Meghan Markle's 2025 comeback: From royal rejection to global icon

Meghan Markle went through several transformations with her public image over the years – from being a former Suits actress to marrying Prince Harry and becoming the Duchess of Sussex – but nothing compares to what 2025 witnessed of her.

The Sussexes have stirred quite the chaos since they left their senior royal positions back in 2020, which was followed by an explosive docuseries with Netflix and Harry’s memoir, Spare. This aggravated the simmering rift between the royals and the Sussexes, which not only led to their eviction from Windsor home Frogmore Cottage but also the complete rejection to them being royals.

While the multi-million-dollar deal with the streaming giant seemed to have sustained the couple for five years, fears of a financial crunch began settling in as the time ran out on the lucrative deal. However, Meghan had strong conviction to dominate 2025 despite what the naysayers had to say.

Meghan Markle, Meghan Sussex or just Meghan

In the lead up to the what happened to Meghan’s big statement, experts over the years had predicted that the Duchess had been planning to reinvent herself and establish the ‘Sussex’ brand to rival the royals.

On New Year’s Day, she made it official that she was back, but as ‘Meghan’. This became the first step to revamp her image as the faux-royals who make money by selling royal secrets.

The social media presence also gave a rare insight into Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, whose faces are not yet revealed, but glimpses sparingly.

The next was the announcement of her Netflix show, With Love, Meghan, followed by the unveiling of her lifestyle brand, As Ever (previously named American Riviera Orchard).

The move did not come without criticism. There was uproar about how this had been a blatant violation of the agreement Harry had made with his grandmother Queen Elizabeth, that they would not use their titles, let alone use it for commercial purposes.

Meghan’s name was another issue. In one of her episodes for her Netflix show, she somewhat passive aggressively stated that her name was not ‘Meghan Markle’ and that she was ‘Meghan Sussex’.

In a People interview, she stressed that it was a “shared name as a family” and “part of our love story”.

The businesswoman reaps her (re)awards

Over time, her titles grew from former Suits actress to As Ever founder and adding podcast host of Confessions of a Female Founder to the list. She interviewed some big names such as Beyoncé’s mum, Tina Knowles. She also featured Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, Jamie Kern Lima and Cassandra Morales Thurswell of Kitsch among other influential women. Royalists particularly were not fans of the podcast.

It may have been a slow start, but all the rewards (read: awards) came through October it seemed.

Many would not have anticipated it, but Meghan received a number of accolades for her work. The Duchess was invited for the Time100 Summit for an on-stage discussion. She also appeared at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit the same month.

Her podcast won the Signal Award in gold for Business People & Entrepreneurs Shaping Culture category. Moreover, along with Prince Harry, she received Project Healthy Minds Award in October 2025 for their work with Archewell Foundation (now renamed as Archewell Philanthropies) to create a safer digital world for young people.

Foray into fashion and return to Hollywood

It is also worth mentioning Meghan’s foray into the fashion world as she debuted at Paris Fashion Week, the first time she had stepped into the royal turf solo.

Meghan had requested her pal, Pierpaolo Piccioli, the new creative director of Balenciaga, to attend his show. Many suspected that this may have just been an attempt at testing the waters to attend the London Fashion Week in 2026.

This also came amid Harry's ongoing strife to do a proper risk assessment to get police protection for him and his family. Hence, Meghan stepping out alone is Europe was a big step, perhaps a way to show independence. Though, it was clear that Harry had been supportive of the visit.

It wasn’t long after Meghan also decided to kick of her Hollywood return with a glitzy night at Kris Jenner’s lavish James Bond-themed 70th birthday bash in early November. She was photographed with the Kardashian-Jenner clan and the bigwigs. Days later, it was revealed that the Duchess is filming in Los Angeles for a cameo in movie, Close Personal Friends. The cast includes big names like Brie Larson, Lily Collins, Jack Quaid and Henry Golding.

In a bid to sum up her year, around mid-November became the “cover star” for Harper’s Bazaar magazine, which according Editor-in-Chief Samira Nasr had been a “culmination of a conversation that began 5 years ago”.

Although, it came with its own set of issues. There were two instances in the article, which revealed that Meghan had herself announced as 'Duchess of Sussex' even when there were only two people in the room. Critics dubbed it as her desperate attempt at be treated like a royal and also reflected narcissistic behaviour.

The jokes, memes and the backlash

It wasn’t lost on Meghan that while she had been diving head-first into all these ventures, there were plenty of naysayers picking apart her moves.

Plenty of legal issues came up earlier in the year when she struggled to get her brand name trademarked. The name was in use by two other companies. Moreover, the logo for As Ever was also criticised to be a rip off of a coat of arms. 

The drama didn't end here. Every As Ever collection that was launched, was instantly sold out. PR experts pointed out that it was an age-old tactic to have low stock so when it's "sold out", it looks as if the brand is a popular one.

Even the Netflix show found itself to be parodied and mocked several times online. 

Moreover, as her social presence became regular, a new debate about sharing photos of Archie and Lilibet left the public divided. Some said that Meghan is being a good parent by concealing the faces of her children on social media in light of the harms taking place in the digital sphere. While some claimed there was no use putting up their photos.

In between, there was also the cold war with Prince William and Kate Middleton as for the Sussexes, their royal titles were coming under threat. 

It had been an eventful year for Meghan despite the highs and lows, but she rode the waves of success and failures alike with an unshakeable resolve. The criticism had been harsh and unforgiving, but Meghan had been relentless in her pursuits with Prince Harry firmly standing by her side and supporting her through thick and thin.

Love her or hate her, no one was able to see a crack in her smile or pose as she underwent what many critics believed she wouldn't be able to achieve: a recognisable name, with or without the association of the royal tag.