Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have been subjected to gossip about the state of their marriage just months after Prince William and Kate Middleton endured fevered speculation about theirs.
The Duke of Sussex conducted a round-the-world tour spanning about two weeks in September without the duchess, who appeared solo on the red carpet in Los Angeles on October 5 while he was gone.
And a few days before that, on October 2, Meghan undertook a solo visit to support Girls Inc and #HalfTheStory in a shared campaign about the harm social media poses to children.
The separate projects, though, sparked suggestions in the media that they have been living “separate lives” and headlines using language more commonly reserved for struggling marriages.
The Sussexes are, however, not the only ones for whom the vultures have been circling, as William and Kate also endured weeks of feverish speculation when Kate spent a period out of the public eye for health reasons.
The apparent shift toward a focus on gossip and speculation about marital strife comes at a time when royal reporting has calmed after years of major bombshells, tragedy and conflict.
Harry and Meghan Marriage Gossip
Harry and Meghan were first subjected to unfounded claims of a secret divorce in summer 2023, at about the time of the collapse of their Spotify deal.
The year had begun in dramatic but difficult terms for the couple after the release of Harry’s book, Spare, prompted a collapse in their U.S. popularity, as charted in exclusive Newsweek polling. He conducted the book tour solo.
And in April it was revealed Meghan had signed with major Hollywood talent agency WME, again as an individual rather than a couple.
U.K. newspaper The Daily Telegraph was among the first to spot burgeoning signs the couple were dividing their professional operations, though it couched the argument in nuanced terms.
An initial headline read: “It’s now Harry and Meghan who are on different paths,” though a follow up pulled back a little with: “The Sussexes are frazzled, fraught and lacking romance—like any couple with young kids.”
What began as a subtle observation took on a blunt form in more gossipy parts of the internet, finally culminating in commentator Ada Lluch stating the couple were separating in a July 2023 post viewed 6.9 million times.
She suggested Meghan had “allegedly filed divorce papers asking for $80 million plus the total custody of Archie and Lilibet.” Newsweek fact checked the claim as false.
The couple then put on a loved-up display at the Invictus Game that September and the rumors went away, only to resurface in 2024 with Harry’s solo tour of New York, London and Southern Africa spanning September and early October.
He was still in Johannesburg, South Africa, on October 3 after Meghan’s visit to Girls Inc and Newsweek understands he got back during the following week, days after the duchess appeared on the red carpet for the Children’s Hospital L.A. gala on October 5.
Newsweek has been told Meghan simply chose to stay at home with their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, during what was a two-week overseas trip for the duke.
However, that did not stop a rash of headlines couched in the language of marital disintegration as well as more specific online rumors suggesting the end of the road for their relationship.
One headline in The Daily Telegraph asked: “Where’s Meghan?” while the Daily Mail went with: “Why Harry is going it alone: He and Meghan have barely been seen together for weeks,” and the New York Post ran with: “‘Desperate’ Harry gets serious about repairing his image—and Meghan is not part of the project: ‘He wants space.'”
However, Newsweek has been told the suggestion they are living separate lives is not true and they appeared very close during a tour of Colombia in August.
In fact, they were photographed kissing and smiling broadly as they danced the salsa together during a visit to Cali on August 18.
William and Kate Marriage Gossip
Kate had abdominal surgery following an undisclosed health problem in January and in the aftermath was diagnosed with cancer, leading to months out of the limelight, though the palace did not initially reveal how serious her situation was.
And when there were no post-op images released by Kensington Palace, rumors began to circulate on social media that aides might be hiding something.
Posts framing Kate as missing and sharing sometimes grotesque conspiracy theories ranging from her murder to her being sectioned gained audiences in the millions on platforms including X.
While much of the baseless gossip was too absurd to find its way into the mainstream media, Stephen Colbert outlined a long standing rumor about William and Kate’s marriage that had been denied by the palace as far back as 2019.
And in doing so, he brought it crashing out of the shadows and into the light, with other mainstream outlets reporting on his skit, including The Guardian.
Colbert told The Late Show: “The kingdom has been all aflutter by the seeming disappearance of Kate Middleton.” He said, “Internet sleuths are guessing” that her “absence may be related to her husband and the future king of England, William, having an affair.”
In the fullness of time, Kate revealed she had in fact been secretly undergoing chemotherapy for cancer and it was Colbert who was left acknowledging the segment had fallen below his own moral standards.
And in a later video announcing the end of her chemotherapy, Kate could be seen cosying up to and kissing William on camera.
Analysis
All in all, the two couples appear to have demonstrated the enduring appetite that audiences have for gossip about alleged and often fictitious secret divorces.
In William and Kate’s case, the speculation forced her into revealing medical information that she had previously kept private, namely her cancer diagnosis.
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson revealed in his recently published book, Unleashed, that Queen Elizabeth II had bone cancer for at least a year before her death, but managed to keep it private not only until her passing, but for many months afterwards.
In Harry and Meghan’s case, they can come away with the knowledge the allegations will potentially return any time they spend even short periods either apart or simply out of the public eye.
And the only remedy in their case appears to be public displays of affection.
It all comes after six years of drama the likes of which has not been seen since the 1990s, which perhaps significantly was the last time there was a major round of royal divorces.
King Charles III and Princess Diana, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson and Princess Anne and Mark Phillips all saw their marriages collapse.
Signs the relationship between William and Kate and Harry and Meghan was disintegrating first emerged in late 2018, the same year the Sussexes got married.
The royal soap opera dominated the headlines throughout 2019 until Harry and Meghan quit in 2020, before doing their bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview in 2021.
Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022 and a few months later the Sussexes launched their tell all Netflix series that December, before Harry’s memoir in January 2023.
Months later was King Charles’ Coronation in May 2023, while Kate and Charles’ health scares dominated the first half of 2024.