Can Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Make Their Relaunch Work?

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s return to public view was always going to be dramatic—if there is one thing their supporters and detractors can agree on, it is their innate talent to cause a stir. On Thursday, during their second day attending the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025’s One Year to Go celebrations, Harry reportedly hit 99 km/h on a skeleton sled on one of the world’s fastest bobsled tracks.

Their photogenic trip to Canada in support of the Games that are one of Harry’s proudest achievements—in chic, snuggly-looking cold-weather clothing—came as they launched a new website, sussex.com, which has already been criticized as “self-absorbed” and “aloof” by branding experts, while royal insiders have mocked the couple’s ambitions to be seen as trying to “save the world.”

Whatever, the website went live on Monday, kicking off the most important week for Brand Sussex since they couple left the royal family. The couple also announced that their children, who will henceforth be known as Archie and Lilibet Sussex, dropping their natal surname, Mountbatten-Windsor, which appears on their birth certificates.

Ready to (Re) Launch? Harry and Meghan’s Shiny New Website Goes Live

Sources in their camp told the London Times that their family will be represented by the new website, Sussex.com, saying: “It’s a hub for the work the Sussexes do and it reflects the fact the family have, since the king’s coronation, the same surname for the first time. That’s a big deal for any family. It represents their unification and it’s a proud moment.” (Harry and Meghan’s reps did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast.)

However, an apparent suggestion by a reporter from British tabloid the Daily Mirror that this was a ”make or break” week for Harry and Meghan, elicited an angry response from a representative for the couple: “We’ve heard time and time again that certain opportunities are make or break for the couple. They’re still here. They’re still working and pursuing what they believe in, despite constantly being challenged and criticized. This couple will not be broken.”

It was, perhaps, an unfortunate outburst as the new website—Sussex.com—had very much set out to portray Meghan and Harry as above the fray, while laying out their stall in bold strokes. The couple position themselves as global philanthropists with a modern mercantile twist, writing, uncompromisingly: “The office of Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, is shaping the future through business and philanthropy.”

Meghan asserts she wants to be “a cultural catalyst for positive change,” while Harry describes himself as “a humanitarian, military veteran, mental health advocate, and environmental campaigner” who has “dedicated his adult life to advancing causes that he is passionate about and that advance permanent change for people and places.”

On Tuesday, the new website made its first announcement: Meghan had landed a new podcast deal with Lemonada. On Wednesday it was used to showcase the couple spending several hours in Whistler with competitors at next year’s Invictus Games, with Harry trying adaptive sports such as sit-skiing, and that evening the website ran an item on their “Evening with the First Nations.”

Sources in the Sussex camp also told the Times that the couple are downgrading their old online presence, Archewell.com, in favor of Sussex.com, because they want to avoid creating an impression that their first-born son is more important than their second-born daughter (see Harry’s book, Spare, for details on the effect this has on a child).

Visitors to the old Archewell.com web address now find themselves redirected to Sussex.com, which features a massive photo of Harry and Meghan, while a link to the Archewell Foundation takes one to archewell.org, where a new, simple home page reads, “Show Up, Do Good.”

Sussex.com is certainly a much more coherent and cogent offering than the always slightly strange Archewell.com, a name which seemed to mean nothing beyond vague allusions to Prince Archie, which always seemed odd for a couple so obsessed by their children’s privacy.

Nonetheless, it’s easy to mock Harry and Meghan’s grandiosity, and social and mainstream media have been busy doing that this week, as have some at the palace.

“The save-the-world stuff has prompted a certain amount of eye-rolling,” one royal source said. “The royals prefer to underpromise and overdeliver, to quietly go about their business, to do a lot without shouting about it. This is the diametric opposite of letting actions speak louder than words. It seems like a lot of talk based on nothing, but I don’t think anyone really cares, partly because it seems they have been quite careful not to take potshots at the royals.”

A friend of King Charles said the monarch remained “incredibly supportive” of his son’s philanthropic work, especially the Invictus Games, and, referring to his recent cancer diagnosis, said, “He has bigger fish to fry at the moment, but I’m sure his reaction to Harry launching a new website would be ‘good for him,’ especially if it helps promote Invictus.” (The king’s office did not return requests for comment.)

The royal writer and YouTuber Lady Colin Campbell told The Daily Beast: “It’s quite correct that the children’s surname is Sussex, but I personally think it’s a ridiculous rebrand. The idea seems to be that they are going to change the world through business and philanthropy, when really, this is about projecting themselves as the resident royals in United States.”

Eric Schiffer, chairman of Reputation Management Consultants, told The Daily Beast: “They are clearly attempting to reposition themselves as global humanitarian leaders. Will it work? I don’t know. For one thing, the website semiotics feel very self-absorbed. For example, in the ‘About’ page, it says they are, ‘Shaping the future through business and philanthropy.’ That is just an utterly bizarre thing to say about yourself from a branding perspective because it is so vague.

“What would probably work better, in my view, is doubling down as champions of the issues they are associated with and that matter to young people, like the environment, equality, and mental health.”

New York reputation and crisis expert Norah Lawlor told The Daily Beast: “The style of website, the color scheme and the use of their crest screams of wanting to be treated as royal or somehow upper-echelon. But those same elements, because they are overdone, also give it a slightly aloof feeling, almost like a pseudo-government personality page. At first glance you wouldn’t know whether the Sussexes see themselves as being business people, activists, or an aspirational fashion and lifestyle brand. With the Sussex.com website focus on ‘self’ it also makes them seem remote from the people they are trying to help.”

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