Meghan Markle Has a Route Back to Hollywood Stardom

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's trip to a Beyoncé concert has triggered a wave of good PR and positive social media posts—and even their most hated U.K. tabloid has announced "her big Hollywood comeback."

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex earned a mass audience during their Oprah Winfrey interview in 2021, were Netflix ratings winners with their 2022 documentary Harry & Meghan, and Harry's memoir, Spare, was the fastest-selling nonfiction book of all time.

But they were left licking their wounds at the end of their first three years as royals after a collapse in their U.S. popularity, a wave of stand-up comedy roasts and the disintegration of their Spotify deal.

Now, though, new life has been breathed back into Brand Sussex by a simple trip to a Beyoncé concert in Los Angeles on Monday, which went repeatedly viral on TikTok and X (formerly Twitter).

Meghan danced, the couple hugged each other, and afterward the duchess was photographed with Kelly Rowland and Kerry Washington, winning positive PR from the unlikeliest of places—her most hated U.K. tabloid, the Daily Mail.

The newspaper's online headline proclaimed it the "moment Meghan makes her big Hollywood comeback as she mingles with the Kardashians, Katy Perry and Lizzo in the VIP pit at Beyoncé's concert—as Harry forges his own LA bromance with Rob McElhenney."

On Sunday, the prince was seen with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia stars McElhenney and Glenn Howerton at a soccer match between Los Angeles Football Club and Inter Miami.

It all came days after the release of Harry's latest Netflix film, Heart of Invictus, which has failed to make the streaming giant's top 10 charts, demonstrating the challenge the couple have had in commercializing the more positive aspects of their work.

The documentary followed Harry's Invictus Games tournament for wounded veterans and is his most successful project in his time as a royal. But it does not appear to have cut through commercially in his new life as a California celebrity.

The stark contrast between the response to Heart of Invictus and the reaction to the couple's PDA-filled trip to see Beyoncé highlights a potential flaw in the couple's approach to their new West Coast lives, as well as a route back to the popularity they enjoyed when they first moved to America.

Harry and Meghan have done very little of the classic Hollywood circuit. They have never been photographed on the red carpet in L.A. in three years. Meghan has twice won awards for her Archetypes podcast but did not attend either ceremony.

They have, however, clashed with the paparazzi, although the New York Police Department played down their account of a two-hour paparazzi car chase in May.

Harry went to King Charles' coronation that month but left for the airport before the ceremony ended and was mocked after his view was obscured by Princess Anne's hat.

Nick Ede, a prominent U.K.-based brand and culture expert, told Newsweek: "When you first leave the royal family you probably think the most important thing is to keep that royal connection and use that as your way to make money and carry on your fame and your celebrity. But actually when you go and live in Montecito you're part of the Hollywood pack and you've got to play that game."

Ede suggested Harry looked a little out of place at Beyoncé's concert, and some news organizations described the prince as miserable, but he looked happier at the soccer game.

"The first concert, all eyes were on Harry and Meghan and all eyes were on how he would dance and he looked kind of uncomfortable, and so the media didn't paint that in the best light," Ede said.

He went on: "However, when they're doing things they actually enjoy and aren't being forced to do—so Meghan going again with her girlfriends, looking fabulous, letting her hair down, actually enjoying herself, Harry obviously going to watch the football, enjoying himself, really loving the match—you suddenly see them as the celebrities you want to see who are genuine and authentic.

"It makes them less contrived, and you kind of feel she's a Hollywood starlet, she's got Hollywood friends, enjoy your life. And the same with him: Go and watch the football, cheer with the lads and enjoy yourself rather than almost shoehorn yourself into situations that you think, or your PR thinks, are right. However, they might not necessarily be right so they look contrived," he said.

With the Hollywood writers' strike continuing, Ede said, music and sporting events could be a good option for mixing with A-listers, who have far more time when they are not needed on set.

"There's lots of opportunity," he said. "There's a party or an event in Los Angeles every night or multiple ones. Rather than play the royal highness or the royal side, play the Hollywood star side and actually people become much more engaged with you and want to make you more relatable and more inspirational."

Ede said he believed Meghan would also relaunch her former lifestyle blog, The Tig, and should play down her Duchess of Sussex title if she does.

Having made her name in the relentlessly competitive and fiercely meritocratic TV industry, Meghan pledged in her earliest days as a royal to "hit the ground running."

The remark—which would be completely innocuous in almost every industry—was jarring at the time from a royal because the monarchy is built on hereditary rather than meritocratic principles.

In other words, there is—on paper anyway—nowhere in particular the royals are running to, nothing they are particularly trying to get, and their purpose is to exist as figureheads.

This may have presented problems for Meghan at the time. She arrived at the palace with a skill set finely honed during her career in one of the world's most competitive professions but with no real forum within which her talents could be rewarded.

A royal can turn up with a megawatt smile and work their hardest to make a charity event as good as it can be, or they can turn up and try half as hard. But they are generally praised either way for doing good and giving back.

However, since returning to California, the couple are back in the competitive, world of U.S. showbiz, and three years later are still trying to settle on a new relationship with America.

Yet if the Beyoncé concert is the start of a rebirth for the couple, they may have finally found a way to draw the spotlight without having to trade in royal secrets.

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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