The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are in a “very good place” one year on from sparking a major royal crisis when they dropped the bombshell that they wanted to quit as senior royals.
A source close to the couple said they had managed to come out on top after a tumultuous 2020.
“After a very turbulent 12 months for everyone in the world and massive changes of moving country and all the rest of it, they have also been very vocal about what they have gone through in their own personal life,” the source said.
“They have a house. They have created the financial independence that they were after.
“They have launched their organisation, and their organisation is underway doing amazing things already.
“And so I think that they are in a very good place.”
Prince Harry and Markle released their shock statement on January 8, 2020, saying they intended to step down and become financially independent but still support the Queen – a dual role which in the end was unworkable.
Amid the first anniversary on Friday of the announcement, the Sussexes have settled into a new life in the US away from the monarchy, secured a number of lucrative multimillion-dollar deals and established their Archewell foundation.
The pair are set up for a highly profitable and productive 2021, with their Netflix deal said to be worth $128.3 million, and their podcasting deal with Spotify worth $52.5 million.
But the couple have also experienced heartache, with Markle revealing in a newspaper article in November that she had suffered a miscarriage in the summer.
“I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second,” she wrote.
Harry and Meghan now live in an $19 million home in Montecito, California, with their 20-month-old son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.
They have set out their goal to “build a better world” through their non-profit organisation, recently announcing partnerships with several tech and research-focused organisations.
Archewell is expected to focus on the issues the couple have been raising both during and before the pandemic – racial justice, gender equity, climate change, mental health, tackling online hate speech and empowering diverse voices.
The Sussexes also have several ongoing legal actions.
Meghan is suing Associated Newspapers Ltd, publisher of the Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, over an article which reproduced parts of the handwritten letter sent to her father Thomas Markle in August 2018.
Prince Harry has brought cases against News Group Newspapers and Mirror Group Newspapers over alleged historical phone hacking.
Here is everything the Sussexes have managed to achieve in the last year.
-with AAP
