Full Steam Ahead For Harry & Meghan

Life’s good for the Sussexes right now – they’ve paid off their debt, landed a big-bucks Netflix deal and the dollars are pouring in

- Nici De Wet

So this is it then: Harry and Meghan have officially divorced the royal family and are moving full steam ahead, liberated from the gilded chains that bound them to The Firm.

And as was to be expected, the couple were never going to simply slink off into a life of quiet simplicity. They may want freedom but that doesn’t mean they want anonymity.

Making a difference in the world, Sussex style, means high-profile projects and mega-bucks deals – all the while living in Hollywood-style grandeur in one of the most aesthetically pleasing pockets of America.

There’s been plenty of talk they’re styling themselves on Barack and Michelle Obama, who have blazed a trail with highly successful projects since leaving the White House.

We take a closer look.

HOW THE ‘DIVORCE’ WAS SEALED

As is often the case with divorce, it’s the financials that cause the biggest headaches and money was something that stuck in the Sussexes’ craw too.

Their biggest monetary tie to their old life was Frogmore Cottage, the home in the grounds of Windsor Castle they upgraded with £2,4 million (R40m) of taxpayer money after their wedding.

They came under heavy fire for fixing it up then abandoning it when they fled the royal coop.

“For more than a year, it has been the millstone around Prince Harry’s neck,” royal expert Richard Kay says in the Daily Mail.

“He saw it as a chain that shackled him and Meghan to the land of his birth, inhibiting their efforts to be truly free of the royal family – and crucially – of their media critics.”