Revealed: How Duchess planned a US foundation 15 months ago

THE Duchess of Sussex began making secret plans for an American foundation just eight days after announcing she was pregnant, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Her long-time US business manager Andrew Meyer registered two websites – archefoundation. com and archefoundation.org – on October 23, 2018.

Five days later, an Instagram account called @archefoundation was created.

It has been inactive since and has only one follower, Janina Gavanker, an actress and close friend of Meghan who attended her wedding in Windsor.

Ms Gavanker, 39, also took the family photograph that appeared on the Sussex Christmas card last year.

The inspiration for the word ‘arche’ is unclear.

The couple’s son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, was born on May 6, 2019, so it is unlikely that Harry and Meghan would have known the sex of their unborn child in late October 2018. Parents are usually only able to find out the gender of their baby after 16 weeks of pregnancy.

One possibility is that ‘arche’ comes from the Ancient Greek philosophical term meaning ‘beginning’ or ‘origin’. Meghan reportedly has a fondness for Greek words, with some speculating that she picked the name Archie because it derives from Archon, the Greek name for leader. It would also fit with the notion of the couple making a new start in North America.

Mr Meyer, whose clients also include Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo, has worked with Meghan for years and has been busy securing domain names for her.

Last September, he renewed the trademark for The Tig, her lifestyle blog that was shut down in 2017 after she began dating Prince Harry. Four months earlier, he registered two website names – americanfriendsofsussexroyal.com and theamericanfriendsofsussexroyal.com.

It is not known whether the websites and social media sites are intended for charity or commercial ventures.

They were registered by Mr Meyer’s firm Freemark Financial. Its website boasts that it is ‘a preeminent wealth and business management firm for individuals as well as their companies in the television, film, music, production and publishing industries’.

Mr Meyer, who was named one of the 25 top business managers in showbusiness by the Hollywood Reporter newspaper in 2017, is also understood to have been involved in recently moving Meghan’s company Frim Fram Inc from California to Delaware, a state where public access to financial information is heavily restricted.

A spokesman for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex last night declined to comment.