Meghan Markle Secretly Regrets Leaving the Royal Family

Meghan Markle is arguably the most rebellious member of the Royal Family. She was already an outsider when she married Prince Harry because she is an American, and the fact that she was married once before didn’t help her reputation. And after her royal wedding, she found herself the subject of countless negative headlines that sank her reputation even further.

To hear her tell the story, most of the other royals respected her and supported her about as much as the tabloid press. All of this culminated in her and Harry stepping down from most of their royal responsibilities and moving to America. There, she tried to start a new life, effectively rebranding herself as an influencer rather than a duchess.

In interviews, Meghan always sounds happy about her new life. But there are many major signs that she secretly regrets the decision to more or less leave the royal family. What are those signs? Keep reading to find out!

Meghan replicated her royal staff

On paper, Meghan Markle leaving the Royal Family behind indicates her sense of independence. The decision makes it seem like she doesn’t want all the trappings of life as a duchess and would rather do things her own way, which is a sentiment most Americans can respect. But it’s hard to believe Meghan is really all that independent when you realize that she basically recreated her old royal staff.

After she and Harry moved to Montecito, California, they didn’t exactly start doing their own dishes. Instead, they hired an entire staff to help them manage almost every aspect of the house. Some think the couple were trying to replicate their old staff back in England, and that includes royal expert Tom Bower. He told the Daily Mail that “the Sussexes would like to rule over a ‘royal court’ from their Montecito mansion” and “Nothing would give them greater pleasure than courtiers pulling their forelocks as they bow and scrape to please the Duke and Duchess.” 

Harsh? Sure. But Bower is right that it’s just bad optics to hire a huge household staff right when Meghan was trying to establish her independence from the royal family.

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Failures as an entrepreneur

One of the reasons Meghan Markle likely felt so comfortable with leaving royal life behind is that she had fallback plans in place. After all, she’s a former TV celebrity who married into the world’s most famous and powerful family. She had every reason to think it would be easy to parlay her clout into a new life as an influencer. Unfortunately, things didn’t exactly go according to plan.

For example, she tried to start a podcast, but that endeavor was a complete failure. She also had multiple Netflix series in development that were ultimately canceled, including an animated show. Meghan later launched her food brand As Ever in 2025, and while it was a success at first, she has had trouble providing enough supplies (in this case, items like honey, jam, and tea) to meet demand. She also dealt with many bad reviews on top of her supply problems.

Obviously, these aren’t the worst problems that an entrepreneur could ever have to face. But they are annoying enough that we can only imagine Meghan is missing the days when she didn’t have to hustle to make a few extra bucks.

Meghan Markle never ditched her royal name

When she became famous as the star of the legal drama Suits, she went by the name Meghan Markle. It’s how most of us became aware of the future royal, and it’s still a name that many (us included) use to refer to her. However, Meghan is the first one to call people out for doing so. When Mindy Kaling appeared on With Love, Meghan and used the leading lady’s old last name, the response was a bit frosty: “It’s so funny that you keep saying Meghan Markle. You know I’m Sussex now.”

This is true, by the way: part of marrying into the Royal Family is losing your old last name. That’s why she is, strictly speaking, known as Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. As for us, we still can’t get over the irony of the fact that someone so eager to leave the Royal Family won’t stop using the new name they gave her. Sounds like somebody might regret leaving this famous family!

RELATED: The Most Scandalous Times Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Were Too Affectionate In Public

She and Harry keep doing their own royal tours

One of the more enjoyable parts of being a royal is completing royal tours of the world. These tours are when major figures like Prince Harry and Kate Middleton leave the confines of England and journey around the world. The result is a kind of cultural exchange: the royals learn more about the different cultures and customs of other countries. Meanwhile, those other countries learn more about England and the Royal Family that honored them with a visit.

Harry and Meghan no longer do official royal tours after leaving England. However, they went to Nigeria in 2024 because the country is part of Harry’s Invictus Games Foundation. Later that year, they went to Colombia to promote their charity work. While there was plenty of attention to the couple’s over-the-top PDA (usually a no-no for traveling royals), many reporters noted the similarity between their global travels and their previous royal tours.

It seems like Meghan and her hubby are doing their best to recreate this aspect of their old lives. Not exactly the kind of behavior for a couple hoping to fully leave the Royal Family behind!