The press spent years constructing an attention economy around the Sussexes. Now it feigns irritation that the audience remains intensely interested.
Make no mistake. The press relishes every move Prince Harry and Meghan make. It uses words like “star power,” “mesmerizing” and “fascinating” to describe the very couple it encourages everyone to hate.
It is wonderfully twisted.
The media wants everyone to hate Harry and Meghan—but it also desperately needs Harry and Meghan to stick around. They are the main characters in its daily news cycle. They create work, income and storylines. They bring clicks and eyeballs like nobody else has done since Princess Diana.
The media loves Harry and Meghan.
Make no mistake.
If you are wondering why the Sussexes remain among the most discussed people in the world, I can give you the answer.
The media trained us.
Intentionally.
For years, the British royal press and American celebrity media have treated every photograph, appearance, outfit, Instagram post, business announcement, facial expression and whispered Sussex rumor as the beginning of a fresh news cycle.
One photograph becomes a story.
Then come the stories about the reaction to the photograph. Then the royal experts arrive. Then the body-language analysts, fashion commentators and privacy debaters—always in a panel of at least three. They love to group up and talk it over.
Finally, after publishing perhaps 27 separate pieces about one Sussex appearance, someone writes a column asking whether Harry and Meghan are becoming too visible. The same people then have the audacity to accuse the couple of sucking all the oxygen out of the room.
The irony is delicious.
The people complaining about Sussex saturation are frequently the people manufacturing Sussex saturation.
Yes, every now and then, the Sussexes play along and drop a reel on Instagram—perhaps just to watch the feeding frenzy that ensues. They also give their supporters a firsthand glimpse of what is really happening inside the House of Sussex.
But one video does not create a weeklong news cycle.
The media does that.
The Sussex Attention Economy
This is no longer simply a matter of Harry and Meghan being popular. The media has constructed an entire attention economy around them.
Their names generate clicks. Their photographs generate conversation. Their marriage generates emotional investment. Their clothes sell. Their silences invite speculation. Even their absence can be repackaged as news.
Where are they?
Why haven’t we seen them?
Are they being too quiet?
Are they planning something?
Does their silence mean trouble?
Then, when they finally appear:
Why are they everywhere?
It is an extraordinary little racket.
Harry and Meghan can be declared irrelevant on Monday and accused of overshadowing the Royal Family by Wednesday. Meghan can supposedly be disappearing from public life in the morning and dangerously overexposed by teatime.
They are described as private citizens, irrelevant celebrities, public figures and members of the Royal Family in rapid succession. No one can keep up with the changing classifications.
The contradiction does not matter because the objective is not consistency.
The objective is content—and content depends upon conflict and plot twists.
Harry and Meghan have become dependable characters in an international media serial. They provide glamour, romance, family tension, fashion, race, class, royalty, California, Britain, celebrity, reinvention and controversy—all in one beautifully photographed package.
Very few public figures offer that many storylines at once.
The media knows it.
And it has taught the audience to know it too.
The Media Never Wanted Them to Disappear
The media never truly wanted Harry and Meghan to disappear. It only pretended it did.
What it wanted was for their departure from royal life to look like a failure. They were supposed to retreat, chastened and diminished. Their American chapter was expected to become a cautionary tale about what happens when people walk away from the institution.
Meghan was certainly not supposed to look happy.
Harry was not supposed to look devoted.
Their children were not supposed to be growing up surrounded by sunshine, muddy boots, birthday cakes, gardens, dogs and family affection.
The Sussexes were supposed to spend their lives staring mournfully back at Britain, consumed by regret.
Instead, the media created an audience conditioned to keep looking for them.
People want to know what Meghan is wearing, what Harry is doing, how their children are growing and what the family’s next chapter might contain.
Even people who claim not to care appear remarkably well informed.
They know when Meghan posts. They know what she wore. They know who photographed her. They know how long the video lasted. They know which jam jar appeared in the background.
Then they write furious comments explaining how completely uninterested they are.
That is not indifference.
That is cultural fixation.
The Media Needs Harry and Meghan
For all its declarations that the Sussexes should become quieter, the media cannot afford for them to become truly invisible. What would happen to the royal-commentary industry? There is simply no replacement for Harry and Meghan. The media can only hope that the next generation of royals produces another scapegoat, another hero and another villain.
Until then, who would be blamed for overshadowing a birthday, distracting from an engagement, releasing something at an allegedly strategic moment or wearing a bracelet containing a secret message? Harry and Meghan are no longer merely subjects of the machine. They are fuel for it.
Their supporters click because they are interested in their lives. Their critics click because they are waiting for failure. Casual readers click because the headlines promise drama. Even outrage about the volume of Sussex coverage produces more Sussex coverage. Everyone participates, and the publishers collect the traffic.
The story also remains compelling because Harry and Meghan represent escape, reinvention and the complicated price of choosing your own life. That is why they are my muse. I see possibility in their story. The media sees profit. Either way, none of us can look away.
