Is Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex back in favour with the Royal Family?

2023 was supposed to be the year of reconciliation for Meghan, Harry and the Royal Family but the death of the Queen scuppered their plans, Royal Commentator Afua Hagan writes in an exclusive column for CTVNews.ca.

It’s been a busy few months for Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. After the official period of mourning for the death of Queen Elizabeth II, her podcast Archetypes continues to dominate the streaming charts the world over. It generates conversations and column inches around the topics she chose to unpack, and the guests she’s sat down with, including Constance Wu, Issa Rae and Sophie Grégoire Trudeau. Then, there’s been magazine covers and interviews with New York Magazine’s The Cut and Variety, in which she talked about mourning the Queen and her life with her two kids, three dogs and of course Prince Harry.

It's fair to say that Meghan is like Marmite when it comes to public opinion – people either love her or they hate her. On one side, her podcast attracts huge numbers, with the first episode featuring Serena Williams topping the charts in the U.K., U.S., Canada and English-speaking countries. On the other, her critics, like author Angela Levin, who wrote Camilla: Duchess of Cornwall, say she is cashing in on being part of the Royal Family and take exception to lots of things she says, for example, referring to Prince Harry as her husband – even though he is.

But it’s not the public that she really has to curry favour with – it’s the Royal Family. Notorious for keeping calm and carrying on, they haven’t officially commented on any of the podcasts or the interviews. But privately, according to Tom Bower, author of Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors they are said to be "hugely nervous" about what Meghan (and Harry) have already said – and what is to come.

2023 was supposed to be the year of reconciliation for Meghan, Harry and the Royal Family. According to a report in British newspaper, the plan was that after Duke and Duchess’ Netflix collaboration and Harry’s book, they would launch a charm offensive, starting with The Queen, and then reconcile with the rest of the family. But unfortunately, the death of the Queen scuppered their plans. The reconciliation may still happen after the release of the book or the documentary but it’s certain this is not how Meghan and Harry wanted their 2023 to play out.

Instead, they were thrust abruptly back in the spotlight of the Royal Family when they attended the funeral of the Queen, generating a whole bunch of headlines of their own too. They had been in the U.K., attending a series of charity events and were due to fly home when the Queen died, meaning they spent more time in the U.K. than they have since they made their move to the U.S. in 2020.

From the outside looking in, we saw a family in mourning, pulled together by grief. But it seems that the rifts are still clear and present. We saw the old “Fab Four,” the Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Catherine, along with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan strike a delicate truce and do a walkabout in Windsor, where they put on a united front to greet well-wishers and accept floral tributes. But the body language between the two couples was clear: there’s no love lost here.