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Will the death of the Queen affect Meghan and Harry’s new chapter?
The website Prince Harry and his wife Meghan developed as a platform for their new California business projects went dead on Thursday. Links to Meghan’s new podcast vanished, as did mentions of the couple’s charity endeavors and production deal. Instead, a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II was placed on the site.
The decision to cover a website in digital mourning was by royal protocol but also with public sentiment, even in the seaside towns of southern California, where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have resided since stepping down from their official roles in the Windsor family hierarchy.
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The news of the Queen’s death on Thursday had made Ye Old King’s Head, an English pub and souvenir shop near the ocean in Santa Monica, a meeting point for both British expats and sentimental Americans, said Dusty Kerr, a 65-year-old from Leeds who has worked at the business for 23 years. “She will be deeply missed,” she stated.
There were many inquiries about what type of king Charles would be as people bought commemorative teapots and tea towels and drank toast to the queen’s memory in the bar, Kerr said. Still, she didn’t hear much about California’s most famous British expats.
“Nobody has done anything negative today,” she remarked. “I haven’t heard much about that – it’s all about Elizabeth.”
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It’s uncertain whether Elizabeth’s death, at the age of 96, will greatly impact the route Harry and Meghan have set for themselves in California. King Charles III endorsed their choice in his first address to the nation, saying, “I also want to convey my admiration for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas.”
The couple lives in the celebrity enclave of Montecito, in a mansion reportedly purchased for $14.65 million, and have founded Archewell, a nonprofit and for-profit business aimed at “unleashing the power of compassion to promote systemic cultural transformation.”