Stepping down as working royals would ‘provide our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity,’ Meghan and Harry wrote in their infamous bombshell statement of January 2020.

Just one month before, the Sussexes had launched their Archewell website, with childhood photos of themselves with their mothers, Doria Ragland and the late Princess Diana.

‘I am my mother’s son, and I am our son’s mother,’ the official letter read. ‘Together we bring you Archewell. We believe in the best of humanity. Because we have seen the best of humanity… from our mothers and strangers alike.’

Anybody who has been keeping an eye on Archewell is perplexed

Arche is Greek for ‘source of action.’ According to Archewell’s website, their action would include ‘uplifting and uniting communities – local and global, online and offline – one act of compassion at a time to fuel systemic cultural change.’ Gotcha.

Archewell’s mission statement is all woke buzzwords thrown together meant to mean nothing. Or maybe you have to find the meaning. Maybe that’s the point. Human nature loves a vacuum.

In the first 611 days of Archewell Audio’s multi-million pound agreement with Spotify – the Sussexes branched out from charity to the entertainment business pretty quickly – Meghan and Harry had only managed to produce one 33-minute ‘holiday special.’

Since then, we’ve had about twelve more hours of content from Megs. Her podcast, Archetypes, was all about words that offended her. She signed off the series saying that she will be back for a second season as thanks to this outlet she finally ‘feels seen.’ Who knows if she’ll have anything left to say after the Meghan & Harry Netflix series, her possible memoir and the relaunch of her personal blog, The Tig, or Git backwards.

But now Archewell have released tax filings for 2021 and they show what we all knew to be true the whole time. Meghan and Harry have spent the last three years doing very little at all. The documents show that the couple worked a grand total of one hour each a week at the foundation, racking up a time sheet of 52 hours in a year. Those chickens aren’t going to look after themselves.

Anybody who has been keeping an eye on Archewell is perplexed. In 2021, the charity gave out $3 million (£2.4 million) in grants to refugee resettlement charities and funding for Covid 19 vaccines. It raised $13 million (£10.5 million) from benefactors. The pair also raised just $4,500 (£3,600) in public donations. $10 million (£8 million) came from a single donor, which has since led to speculation that it was handed to the pair by Oprah Winfrey, in return for the interview the Duke and Duchess of Sussex gave in March 2021.

For a company that’s gone through staff like disposable forks, Archewell doesn’t seem like a bad place to work. While Harry and Meghan don’t take a salary for their hard work, CEO James Holt works one hour a week and receives a $59,846 (£48,000) salary and $3,832 (£3,000) in other benefits. This equates to earning $1,224 (£980) an hour.

Finally, after three years of speculating, the truth may be appearing as to why Meghan and Harry stepped down as working royals. While they may claim it was down to institutional racism, tabloids, privacy, or big bad men in grey suits, the real answer may be more prosaic: the life of a working royal means work and that’s something they aren’t willing to do.