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This week, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle felt forced to rush out a statement confirming that their new charitable vehicle would be called Archewell (pronounced, simply, “Archwell,” The Daily Beast understands) after British newspaper The Daily Telegraph unearthed hundreds of trademark applications taken out in Archewell’s name.
Sources close to Harry and Meghan were open about their disappointment with the way the news had leaked out, telling The Daily Beast that while the midst of a global pandemic was absolutely not when they had planned to announce the name of their new outfit, they felt they had little choice but to respond candidly to the Telegraph’s inquiries.
“As you can imagine, this is not when we were looking to announce this, but we responded to the story that the Telegraph was working on,” a source said.
Indeed, in their statement to the Telegraph they hinted at their reluctance at revealing the name now, saying: “Our focus is on supporting efforts to tackle the global COVID-19 pandemic but faced with this information coming to light, we felt compelled to share the story of how this came to be.”
There then followed a detailed explanation of the name, which, the couple said, was based on a Greek word, “Arche,” which they said meant “source of action” and the word “well” as in a water well (rather than “wellness”) because a well “evokes the deep resources we each must draw upon.”
They said the charity was not named after their son; instead, Archie’s name was inspired by the same concept.
Predictably, the Sussexes’ suggestion that they had not planned to release the name now was largely ignored by the media and online trolls.
They were widely accused of grandstanding at an inappropriate time, a charge that was made all the more toxic by the fact that the Telegraph story went live just hours after the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, was admitted to hospital with COVID-19.
Indeed, a website was swiftly created by an anonymous user with the URL www.archewellfoundation.com, which redirected visitors to a YouTube video of Kanye West’s 2005 hit “Gold Digger.”
Whatever their intentions, and however reluctant they were to divulge the name, they did so, and the result could hardly be described as a good day at the office for Harry and Meghan.
The chaotic reveal of the new name was, however, just the latest speed bump on what has been a consistently challenging path to their new lives as self-financing independent entities.
Like everyone everywhere, all their plans have been upended by the coronavirus.
Just as one example, Elephant, the nature film which was effectively the soft launch of Meghan’s new career as a VIP gun-for-hire (she did the voice over), failed to register on the global media stage as the virus swept all news before it.
While there have been stories circulating that Meghan, undoubtedly a hot property right now, is already considering scripts, Hollywood veterans told The Daily Beast that it was common knowledge that for any deal agreed in principle right now, it is extremely unlikely that any money will be changing hands before the autumn.
“Everything’s on pause,” the source, said.
The trouble with delay is that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will probably never be as famous again as they were three months ago, when news of their bold departure from the stifling embrace of the royal family led news bulletins around the world.
Heat dissipates, and Meghan and Harry’s challenge will be to rekindle interest in themselves as personalities when the world arrives at some kind of sustainable new normal.
No-one can blame them for the chaos of the past few months or fairly accuse them of stupidity; just a few months ago, only specialist journals were carrying reports of a mysterious new viral condition emerging in the populous but little-known Chinese city of Wuhan. While many may have had objections on grounds of royal decorum, few doubted the simple business case being made by Harry and Meghan as they counted down to their official independence day of March 31.
In the background, they were excitedly preparing for their commercial launch anyway. And a few weeks before they officially departed the royal firm, Harry, introduced by his wife, stood up in front of a crowd of JPMorgan investment bankers and spoke for 15 minutes, focusing his speech, to some surprise, on deeply personal recollections of his mother and the trauma caused by her death.
He also revealed he had been in therapy for several years.
It has been estimated that Harry and Meghan earned up to a million dollars for the short appearance. How different the world looks today.
Like many of us, Harry and Meghan will likely have to dip into their savings (unlike most of us, they are worth at least $40m) to get through the current crisis, especially as they are now paying for their own security detail.
But the medium-run post-coronavirus world is going to hit some harder than others. Farmers, epidemiologists and video game developers look pretty safe in the event that, as seems likely, some form of social distancing regulations stay in place for the best part of the next year.
But a career structured at least in part around personal celebrity appearances looks hard to imagine in the era of social distance. After all, who’s going to pay a million bucks to meet Harry and Meghan if the employees being given the treat have to remain two meters distant and don’t even get a photo of the big handshake to put in the john?
Sources say that Harry and Meghan will be keeping a low profile until the crisis abates. Of course, they have little choice.
They will one day emerge from lockdown, like the rest of us, blinking into the new dawn. But what that world looks like, and what their earning power in it will be, might be very different to what they imagined three months ago.
