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Meghan Markle is concentrating on her husband and baby son as she takes a six-week break from work, a source has told The Daily Beast.
The source shot down claims made in The Daily Telegraph this week that Meghan has spent her sabbatical intensively working on next year’s U.S. launch of her and Harry’s new foundation, Sussex Royal.
“They are very much in family mode,” the source said.
Although plans are being incubated for Sussex Royal, the suggestion that the couple are using their time off to intensively plot and micromanage the detail of its launch and operation are said to be wide of the mark.
Instead the couple is said to be enjoying their time out of the limelight to focus on baby Archie (albeit with a little spitballing of ideas).
They are not expected back on frontline royal duties until January, and have been granted permission to miss Christmas at Sandringham with the Queen, instead celebrating the occasion privately with Meghan’s mom, Doria.
Although it is widely believed the young family has been basing themselves in the U.S. for the past few weeks, the strength and confidentiality of their inner circle of trust is shown by the fact that there have been no solid-media leaks on their whereabouts since their break started.
Although it is assumed they are in California—and the Telegraph reported they had a meeting with their U.S. PR team—no photos or other solid reports have emerged of any of the three Sussexes since the break began.
The Daily Beast, for example, has been confidently told by different sources that they are in America, Botswana, and even “hiding in plain sight” in the U.K.
All we do know for certain is that this respite has a little longer to run yet; last month, a spokesperson for the Sussexes announced the duke and duchess were taking a six-week break from royal duties, to last between the end of November and early January, adding: “Having spent the last two Christmases at Sandringham, [the couple] will spend the holiday this year, as a new family, with the Duchess’ mother Doria.
“This decision is in line with precedent set previously by other members of the Royal Family, and has the support of Her Majesty The Queen.”
The palace did not respond to a request from The Daily Beast as to when the couple would be returning to frontline royal duties.
It may seem like a lifetime ago, but in fact it is less than two months since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were at the center of royal controversy after they said in a TV interview that they didn’t think much of the way the way they’d been treated by the press or their royal brothers- and sisters-in-arms.
They lifted the lid on the enormous stress and strain they have felt since Meghan married Harry, painted a picture of fraternal disharmony between William and Harry, and appeared to go so far as to question whether they really wanted to continue in a public royal role.
Concerns were raised by the interview for Harry’s mental health in particular, exacerbated when the couple briefed they were taking the six-week sabbatical to take stock.
Given that Meghan had spent much of the year on maternity leave, this engendered some criticism. However, the British media had barely had a chance to start working themselves into a lather about it when Prince Andrew doused himself in verbal petroleum and lit a rhetorical match during his infamous Newsnight interview.
His bizarre excuses, unconvincing alibis, and airy lack of regret about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein blew all other royal indiscretions and misjudgments out of the water and off the front pages.
While there is no suggestion that Meghan and Harry were anything other than mortified by Andrew’s interview and the subsequent reaction—Meghan was said to be particularly horrified by Andrew’s assertion that sex was “a positive act” for a man—there was a silver lining.
The diversion of the media’s attention could not have come at a better time for Meghan and Harry, who have been able to use their unexpected slide off the news radar as an opportunity to regroup and reset.
There is little doubt that Meghan hopes to use her new position to effect global change in certain specific areas. She alluded to a global “consciousness crisis” during her tour of South Africa and has big goals.
In conversations with palace insiders, and those who have worked (or hope to work with) Meghan, the words that come up over and over again are “global” and “impactful.”
America, and the raising of super-sized American funding, has always been important for the royals, but Meghan’s nationality combined with Harry’s breezy informality has made it an entirely natural fit, rather than the forced marriage it has often appeared to be for William and Kate.
Meghan, those who know her say, is eternally optimistic—“she really is that sunny American girl,” one source said—and this, they say, is important to understanding her; it is equally important, one might suggest, to understanding her big-picture goals for Sussex Royal.
But, it seems, that can wait for 2020.
As the world slows down for the festive break, Meghan is doing the same thing, and getting to spend a little extra time with her husband and her child.
