The Sussexes' "Brand Separation" Could Sound Trouble for Their Marriage
Monday, Meghan Markle made headlines when she was pictured stopping by an In-n-Out (a popular American burger chain). She was snapped from inside the establishment, smiling through the window toward the camera. The quality of the photo was the high-resolution of a professional camera and the byline of the shot was attributed to Backgrid, an outlet that is known for often coordinating with its subjects—something of a paparazzi for hire group.
The images of Meghan have been coming thick and fast the last week or so. To recap, the Duchess of Sussex attended two Beyoncé concerts the weekend before last—the first night in a private box with Prince Harry, her mother, and a few friends, and the second flying solo and mixing with celebrities like Kelly Rowland and Kerry Washington.
She was snapped Thursday, September 7th (for a Friday—anniversary of the Queen’s death—release) driving herself around the Montecito area; she was pictured at In-n-Out Monday; and yesterday images were released from another conveniently placed Backgrid long lens that captured her at LAX ready to fly away to Europe to join Harry at the Invictus Games.
This activity comes as the Daily Mail published a very interesting investigative piece on Meghan’s rebrand/relaunch. As discussed in these pages months ago, Meghan disappeared last winter as the negative backlash from the couple’s Netflix series and Harry’s book Spare pummeled the fame-sensitive duo. Since Meghan has never sought a life of seclusion or privacy, I hypothesized that Meghan was strategizing her next move. It was hardly a difficult guess, since she would have to be planning a pivot of some kind after the critical reception of the couple’s failed commercial ventures.
As the months ticked by, it became clear that Meghan was trying to distance herself from the royal drama. The Daily Mail, however provided even more interesting insight. According to the outlet, Harry and Meghan are very intentionally pursuing “brand separation.”
According to the Mail:
Nick Ede, a brand and culture expert, and friend of the duchess dating from the period before she met Harry, casts light on . . . what ‘brand separation’ means in practice.
‘I’ve spoken to mutual friends and it’s not true they are divorcing,’ says Ede. ‘What is actually happening is they are trying now to undo the damage they did with the Harry & Meghan documentary and Spare, which made them into a toxic couple.
‘The first way to do that is to allow Meghan to get away from the victim narrative and away from Harry so people can see who she is.
‘Meghan needs to forget about being a duchess and forget about good works. She has been isolated in Montecito and hiding away. But she is fun and funny, which is why we became friends. There wasn’t anything fun in [the documentary] or in the [Spotify] podcasts.
She will use Instagram to connect directly with fans around the world and to step out into who she is, which is not at all a victim.
‘She is 100 per cent a celebrity and will concentrate on that while Harry does whatever moves him.
‘If they are wise, they will copy the Beckhams, where each half of the couple has their own “thing” and they do only a small amount together. She could easily earn a million dollars. There is a lot of money which she will make very easily — as long as she does it away from him.’
First, Ede is wrong that the Netflix series and Spare made the Sussexes into a toxic couple. Those projects were the cherry on top. The couple were already deeply entrenched in their own toxicity, which is why they started backpedaling even before the Netflix series aired. Part of the blowback from the series was due to the sheer exhaustion and frustration the public felt from the Sussexes’ relentless and absurd assaults on the royal family over the course of two years. They tore down their own brand, interview by interview, gripe by gripe.
But to me, the nugget that stood out the most in this article was