Sussex Royal website, set the tone for months of hand-wringing among royal watchers, and the royal themselves. Some royal historians and commentators have claimed Harry and Meghan’s departure, and the historic fallout between Harry and Prince William was the closest the House of Windsor had come to a constitutional crisis since the death of Princess Diana.
Stories of rifts and family feuds continued to dominate the headlines for much of 2020, and Harry and Meghan’s side of the story was relayed in intimate detail in the biography Finding Freedom, published in July by authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand. The book claimed to lift the lid on why the couple really quit the most famous family in the world, opening up old wounds and—in a dramatic twist—going on to be used against Meghan in her high profile court case against the Mail on Sunday, which the Duchess is suing for breach of privacy and copyright.
“Every step of the way there have been unexpected challenges,” said Scobie, who provided a witness statement for Meghan’s legal team to confirm that she and Harry did not work directly with the authors. “They have had to go up against a lot—the press, their legal battles and even the institution of the monarchy—but they’ve remained positive and it’s the support they give each other and their focus on what’s important that gets them through.”
In late November Meghan wrote an op-ed for the New York Times revealing a heartbreak that had previously been private— a miscarriage that happened in July. “This year has brought so many of us to our breaking points,” she wrote in the piece. “So, this Thanksgiving, ‘let us commit to asking others, ‘Are you OK?’”
“I think being so open about what happened to them is their way of getting through the experience and hopefully helping others,” Scobie said. “The tragedy of losing a baby is something that takes people time to move forward from but they are doing that together.”
Though the launch of their charitable foundation Archewell has been delayed, they have stayed engaged with their various charities, and made a handful of public appearances supporting Los Angeles-area charities, including the gang intervention program Homeboy Industries. “The pandemic has affected their plans but it hasn’t changed things as dramatically as one might think,” Scobie said. “I was told that the best part of the year was going to be a listening period for them and a chance to get to know key players in the philanthropic sphere in the US, research social issues and to then make smart decisions for what will be their life long legacy.”
But like so many other people, the Sussexes have also been frustrated by their inability to connect with others face-to-face. “Covid has had an impact on their work—it has meant that they haven’t been able to be on the ground the way they planned to be,” confirmed a friend. “They value being able to connect with people in person. That’s why they’ve done various bits of volunteering, some of which were public while some have remained private.”
The couple, who left the royal family partly to become financially independent, were also forced to figure out how to earn an income. They signed with the prestigious Harry Walker speaking agency in LA in June, but thanks to the pandemic there were no bookings. But they pivoted successfully to their multi-million dollar deal with Netflix, which enabled them to repay the Sovereign Grant the millions of pounds spent on refurnishing their Windsor home in which they lived for less than a year.