A Royal Commentator Says Meghan Markle Is Steering Away From Harry to Carve Out Her Own Solo Career

LONDON — A Daily Express commentator said Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, is trying to build a career apart from Prince Harry and may be distancing herself from him professionally, a reading the couple has not confirmed and that a spokesperson did not address.

Carole Malone made the comments on the debut episode of Royals Unscripted, a weekly video podcast from the Daily Express hosted with royal editor Emily Ferguson. The episode looked at whether Meghan might return to Paris Fashion Week after attending last year, at her recent solo appearances, and at the couple's decision to spend more time in Britain.

"She's trying to carve out a solo career for herself. She doesn't want the appendage that is Harry and all the bad publicity that comes with him," Malone said. "And if you think about the last year, there aren't that many things we've seen her at with him. He's done lots of solo engagements, but she hasn't. So I suspect that they're moving away from each other as a couple."

Malone said a Paris return could fit an effort to stand apart from the Duke of Sussex, "who wants their kids to grow up around their cousins." She added: "It wouldn't surprise me if that was both personal and professional. But certainly professionally, she doesn't want to be associated with all the stuff that goes with him. All the bad publicity about the numerous court cases, all the bad publicity about his outbursts, the stuff he says, not just about the press, but about everything. So she's steering away, which is an odd thing to do from your husband, I think."

Ferguson said she had asked a spokesperson whether Meghan planned to attend this year's Paris Fashion Week. The spokesperson said it was the first time they had heard the speculation. The couple has not issued a statement on Malone's remarks.

What is on the record is the move, not the split. Meghan, Harry and their two children returned to Britain at the end of August after six years in Montecito, California, landing at Birmingham Airport on Aug. 26. They have said they intend to stay for an extended period. The children are enrolled in British schools. The trip was described as unexpected when it became public.

That return is the fact Malone's theory sits on. Harry has long said he wants the children around their cousins. A longer stay in Britain puts the family nearer the royal household he left in 2020, when the couple stepped back as working royals and later settled in California. A solo professional track for Meghan — fashion, media, consumer brands — does not require the same public pairing. Whether the last year's separate diaries amount to a deliberate distance is Malone's inference. The couple has not said they are separating.

The publicity Malone cited is the running argument around Harry since the departure: court fights with the British press, the memoir, interviews, and comments that have kept him in conflict with his family and with publishers. Meghan has had her own commercial projects and her own unfavorable coverage. Malone's point was narrower: that Meghan's recent appearances have more often been without Harry, and that she may prefer it that way.

A spokesperson's answer on Paris Fashion Week cuts against one piece of the theory. Attendance last year is not a plan for this year, and the office Ferguson reached had not heard the rumor. A fashion-week return would be a public test of the "solo career" claim. It has not been announced.

Royal commentary of this kind often treats calendar gaps as strategy. Harry's solo engagements and Meghan's separate appearances can also be ordinary division of labor for two people with different work. The children starting school in Britain is a family decision both parents are attached to in the reporting, not evidence they are living apart. Malone said the distance, if real, would not surprise her as personal and professional. She did not claim to have been told that by the couple.

Until one of them says otherwise, the confirmed items are these: they are back in Britain for an extended stay, the children are in school, a spokesperson had not heard talk of Paris Fashion Week, and a commentator on a new Express podcast believes Meghan is steering away from her husband's publicity to build a career of her own. The rest is the reading.