MEGHAN & HARRY FIVE YEARS LATER: How It All Went Wrong

THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF SUSSEX THOUGHT THEY COULD HAVE IT ALL WHEN THEY FLED THE U.K. FOR AMERICA - BUT THAT'S HARDLY WHAT HAPPENED.

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RINCE HARRY was living the California dream. In an Oct. 16 Instagram video, the 40-year-old stood atop a surfboard at champion athlete Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch in Lemoore, Calif. The inland facility, which also offers guests luxury accommodations and farm-to-table cuisine and costs from $5,000, was reportedly a birthday gift from wife Meghan Markle, 43. But while Harry’s form was good, many reactions were not. One online commenter branded the conservation activist prince “environmentally tone-deaf in water-strapped California.” Yet another lamented, “Once again they are out of touch with reality and the public.”

It was another Sussex wobble. Five years ago, support for Harry and his American bride was high. More than 1.9 billion people had watched their 2018 wedding, and the public cheered the birth of their first child, Prince Archie, a year later (daughter Lilibet came along in 2021). Their decision to step back as senior royals and move to America to protect themselves and their young family from the hidebound monarchy garnered them worldwide sympathy. But in the years since, filled with botched deals, tell-all books and scathing interviews about the royal family, that support has waned, leaving some wondering what went wrong. “Harry and Meghan seemed to have unrealistic goals from the beginning,” an insider tells Star. “They believed they could have the best of both worlds.”

REBELLIOUS MOVE

In November 2019, amid growing scrutiny and attacks on Meghan in the U.K. press and worsening private tensions within the royal family, the Sussexes began a six-week break in Canada where they hoped to regroup. It was the beginning of the end of their working and personal relationships with his family, including the late Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles III, Prince William and