Meghan Markle has received a significant boost amid the furore surrounding her return to the UK with Prince Harry and their two young children. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped down as senior royals in early 2020 to pursue financial independence.
The couple relocated to an upscale neighbourhood in Montecito, California, and have since engaged in various commercial ventures, including producing TV and film projects for Netflix. Last year, Meghan launched her lifestyle brand As Ever, an online marketplace selling a curated selection of products including jams, teas, and wines.
Traffic spike linked to UK return
The brand, which operates and ships only in the US, appears to have been buoyed by the interest surrounding the Sussexes' return to Britain, with traffic to the site spiking in the week after news of the homecoming emerged, Newsweek reports. On the day before news broke on August 19 of their return, visits to the As Ever website were recorded by web traffic analysis platform Similarweb at around 3,092.
The number of visits jumped to an estimated 6,574 on the day stories started to emerge in the press that they were expected to move back across the pond, the site suggested, as per Newsweek. According to the outlet, visits were shown to have hit a monthly high on August 22 of some 16,089 with around 182,707 visits across the month.
US audience doubles
Meanwhile, the site's US audience appears to have roughly doubled across August compared to July. Newsweek said its analysis of Similarweb data revealed monthly visits in January were at around 268,200 but had dropped to an estimated 126,655 in July, prior to the apparent UK news-related bump. Similarweb produces estimated visits using a variety of sources and algorithms, not internal data from the sites themselves.
Harry and Meghan's decision to up sticks to the UK marks the latest twist in a long-running saga surrounding their relations with the royal family. Relations between the pair and the Palace are thought to have been frosty in recent years, with the Sussexes famously sparking international headlines as they publicly criticised the institution, and spoke openly about tensions with other members of the famously private family.
Status unchanged
Despite the reported tensions, Harry continued to visit Britain on short trips to see his father King Charles, 77, who is receiving cancer treatment. Then last month it emerged that they would be returning to the UK, and while the Palace didn't offer a public message welcoming them back, the monarch is thought to welcome the opportunity to spend more time with his grandchildren. However, there is little sign of the Sussexes playing a bigger role in the Royal Family now that they're back.
A letter was also put out on his behalf to senior officials in the Government and military reaffirming the King's position on the Sussexes' status within the institution, which hasn't changed following their return. The guidance, sent out by the Palace's most senior officer, Richard Benyon, noted that the pair are "no longer working Members of The Royal Family" and that there is "no change to the current status of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex".
"Their styles as His and Her Royal Highness remain in abeyance and are not used." It added that the "charitable work of the Duke and Duchess is a personal matter for them both and undertaken in their private capacity. In short, their position is akin to private citizens with commercial and charitable interests". Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II famously held a Sandringham "summit" in 2020 where it was said to have been agreed that the Sussexes couldn't have a semi-royal role after stepping back from frontline duties, and were either in or out.
