In the Ongoing Sussex Rebrand, Directly Hitting Back at Critics Is Apparently a Part of the Formula
It was another day, another criticism for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle after the launch of their new website, Sussex.com, this week. (Isn’t this narrative getting tired?) It’s old news by now that every move the couple makes—and even the ones they don’t make—are critiqued, picked apart, and scrutinized by the public, and especially by the U.K. tabloid press.
Here's an example: earlier this week, The Telegraph published an article during Harry and Meghan’s trip to Canada that said they had “three days to prove they can behave” if “they want to salvage a relationship with the royal family.” (Harry and Meghan were in Canada from Wednesday to Friday marking one year to go until Harry’s Invictus Games head to the country, Vancouver and Whistler specifically, in 2025.) This, as well as scrutiny from the U.K. press as a whole about the ongoing rebrand, apparently hit a nerve.
“We’ve heard time and time again that certain opportunities are make or break for the couple,” a spokesperson for the Sussexes told The Mirror. Then, the defiant cherry on top: “They’re still here.”
But that wasn’t all. “They’re still working and pursuing what they believe in, despite constantly being challenged and criticized,” the rep continued. “This couple will not be broken.”
We love a rebrand with a sprinkle of “firing back” on top.
The launch of Sussex.com particularly incensed Harry and Meghan detractors, as it rang too close for comfort to sussexroyal.com, the website name proposed by the couple after they stepped back as working members of the royal family in January 2020—a suggestion that was summarily rejected by Queen Elizabeth. (Harry and Meghan became the Duke and Duchess of Sussex upon their May 2018 marriage, titles disbursed by Her late Majesty.)
“With the support of her aged husband [Prince Philip, who died in April 2021], she made it clear it was not possible to do what they wanted—be half in and half out of the monarchy,” royal expert and editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine Ingrid Seward said, per OK. “She told them they could not trade on their royal connections for financial gain. She subsequently forbade them from using the website name sussexroyal.com and their HRHs. She would have been hurt and angry at the latest developments.”
Sussex.com seems a natural fit for the couple, who are using the name as their familial name; it was also revealed this week that Harry and Meghan’s children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, use “Sussex” as their surname, rather than Mountbatten-Windsor, as they originally did upon their births in May 2019 and June 2021, respectively. The Daily Mail reports that Archie and Lili have gone by Archie Sussex and Lili Sussex since their grandfather King Charles’ Coronation last May. “Prince Harry and Meghan are the Duke and Duchess of Sussex,” a source close to the couple said in their defense. “That is a fact. It is their surname and family name.”
The launch of Sussex.com, the announcement of a new podcast for Meghan (this time with Lemonada Media instead of Spotify), and the couple’s three day (what felt like a) mini-royal tour in Canada feels like the beginning of a significant rebrand for the world’s most picked apart couple. But this time? Though some parts of the rebrand feel very royal, one royal standby that is decidedly not invited into the new era is, apparently, “Never complain, never explain”—nor does staying silent when condemnation they deem unfair is leveled their way.
