Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah has continued to send shockwaves through the Royal Family and the world.
The explosive chat aired in Ireland on RTE 2 on Monday evening, and fans have been dissecting it ever since.
Reports from ITV today have claimed that a staggering 12.4m viewers tuned in to watch the show in the UK, 2.2m of which plugged in via the ITV Hub.
In the US, meanwhile, 17.1m viewers tuned in live for the event, a figure that CBS has promised will be adjusted higher once delayed viewing is factored in.
Harry and Meghan were not compensated for partaking in the interview.
Harpo Productions, the production company founded by Oprah Winfrey in 1986, however, was paid between $7m and $9m for the licensing rights to the show, according to The Wall Street Journal .
A variety of bombshell revelations were disclosed by the royal couple, including that Meghan felt ‘suicidal’ due to extended isolation while in the fold of ‘The Firm’ of Buckingham Palace.
It was also claimed that the Palace has said that Harry and Meghan’s children will not be given Royal titles upon Charles’ ascension to the throne, despite that this is in contravention of the George V 1917 patent regarding lineage.
Most controversially, the couple also said that a member of the Royal family expressed ‘concern’ over the colour of Archie’s skin prior to him being born.
Finally, in sunnier news, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed that they are expecting a baby girl, who is due in summer, and that they do not plan to have any more children following their daughter’s birth.
Yet as the dust begins to settle, we are looking forward: what is in store for Harry and Meghan?
Their life in sunny California
The couple purchased a nine bed, 16 bathroom, 1672 sq m home in Montecito, an unincorporated community in east of the city of Santa Barbara, California.
They bought the property last summer for the princely sum of $14.65m (€12.31m), The New York Post reports.
Viewers got a sneak peek of one of the property’s most distinctive features, a chicken coop entitled ‘Archie’s Chicken Inn’, during the Oprah special.
Prince Harry can be seen feeding the chickens, which were rescued from a factory farm, during the interview.
However, the mansion also boasts other features such as rose gardens, a vegetable garden, an outdoor pizza oven, centuries-old olive trees, a pool, a playground, a tennis court, a tea house, a children’s house and a two-bedroom guest house.
Their Hollywood deals and charitable causes
Bar raising a young family, the pair will have a number of different business engagements to keep them occupied in their new life post-Royal Duties.
The couple inked deals with Netflix and Spotify shortly after parting ways with the House of Windsor, the fiscal specifics of which have been kept quiet, though some have speculated that the combined worth could be in excess of $125m.
The multi-year deal with Netflix will see the couple produce documentaries, docu-series, feature films, scripted shows and children’s programming for the streaming giant.
It has been reported to be worth around $100m, according to The New York Times.
The Spotify deal, which will see the couple host and produce podcasts, is the less valuable of the two deals, thought to be worth around $25m.
As well as this, the pair founded a non-profit and creative media production company, Archewell, which will be billed as producer on all of their streaming projects, as well as executing various charitable exercises.
The details of their philanthropic work, however, remain undefined.
The pair’s powerful pals
With Meghan’s Hollywood connections and Prince Harry’s, well, international fame as a British Royal, it is unsurprising that the couple have some pretty big names in their contacts book.
Pal Oprah Winfrey, who interviewed them for the CBS Special, is one of their neighbour’s in Montecito.
The chat show queen previously attended the pair’s 2018 Royal Wedding.
Other friends include Serena Williams, who rushed to the defence of Meghan Markle post-CBS interview, and Amal and George Clooney, who were also in attendance at the Palace nuptials.
The couple’s newfound freedom surely means that their list of powerful pals is only due to expand with time.
