After stepping back from royal duties, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sought to sustain their lifestyle through commercial ventures, including the release of Harry's memoir Spare, and Meghan's Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. A new royal book has claimed Prince Harry reacted angrily after being told his controversial memoir and the Netflix series had hurt his brand.
Betrayal: Power, Deceit and the Fight for the Future of the Royal Family by Tom Bower is a controversial and highly critical account of modern tensions within the monarchy. Mr Bower details an exchange between the then-new Sentebale chairwoman, Sophie Chandauka and Prince Harry.
He writes: "After conducting a brand audit among 50 organisations and donors, she told Harry she had discovered that his personal brand value had crashed. 'People don't want to be associated with your Netflix shows and especially not with Meghan."
In the book, Mr Bower adds: "Eyewitnesses at the polo match in Singapore noticed Harry's coolness towards the new chairwoman. Sentebale, Harry told Chandauka, was relying too much on his money and his polo matches. He would only commit to future polo matches if the profit was doubled to at least £700,000. Chandauka realised that Harry hadn't listened.
"He did not want to register that Spare and the Netflix series had damaged his brand value."
The downfall of Harry's involvement with the charity has been documented in an explosive new biography. The latest instalment of the book has claimed Harry's celebrity image had started to damage the charity's relationship with donors.
Bower claims that Prince Harry told Chandauka that the brand audit had "ruined" both the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as the charity seemed to be in freefall after the string of donation losses, reports the Times.
A spokesperson for Prince Harry and Meghan said Bower had "long crossed the line from criticism into fixation".
They said in a statement: "This is someone who has publicly stated, 'the monarchy in fact depends on actually obliterating the Sussexes from our state of life,' language that speaks for itself.
"He has made a career out of constructing ever more elaborate theories about people he does not know and has never met.
"Those interested in facts will look elsewhere; those seeking deranged conspiracy and melodrama know exactly where to find him."
The book, Betrayal: Power, Deceit and the Fight for the Future of the Royal Family, is being published on March 26.