Names and faces
■ Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, announced Friday that they will give up their “Sussex Royal” branding along with their royal responsibilities this spring. Whether they call themselves “royal” — and make money while doing so — had been one of the most contentious questions about their nontraditional future and a subject of discussions with the queen. “While The Duke and Duchess are focused on plans to establish a new non-profit organization, given the specific UK government rules surrounding use of the word ‘Royal’, it has been therefore agreed that their non-profit organization, when it is announced this Spring, will not be named Sussex Royal Foundation,” their spokesman said Friday. “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex do not intend to use ‘Sussex Royal’ in any territory post Spring 2020.” The spokesman said trademark applications have also been withdrawn. Harry and Meghan will close their office at Buckingham Palace at the end of March. Stepping back as as senior royals, the couple will split time between Britain and North America. Technically, the couple will still be royals, and Harry will still be a prince who is still sixth in line to inherit the throne from Queen Elizabeth II.
■ Former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, the career diplomat who during the impeachment hearings of President Donald Trump offered a chilling account of alleged threats from Trump and his allies, has a book deal. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt confirmed Friday that it had acquired Yovanovitch’s planned memoir, currently untitled. According to the publisher, the book will trace her long career, from Mogadishu, Somalia, to Kyiv and “finally back to Washington, D.C. — where, to her dismay, she found a political system beset by many of the same challenges she had spent her career combating overseas,” Houghton Mifflin Harcourt said in an announcement. Two people familiar with the deal said it was worth seven figures, even though the book is not expected until the spring of 2021. Yovanovitch was represented by the Javelin literary agency, whose other clients include former FBI Director James Comey and former national security adviser John Bolton. Yovanovitch, 61, was appointed ambassador to Ukraine in 2016 by President Barack Obama. Pushed out of her job earlier in 2019 on Trump’s orders, she told House investigators that Ukrainian officials had warned her that Rudy Giuliani and other Trump insiders were planning to “do things, including to me” and were “looking to hurt” her.