The couple were pictured visiting Homeboy Industries, a social organisation working to improve the lives of formerly incarcerated and gang-involved people across LA, where the couple have been living in recent months.
During the visit, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex joined the group’s members (“Homies”) working in the cafe and bakery to prepare food for the #FeedHOPE program, which provides meals to people in need across LA amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were just ‘Harry and Meghan’ to the homies,” the group’s founder Father Greg Boyle said, as reported by People. “They rolled up their sleeves and deeply engaged with our workers in the bakery and cafe. It was immediate kinship and heartening in its mutuality.” The group later thanked the duo on Twitter, sharing that the teams were “thrilled” to have them on board.
THANK YOU to Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, for their visit yesterday! Our Bakery & Café teams were thrilled to have them work alongside us to #FeedHOPE to Los Angeles | 📷Credit: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex
Help provide hope today: https://t.co/IlNLw33nL9 pic.twitter.com/HDFusnhmkk
— Homeboy Industries (@HomeboyInd) June 24, 2020
The visit comes after it wasconfirmed the former royals have signed with Harry Walker Agency, an elite agency that represents Oprah Winfrey, the Obamas and the Clintons, for speaking engagements. According to reports, the couple have joined the agency in their first career move since moving to Hollywood in March.
They will hold “moderated discussions” and give the keynote speeches to trade associations, businesses and community forums, the LA Times reports. The talks will cover racial justice, gender equality, the environment and mental health – causes the couple have focused on in the past. Based in New York, the Harry Walker Agency bills itself as “the world’s leading speaker’s bureau”.
Former US president Barack Obama reportedly earned almost $US400,000 ($A611,000) for one 2017 speech, while the Clintons averaged almost $US275,000 ($A398,000) per appearance in 2014. In 2015, the Clintons reportedly earned an incredible $US25 million ($A36.4m) in one year from public speaking. The Harry Walker Agency was bought out last year by Endeavor, the parent company of William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, the talent company in California.
Its other high-profile clients also include Prince Harry’s environmentalist friend Jane Goodall and actor Tyler Perry – whose $US18 million ($A26.3 million) Beverly Hills mansion they are living in. Meghan, 38, and Harry, 35, got a taste of the speaker’s circuit in February when the Prince spoke at a private event in Miami for banking giant JP Morgan.
They were reported to have earned up to almost $US1 million ($A1.4 million) for the appearance – one month before they moved to Los Angeles after they quit the royal family in a move to become “financially independent”.