Meghan and Harry just signed a mega work deal
Since stepping down from their roles as working royals in March this year, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry haven't been able to do a lot. With the coronavirus pandemic taking a grip globally, the couple - who relocated to LA earlier in the year with baby Archie - have had to put work plans on the back-burner until the world opens up again.
We know the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are concocting big plans for a charitable organisation named 'Archewell' - inspired by their young son Archie Harrison - which will focus on the advancement of mental health resources including a website, films, podcasts and books.
But all that takes a while to set up, and in the meantime it seems Harry and Meghan have been working on another aspect of their future careers. Harper's Bazaar confirms the couple have just signed a lucrative speaking engagement contract with a New York–based agency, Harry Walker, which also represents the likes of the Obamas, and the Clintons. Admirable company indeed.
It looks like the Sussexes are carving out speaking opportunities as one of their streams of income, which is all part of their wider plan to become financially independent from the royal family.
On a website set up by Meghan and Harry following the announcement they'd be stepping away from their royal duties, the Duke and Duchess explained that they "value the ability to earn a professional income", which they were "prohibited from doing" as working royals.
The couple said they looked forward to establishing "future financial autonomy [by working] externally," and this new deal looks to be the first public steps towards that. The speaking agency will organise paid opportunities for the Sussexes to take part in "moderated discussions, keynote speeches, and community forums," according to Harper's.
The magazine's source reveals that, once it's safe to carry out in-person work like this again, Harry and Meghan will focus on speaking about "social issues and causes important to them and the world," including mental health, racial justice, gender equity, and the environment.
The topics are all areas the couple took care to promote during their work as frontline royal family members causes that both Harry and Meghan promoted during their work as active senior royals. In recent weeks, Meghan made a moving speech regarding the Black Lives Matter movement, which she recorded from her LA home.
Addressing students about to graduate from her old high school, Immaculate Heart, the Duchess said she was initially nervous about commenting on the protests in America and internationally, triggered by the death of George Floyd, because she feared that her words would be "picked apart".
"George Floyd's life mattered and Breonna Taylor's life mattered and Philando Castile's life mattered and Tamir Rice's life mattered."
Duchess Meghan has shared a powerful video with @IHPandas Immaculate Heart High School’s class of 2020 for their graduation.#BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/BzUmfnKICb— Omid Scobie (@scobie) June 4, 2020
However, Meghan went on to say that she realised speaking up was the very best possible thing she could do. "The only wrong thing to say is to say nothing," she powerfully told the students.
Exciting opportunities ahead for the Sussexes, it seems!
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