There’s sure to be an awkward moment in the Sussex household this week as the intense speculation around the state of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s marriage may have just officially gotten too close to home. The duke and duchess have been busy with their own personal projects and public appearances of late, which has marked a sharp change of pace for the couple who have traditionally presented a united front.
In the years since they went royally rogue, Harry and Meghan have generally done everything together, whether that be international visits or even turning up at celebrity parties, but over the past month this has all changed. The prince has been jetting off from New York to England to South Africa and back to California while Meghan recently stepped out at a charity gala on her lonesome. There is absolutely no official indication that their relationship is on the rocks, but this noteworthy alteration in their behavior has set tongues a-wagging.
The media hyper analyzing everything they do is nothing new, of course, so the Sussexes probably haven’t been too troubled by all the speculation. However, the latest publication to address the scuttlebutt may bring it all too close for comfort. Literally.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s marriage called into question by their own local newspaper
This one has to sting. Harry and Meghan’s own local newspaper, The Montecito Journal, has reported on the rumors about their marital problems — something which may have spoiled the mood across the breakfast table when the couple opened their morning papers.
The Montecito Journal, which caters to the swanky Southern Californian town where Harry and Meghan reside, may be read by many of the A-list stars who live in the area, but otherwise it’s your typical local paper. Many of its biggest stories involve neighborly disputes over planning permission, reporting on community events, and the most minor of minor crimes — one story in the latest edition details how some lost mail had been returned.
And yet a juicy story is hidden in the paper’s “Grapevine” gossip column, which goes ahead and references all the discussion surrounding the duke and duchess’ recent much-distanced activities. Reporter Richard Mineards — a long-time Royal correspondent, as it happens, who previously worked for The Daily Mail and The Daily Mirror, before he followed the Sussexes to Montecito — pointed out the two famous locals’ recent solo public turns.
“It was [Meghan’s] second public appearance without Harry since her visit to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles on Oct. 5 – as British royal experts continue to speculate the Riven Rock twosome ‘are going their separate ways’ as they live ‘increasingly separate lives,'” Mineards dares to declare in his column, which may well have been read by the subjects of the story themselves.
Riven Rock is the Montecito district the pair call home, along with their two children, Prince Archie (5) and Princess Lilibet (3). Neighbors have previously had some colorful things to say about the Sussexes. “Cannot wait for her to go,” one local resident said about Meghan, while others have claimed that they “don’t see them very much around here” and that the family keep very much to themselves. Even so, knowing their neighbors are gossiping about them so directly has got to hurt.
