Are Prince Harry and Meghan Markle launching their own fashion line?

(Image credit: 2018 Samir Hussein)

Last night Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced they were stepping down as senior members of the royal family, and so many questions are being asked as a result, such as where they will move to, and how they will become financially independent.

And whilst we are still waiting on official answers for a lot of these, some have at least speculated on their next career move, and it could well be into fashion.

Last year, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made dozens of trademark applications to the Intellectual Property Office under theSussex Royal foundation.

These cover several areas such as campaigning leaflets and textbooks, as well as services such as charitable events. However they also cover clothing, including footwear, t-shirts, coats, sweaters, outerwear and more, suggesting they could well bring out their own line of merchandise to fund their new life.

Of course this isn't the first time the Duchess has dabbled in fashion, since she collaborated with Smart Works and several British high street brands last year on a workwear collection to benefit women seeking to re-enter the work world.

Details of their new roles and life will be revealed in due course.

Penny Goldstone

Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.

Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).

Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.

However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.

Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.