Prince Harry and Meghan Markle aunched a new website, but it’s looking a lot like their website from four years ago, the one they were asked to take down, and it’s looking very royal, says one culture writer.
In an op-ed piece for New York Magazine’s The Cut, Claire Lampen writes: “This new landing page resembles that of SussexRoyal.com, the site the couple was obligated to ditch four years ago when they renounced their roles as working royals and with it their right to brand themselves as such.
“Instead, they soldiered forward with an exciting normie pivot under the ambiguous umbrella of Archewell, the name for their charity–slash–media conglomerate.
“In short, they are leaning heavily on their titles, packaging themselves not as a pair of go-getting media-mogul celebs but as royals who work,” says Lampen.
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Lampen goes over her theory, that the website looks eerily similar: “To me, it looks less like a rebrand and more like a 360-degree revolution back to basics; a renewed embrace of their single largest selling point. And, per usual, it raises a whole raft of questions, such as “What are they up to now?” and “Are they even allowed to do that?”
And, according to Lampen, Meghan is rebranding herself: “Meghan, according to the lengthy “About Me” section linked on the home page, is not “Markle” but “the Duchess of Sussex.
“The couple now have an “office” to speak for them, language that evokes the media machinations of the palace they left.
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It’s not just Lampen who’s noticing the royal refresh. It’s gotten a lot of people’s attention, particularly the use of the crest, the titles and the term “the office,” implying Harry and Meghan are a part of The Firm, whether or not that was intended.
The royally-infused website was discussed during the recent episode of Royally Obsessed with the co-hosts agreeing it was confusing.
Rachel Bowie kicked off the debate, asking: “It does bring up the questions of, are they trying to shed that relationships with their past or are they trying to amplify it?”
With her fellow royal wather Roberta Fiorioto anwering: “To me, they are clearly not shedding it, which I find so, so surprising, which took us both, so off guard, and probably members of our audience.”
“We both love Harry and Meghan, we are super excited for them in all of their future endeavors, but it does feel like a little bit of a head scratcher, I will say, that they have gone so hard on the royal front.”
