I think if I am honest some of this is also a US/UK thing. You’ll see the Obamas do a lot more overt PDA (even Kamala Harris and Doug…) than any European leader would. So William and Kate, the late Queen and Prince Philip as well as Charles and Camilla have a different public face when out there as a couple to what an American power couple might do.
I think Meghan is beautiful and I also think she was badly treated by the press. BUT I also think that she overestimated her own role in the RF, thought her star power would overcome its hierarchy and when they quit thought that the global interest in their story would propel them to superstardom. Then 8 weeks later the world shut down and with people dying their petty feud with their family seemed irrelevant.
Subsequently, despite the publicity it gathered both the Netflix documentary and Spare have backfired. They have said what they have to about the RF. What else is there to sell without looking even more tawdry? In fact Harry did an about turn and suggested that no one was racist, it was unconscious bias. Remember the incident with Lady Hussey which as a brown woman I thought was an appalling incident and the Palace stepped in swiftly. Harry said in an interview that she wasn’t racist and the media had inflamed it…so clearly clearly there was an about turn somewhere.
Meghan’s podcast gathered some interest because of who she is, but it petered out. The children’s book is not going to be a bedtime staple for future generations. ARO might be a future case study in business school on how not to launch a product line. Spotify dropped them. What they have left is Invictus and Sentebale both of which Harry was doing long before he met her. So as a ‘power couple’ there isn’t a flagship project that they can claim.
There have been several reports in the press that commercially they want to do separate things. I assume that this is what their PR team have now advised. It’s sparked a slew of divorce rumours but honestly, I think from where they started in Jan 2020 wanting to be an alternate royal presence in North America, doing Commonwealth tours and collaborating with the monarchy, they have had to make many many many compromises along the way.
The RF has also suffered. Illness, Andrew, bad press like the recent documentary, a lack of reverence after the Queen died and a general feeling that it’s an obsolete institution in 2024. But it’s an institution, rather than a couple in California trying to break into Hollywood. As Head of the State and the Church, it will continue to have a substantial presence no matter what individuals do. The King will host State dinners and William will have a global presence as the next King. Perhaps H&M now realise that the monarchy has a degree of staying power despite falling popularity and criticism.