EXCLUSIVE: Megxit Money Move — Prince Harry and 'Diva Duchess' Meghan Markle Were 'Intent' on Cashing In With Commercial Deals After Historic Royal Family Split
Palace insiders already sensed Megxit was all about Harry and Meghan signing commercial deals.
Feb. 25 2026, Published 7:20 p.m. ET
Palace officials knew Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had their sights set on getting rich through commercial ventures before they sensationally quit the royal family, RadarOnline.com can exclusively reveal.
The duo demanded a half-in, half-out agreement, and when that wasn't reached, they moved to California to seek "financial independence." But those behind the scenes knew the money-grubbing couple wasn't going to accept any royal role that prevented them from banking big bucks.
Desperate Hunt For Royal Roles That Would Satisfy Harry and Meghan
Markle only lasted 18 months as a working royal before she and Prince Harry quit.
After Harry and Markle put out the ultimatum in January 2020 that they were stepping back as senior working royals seeking a "progressive new role within this institution," the late Queen Elizabeth, King Charles III, and Prince William directed their teams to work together quickly find "workable solutions" to the Sussexes' demands, author Russell Myers writes in his new biography, William & Catherine: The Intimate Inside Story.
However, palace officials had been desperately mapping out possible ways to keep petulant Harry and Markle within the fold for months, knowing that the duo was ready to move on and cash in on their royal status.
"We'd spent months trying to work out a role for them, and every time we thought someone had cracked it, there would end up being several reasons why it couldn’t work," a senior palace source who was part of the negotiations revealed.
'We Knew They Were Intent on Signing Commercial Deals'
The duo left the royal family's life of public service with dollar signs in their eyes.
Officials had already looked into ways for Harry and Markle to leave their unhappiness in England behind and move abroad.
"Harry being governor-general of Canada wouldn’t happen because you need to be Canadian; various ideas of them working across Africa had security implications, or someone else was already doing the job, it was almost an impossible task," the insider said of trying to find new roles for the couple.
However, it was clear that what the duke and duchess really wanted was to be untethered to a life of duty and be free to go about making monster paydays in the United States.
"Plus, we already knew they were intent on signing commercial deals, and that just wasn’t going to work within the model," the palace source added.
Prince Harry and Markle signed two megabucks commercial deals less than a year after quitting the royal family.
When palace officials asked Harry and his American wife how they wanted the "progressive new role" to work, they are said to have received stony silence.
"So, we kept saying to them, how do you want this to work? Do you actually have a tangible plan that could help us, but we got nothing in return," the source claimed
After Harry and Markle moved to Montecito, California, they quickly signed a reported $100million deal with Netflix in September 2020, proving royal aides' instincts correct: what they really wanted was to rake in huge amounts of cash.
Before the year ended, the then-in-demand duo inked an additional $20 million deal with Spotify.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Commercial Deals Go Kaput
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Markle shot her Netflix lifestyle series in 2024, which aired in two 'seasons' the following year.
The power-hungry pair started off strong with a venomous tell-all docuseries, Harry & Meghan, that aired on Netflix in 2022. But the duo proved to be one-trick ponies, offering little else beyond playing their royal victimhood cards.
Spotify dropped the couple in June 2023 after they received only one product, Markle's failed Archetypes podcast, in two years' time.
The company's head of podcast innovation and monetization, Bill Simmons, openly slammed Harry and Markle as "f----- grifters."
The pair also failed miserably at Netflix, proving unable to provide interesting content that didn't include complaints about the royal family. The streamer dropped its exclusive deal with the couple in September 2025, leaving them with only a first-look agreement.
Markle's poorly received lifestyle series, With Love, Meghan, was cancelled in January after only two "seasons" and a much-derided holiday special.
