If I’m being completely honest, 2025 was the only year where I thought the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had a great communications team and their team executed wonderful, proactive strategies across the board. I credit Meredith Maines for the change, because I found the Sussexes’ pre-Maines comms to be amateurish, slow, and more often than not, self-defeating. Well, Maines left Team Sussex at the end of 2025. Y’all know I love the Sussexes, but they are big balls of chaos when it comes to communications staffing and strategy. The silver lining is that Harry and Meghan are enormously successful in spite of their chaotic comms. It’s also funny that the British media (and sometimes the American media) treats the Sussexes’ staffing issues like a crisis when it’s just… two very famous people trying to figure out an unprecedented situation of how to present themselves and communicate effectively while being simultaneously targeted in an international hate campaign. All of which to say, after Meredith Maines’ departure, Meghan has apparently rehired her old team at Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis.
The Duchess of Sussex has returned to the celebrity public relations firm she used as an actress following the departure of her latest publicist, The Telegraph can reveal. Rather than take a punt on yet another advisor, Meghan has rehired Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis (SSML) to help publicise her As Ever brand as well as other work.
The development follows the departure of Meredith Maines, the Sussexes’ chief communications officer, who quit towards the end of last year after less than a year in the role. Ms Maines was the couple’s 11th PR officer in just five years and rather than risk a 12th, the couple decided to revert to a known entity, and one that had served them well.
A well-placed source said: “SSML has been working on projects off and on with the Duke and Duchess since 2017. Sunshine is currently working alongside their internal team on As Ever and with the couple on efforts specifically in the US.” The New York-based firm, which specialises in “crisis communications” for celebrities, has long been closely associated with Meghan.
The agency represented her when she was an actress working on US cable drama Suits. She became good friends with her publicist Keleigh Thomas Morgan, who was a guest at her 2018 wedding, and is now a partner at the firm. Since meeting Prince Harry, the Duchess has maintained an on-off relationship with the agency. When the couple took a six-week sabbatical from royal duties in late 2019, the Duchess met with Ms Thomas Morgan as she planned the US launch of the Sussex Royal Foundation, which later became known as Archewell. Ms Thomas Morgan was said to have been a “huge help” in turning the Duchess’s vision into reality, using her networking skills to help build relationships and business connections.
I’m sure Sunshine Sachs does crisis-comms, but they’re only bringing that up because Prince William suddenly hired a crisis manager for HIS office. Meghan rehired Sunshine Sachs because they’re familiar, she’s been friends with many of those people for many years, and because there’s probably a great deal of trust across the board. I’m glad she’s gone back to them too. I have the feeling that there’s a lot of internal debate – across Harry and Meghan’s Archewell team, advisors and friends – about whether they’re better served by keeping everything in-house or whether they need to go outside of their team for the broader management of Brand Sussex. While Meredith Maines was “in-house,” I don’t hate that they’re going “outside” at this point.
Photos and screencaps courtesy of Meghan’s IG and Bloomberg’s video.
As I understand it Mrs. Maines was there on a single assignment and left when it finished.
The unprecedented coverage of Harry and Meghan either good or bad deserves the very best representation they can find. Hard to articulate the daily amount of coverage they receive mainly orchestrated by Harry’s family and blown up by the gutter rats in the U.K. Hopeful they have found a communication strategy that works for them as the navigate the success of As ever and their many charitable endeavors . Always wishing them the very best.
So instead of having everything in house which replicates the royal household way of doing things, they are putting all of this stuff with external orgs that specialize. So they don’t have to oversee charity foundation boards, also be involved in comms, and run their business. Makes sense to me.
I think they did the original way because that’s what Harry was used to, and while Meghan had a lot of charity experience, her experience wasn’t running charitable organizations. So they probably figured the way the royal households do it with everything being in-house and cloistered made sense. But if you’re actually trying to do work, it doesn’t.
I also think after being told for so long that they had to ask permission if they wanted to wipe their nose, they probably wanted a little bit of control ( or a lot of control). They seem like they’re at the point where they’re okay letting other people take the reins as long as they do a good job. I liked Meredith too but it seems like having everything in house is actually creating more work and instability for them, when people left as they normally do. People quitting Sunshine Sachs or WME doesn’t get the same narrative play.
Yeah, I’m not savvy about any of this stuff but this take makes sense @dee2. They tried the in-house royal style approach but figured out that they don’t have to do it that way. It’s good to see Megan back with her old team.
Probably a little bit of everything led to the reshaping of how they plan to carry on going forward. James Holt’s interest in returning to the UK (and who can blame him, in the current US political environment), the huge and immediate success of As ever, and H&M’s children now at school age – makes sense it was time for a reset, especially if they finally feel they have reliable and consistent sources of income to support their family’s needs (especially security).
I think the Sussexes need two kinds of communications. The type to deal with tabloids and all the stupid smears that appear in the media and publicists for As Ever and other commercial ventures. I can understand why Meghan wants to go with Sunshine Sachs for As Ever promotion because they are familiar. I think Liam Maguire has done a good job with the British tabloids but I wish they would hire someone to deal with US media (maybe they will in time). Overall, I don’t hate this new development. It’s obvious Meghan’s focus is As Ever so a celebrity communications agency makes sense.
I too loved and admired Meredith work. I get the impression but I really don’t know . This is just me guessing that the hate campaign that goes along with the job of working for Harry and Meghan as their publicist was probably really mentally exhausting. Not because of Harry and Meghan, but because the media and deranged lunatics never stop. I can see why Meghan doesn’t read this stuff but as her publicist, you would have to And I won’t blame Meredith if she needed a break from the constant hate directed at Harry and especially Meghan . As I said , I have no idea why she left but I won’t be surprised if this is one of the reasons
It would have to be an awful job dealing with the ridiculous British tabloids constantly. It would be draining and mentally exhausting. Someone that used to work with Harry and Meghan said they are treated differently than any other public figure. It would be a hard job.
@ OVER IT, “the hate campaign that goes along with the job of working for Harry and Meghan as their publicist was probably really mentally exhausting. Not because of Harry and Meghan, but because the media and deranged lunatics never stop.” 🎯🎯
By agreeing to work with H&M, one is also placing oneself in the line of fire,in the middle of an on going, global smear and hate campaign, approved by the current Head of State, the future Head of State, their consorts, promoted by diabolical powerful media figures, right wing nut jobs and opportunists. I wonder if any member of their Comms teams has ever received any death threats,like H&M have. Some squaddies have had to retreat because of active threats they were getting online, whenever they posted something positive about the Sussexes.
“Ms Maines was the couple’s 11th PR officer in just five years”, is absolute nonsense.
You make a good point about the threats. I’ve also wondered whether the British (brutish) media have been harassing not just their staff, but family members of their staff, and eithre digging up dirt on them and their families and attempting to blackmail them by dredging up or creating various “scandals”.
I also preferred their communication when their team became in house. But maybe that was just Meredith and it wouldn’t have mattered whether it was a firm or not.
As you so rightly wrote, since they left, their situation evolved year after year with its growing pains. It seem now they are where they want to be. Ms. Maines was mandated for a specific project and I would guess it was for devise and try their new communication approach. Now, it can be followed by Sunshine Sachs.
I guess it was too much over head costs with having so many staff in house. Not only are you paying taxes on their salaries, but also providing each employee with a benefit : possible retirement plan. Now, all that money is freed up for direct charity. Besides with their children growing up & wanting to be actively involved. Plus, needing expert guidance on growing the As Ever Brand. They probably don’t want to spend time overseeing employees.
I think this is a smart move.
I think outsourcing is a smart move. I think in a way it will give them more stability – because they can stick with a designated team at SS but if they need a certain skillset for a certain project or story that’s been put out or something, they can presumably utilize someone else at SS for that without cries of “harry and meghan in crisis!!!!!” it also takes the spotlight off the staff comings and goings – which have been relatively normal, we just dont usually track staff movements like that lol.
I hope they eventually sort this out with some consistency. I think Sunshine Sachs doesn’t just handle celebrities but also has non-profits as clients and Meghan has worked with them before.The Sussex team did really well this year with handling some of the tabloid crap and shutting down stuff like Tina Brown’s nonsense and Lownie’s book claims about Harry, with better communications on business like renewal of their Netflix deals, AsEver launching and just getting more positive news out. They handled the Thomas Markle situation really well but handling the Sentebale collapse was murkier. It is a difficult task because there is this insatiable interest in these two, they’re still getting attacked from the Royal institution, UK press, trolls and all sorts. They’re now being associated with the Beckham’s mess which had nothing to do with them. I hope Sunshine Sachs has a very skilled responsive team to deal with the constant scrutiny and push back against the constant smears and disinformation. Hope they build on the positive and proactive moves they’ve made this last year.
The interesting thing is that this just PROVES yet again that the British media know NOTHING about Harry and Meghan’s lives, work and plans. Didn’t they write several articles in the past few years about how (1) M had “cut off” Sunshine Sachs and (b) Sunshine Sachs had “dropped” her and “wanted nothing to do with her” and how they felt that she “felt that she was too royal for them”? 😀 So which was it? If any of that had been true there is no way this new working relationship would have occurred (if it has).
As Meghan so memorably said: they don’t report the news, they create it.