You may have seen that Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are going part-time as senior members of the royal family. They're going to cut out a new, more "progressive" role for themselves as royals, split their time between the UK and North America, and work towards becoming financially independent.
On that last front, it's probably easier to forge independence when you start with a base of somewhere between $20 and $40 Milllion.
Now, most of us could live quite nicely on this amount, but if you're living on two continents, have expensive taste in clothing, and like to travel... Plus you have college for Archie to worry about. Well, it all adds up.
They still get to keep Frogmore "Cottage" - at least for now - and a multi-million allowance from Prince Charles. So they won't be hurting hurting. But they do want to get out of the virtual parents' basement they live in and do their own thing, work-wise.
So what could they do?
Obviously, they won't have to work as waitrons, although how much fun would it be to have one of this duo waiting on you? And they won't have to work retail, either. Good thing. Even this last resort job source is drying up, given this week's announcements that a raft of Pier One's are closing, and that Macy's also going to shutter a bunch of stores.
So they'll be thinking bigger and better.
I don't know if Suits is still on the air, but I bet they'd love to have Meghan Markle back. Unless they killed her off.
I'm sure there'd be plenty of other acting opportunities for Meghan. But acting may seem a bit too tawdry.
Meghan does have a solid degree to fall back on. She went to Northwestern, afterall. She needs to get on Linkedin and start networking. I bet my sister Trish, a fellow Wildcat, would be delighted to connect with her.
She also did a guest editing stint at British Vogue, so maybe she'll do something literary-ish. Jackie O would be a good role model. After Ari O died, she went to work as a book editor.
Harry's career was in the military, so he could work as a soldier of fortune, I guess. Or a personal trainer, running one of those bootcamp fitness places.
The two of them could do some sort of lifestyle thing, maybe a less bat-shit crazy Goop (Gwyneth Paltrow's queendom).
Or they could focus on their charitable work, become experts on its domain - I'm not sure what they'll be focusing on, but they're setting up the Royal Sussex Foundation this year - and go around charging a lot of money to speak. If someone's willing to pay Donald Trump, Junior $50K to speak, and if someone's willing to have Ivanka speak at a technology conference (CES 2020), surely A-List celebs like Harry and Meghan can command a pretty penny - especially if they develop an expertise in whatever their foundation focuses on.
Anyway, Harry's so far down the line of succession - Charles, William, George, Charlotte, Louis are all standing in his way - that he ain't never going to be the king. So why not pull back from the bowing, scraping, public eye, ribbon cutting, pomp and circumstance and live your own life.
And who wouldn't want to throw the yoke of stuffy, hidebound royal life. Especially given that, as part of the royal troop, Harry and Meghan have no control over their lives, surrendur their agency and rely on handouts that could, in fact, dry up - by their standards, not ours: even cut-off from the royal largesse, Prince Andrew will not starve to death. Then there's the racism that Meghan has had to endure. And the fact that the press hounded Harry's mother to her death. Maybe they just want something that at least vaguely resembles a normal life for themselves and their kiddo. Who could blame them, other than the British press and royaled-up public, and all those fellow royals who never had the guts to get out while they could.
Good luck to the happy couple. Hope you find jobs that you like and are good at. Write when you get work!
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