Following a disastrous year in which Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were mocked on TV, dropped from Spotify, publicly called “f******* grifters,” and landed on the Biggest Losers of 2023 list, the couple has been working on rebranding their image.

The Sussexes began 2024 with appearances at an Invictus Games event in Canada, launched a new and improved website, did speaking engagements about important issues, and the duchess teased her new lifestyle brand.

But while the duo are pushing ahead with their rebrand, one royal expert is convinced their future isn’t going to be so bright because history will repeat itself. Richard Kay is a well-known journalist in the U.K. who has covered the royals for decades and written for several publications including the Evening Standard, The Independent, Daily Mail, and The Times. He also authored a biography on the late Princess Diana.

During an appearance on Palace Confidential, Kay compared Prince Harry and Meghan’s future to that of the former King Edward VIII and his wife Wallis Simpson explaining: “It’s not a nice comparison to have. Wallis Simpson pushed around the Duke of Windsor. He was very much a reduced figure in her company. And there was that relationship between Edward and Mrs. Simpson and the rest of the royal family. They lived in virtual exile after he abandoned the throne.” Kay added that he made the comparison because he believes it “almost certainly is the future prospect for the Sussexes.”

Kay also noted how the strained relationship between Prince William and Prince Harry had also become like Edward and his brother King George VI’s saying: “It’s interesting to look at the relationship between the ex-King Edward VIII and the future King George VI, and the relationship as it’s turned out between Prince William and Prince Harry. They were brutally separated by one man’s love for another woman, in both cases, American divorcees.”

Kay certainly isn’t the first person to compare the Sussexes and their situation to Edward and Simpson’s. From the moment Meghan and Harry got engaged some made that comparison right away since the former Suits star is also an American and had been married before. Comparisons between the two couples really ramped up when the duke and duchess made the decision to step away from their roles in the royal family and move abroad.

Recently, royal author Sally Bedell Smith, who wrote a book examining King George VI’s role in the monarchy following the abdication of his older brother, spoke at an event where she drew parallels between them. According to The Telegraph, while speaking at the Oxford Literary Festival Bedell Smith said: “It is different. Harry was never going to be king. But I think there are similar feelings of betrayal that have resulted in William in particular being furious with his brother — with good reason.”

The biographer then likened Meghan to Simpson claiming: “In some respects, Meghan and the Duchess of Windsor have similar qualities: ‘very narcissistic, very controlling, very dominating.’” Bedell Smith also took a shot at Prince Harry by comparing him to his great-great-uncle and labeling him as “weak.”