Sussex Marriage Divide Exposed: Prince Harry Yearns for Home in England as 'Diva Duchess' Meghan Markle Craves a 'Lauren Sánchez Lifestyle'
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle want drastically different futures.
June 11 2026, Published 1:20 p.m. ET
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are at a major crossroads in their marriage, where the couple is pulling in opposite directions as they grapple with starkly different visions for their future, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The ex-royals had dreams of being billionaire power players when they quit the royal family in 2020, and while the "Diva Duchess," 44, still is gunning for that type of "Lauren Sánchez lifestyle," the prince, 41, longs for the life he had back in England.
Prince Harry yearns for his old life in England while Markle still wants a glamorous life, sources have claimed.
"These two people want completely different things. What Harry wants, and what Megan wants, is very different," sources inside the Sussex Camp told former People and Us Weekly editor Dan Wakeford, who dished about it on Tom Sykes' The Royalist podcast
"And that is what the difficult thing is. They're in love, but they want very different lives," he explained about the couple, who just celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary on May 19.
"Harry wants this life in England. He wants to do philanthropy, and she wants to be more of a Lauren Bezos, sleek, glamorous figure of success and lifestyle," Wakeford added, referring to Jeff Bezos' wife.
Sánchez became one of the world's most talked-about women after her lavish 2025 wedding to the Amazon billionaire, parlaying her relationship into effortless movement across the worlds of fashion, business, politics, philanthropy, and celebrity.
Meghan Markle Wants to Be More Like Lauren Sánchez
Sánchez cemented her power player status when she married Jeff Bezos in 2025.
Wakeford explained how Harry "misses his home. He misses his friends. He misses that safety and that security" that royal life provided.
However, Markle has thumbed her nose at what she has frequently called "the institution" and how suffocated she felt.
The former actress has attempted to follow in Sánchez's glamorous footsteps after the onetime TV reporter became legitimized as a power player when she and Bezos got engaged in 2023, despite their romance beginning amid scandal four years earlier.
While Sanchez is now a sought-after front-row guest at high-end fashion shows, Markle was forced to invite herself to the Balenciaga Paris Fashion Week show in 2025. The former entertainment reporter even lorded over the 2026 Met Gala as an honorary co-chair and lead sponsor, while Markle has failed to receive an invite from Vogue Global Editor in Chief Anna Wintour to fashion's biggest night
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Dwindling Hollywood Profits
Prince Harry and Markle have burned through the millions they made with Netflix and Spotify.
The Sussexes quit the royal family in 2020 with dollar signs in their eyes, hoping to capitalize on their popularity by building a massive fortune in the U.S. apart from The Firm.
The duo initially inked exclusive megabucks deals with Netflix and Spotify, only to be dumped by the platforms after failing to deliver any sought-after content.
"The Netflix deal alone represents a level of income we could only dream of in a lifetime. Even the Spotify deal – my sources said they took away $5million as an exit from that deal. That is more money than most people would ever dream of making in a lifetime," Wakeford revealed.
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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Still Have a 'Strong Bond'
The Sussexes took a stab at their former royal life with an April tour of Australian.
"Financially, they've made money. But it is not sustainable. That is the issue here. Have they really built something that justifies the sacrifice of the family, the estrangement, the loss, and the security issues that they have had to deal with?" Wakeford noted about the life Harry and Markle have now, six years after leaving the monarchy.
"They attempted to build this media empire and pursued a lot of these ventures, even charitable endeavors, but what they've discovered is that it hasn't turned into a sustainable entertainment identity."
The former media magnate said that Harry and Markle are "not wildly unhappy together, but they are bound by a very strong bond and get along very well."
He added, "But they often alienate the partners they work with, and they have a tendency to alienate the people around them as well."
