Since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped down as working members of the royal family, several of their business decisions have appeared to mirror moves made by Barack and Michelle Obama after they left the White House in 2017.
In June 2020, Harry and Meghan signed to the same public speaking agency as the Obamas, the Harry Walker Agency—one of their first commercial moves outside the royal family.
At the time, the couple had been in America for just two months and had not yet moved into their home in Montecito, Santa Barbara.
A Sussex spokesperson told Newsweek that their speaking engagements would “largely relate to the social issues the world is facing now including racial justice and gender equity, mental health, issues impacting women and girls and the environment—as well as the intersectional nature of these issues.”
Later in 2020, the duke and duchess launched a TV company, Archewell Productions, and signed a mega deal with Netflix—just as the former president and first lady did with Higher Ground Productions.
The Obamas’ first project with the streaming giant was Oscar-winning documentary American Factory, which focused on workers at a Midwestern manufacturing plant bought by a Chinese billionaire.
Harry’s first production will be Heart of Invictus, a documentary series following competitors at the 2022 edition of the Invictus Games, a sporting event for wounded service personnel set up by the prince.
Meghan has her own project, Pearl, an animation about a 12-year-old girl who meets famous women from history.
This week, Harry followed the Obamas again by announcing a book deal with Penguin Random House.
The Obamas signed a deal worth more than $60 million with the same publisher, albeit through imprint Crown, the Financial Times reported in 2017.
Barack Obama’s presidential memoir A Promised Land sold almost 890,000 copies on its first day in November 2020, The Guardian reported.
The figure was a record for a former occupant of the White House, according to the newspaper.
It also topped the first-day figures of Michelle Obama’s Becoming, but the former first lady’s bestselling memoir has sold more than 14 million copies worldwide since its release in 2018, according to The New York Times.
Prince Harry will hoping his own book has similar success when it is published at the end of 2022, after what will no doubt be an agonising wait for the royal family.
The Duke of Sussex said in a statement this week: “I’m writing this not as the prince I was born but as the man I have become.
“I’ve worn many hats over the years, both literally and figuratively, and my hope is that in telling my story—the highs and lows, the mistakes, the lessons learned—I can help show that no matter where we come from, we have more in common than we think.
“I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to share what I’ve learned over the course of my life so far and excited for people to read a first-hand account of my life that’s accurate and wholly truthful.”
