Royal | News - Prince Ricardo De La Cerda
Meghan Markle’s signing to the William Morris Agency (WME) was one of the most empowering moves she could make, says a royal expert.
Jack Royston, who covers the Royal Family for Newsweek, revealed that signing with the agency that represents other powerhouses including Matt Damon, Jessica Alba, and Joaquin Phoenix gave her a new footing in Hollywood that was sorely needed for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s brand.
And despite the general public not seeing the “tangible” results of the signing six months on, Royston says that taking the slow and steady approach to success will ultimately work in Meghan Markle’s favour, given how much outrage is always sparked whenever the Duchess jumps head-first into a venture.
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“In terms of the online world, six months is a short space of time that you can use to start building behind the scenes,” a PR agent who works with Hollywood celebrities said to Royston.
“That would have been a sensible approach, slowly building behind the scenes and working out who she is and how she wants to come across because she’s had a lot of stick.”
The “stick” in question comes from the blowback from the British Royal Family’s response to Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, which sold millions of copies all over the world but “aired out” the proverbial dirty laundry of the Windsors.
Many incorrectly believed that Meghan Markle had undue influence on Prince Harry to release the memoir — a claim refuted by both the couple and historical events.
It also bears noting that Prince Harry thanked Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, WME’s head of literary, in the book, suggesting that the couple’s relationship with WME goes further back — and has more ties — than initially believed.
And while the couple values their privacy, Royston notes that it’s important for the couple to not allow a vacuum of information to crop up around them.
“It is a recurring feature of Harry and Meghan that speculation about them tends to build whenever a vacuum of information is allowed to develop,” Royston cautions.
“This was seen most recently when they took a step out of the limelight for several months and unfounded rumors began circulating that they were secretly getting a divorce.”