UNITED FRONT

Insiders open up about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s marriage as the couple grapples with setbacks and divorce rumors

- JAIME HARKIN

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were perfectly in sync as they left a Santa Barbara office building together on July 2. Harry, wearing a blue baseball cap, sunglasses and jeans, and Meghan, dressed in a fedora, black shades, a white button-down and brown shorts, held hands as they smiled and laughed while making their way to a waiting car.

The surprisingly cheerful outing came just two weeks after it was revealed that Harry and Meghan’s multimillion-dollar Spotify deal had come to an end. The career blow was one of a few the couple has withstood in recent months. “It’s been a challenging time,” says one source, noting the pair’s May car chase with paparazzi in NYC and a legal setback for Harry in his ongoing lawsuit against a British tabloid. Despite rumors the stress is putting a strain on their relationship, multiple insiders tell Us the Sussexes’ five-year marriage is weathering the storm. “They’re a united front,” says a second source of the spouses. “As far as they’re concerned, it’s Harry and Meghan against the world.”

ROUGH PATCH 

Harry, 38, and Meghan, 42, had big plans when they left their royal duties behind in 2020 and relocated from the U.K. to California. But the parents to Archie, 4, and Lilibet, 2, haven’t quite taken Hollywood by storm. While Harry’s January memoir, Spare, became a bestseller, their well-received December 2022 Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan, failed to garner an Emmy nomination, and Meghan’s Archetypes podcast was notably short-lived.