The adviser announced his departure days before the couple are due to embark on a four-day tour of Colombia.

Not for the first time, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have found themselves short of a team member. Their chief of staff, Josh Kettler, has left his position after just three months, in what was reportedly a mutual decision, with both sides agreeing ‘it wasn’t the right fit,’ according to People magazine.

Kettler, who is based in Santa Barbara, joined team Sussex a week before Harry and Meghan’s trip to Nigeria in May. He was hired to ‘guide [Prince Harry] through his next phase,’ and accompanied the duke on his visit to London, to mark the tenth anniversary of the Invictus Games.

Josh Kettler, the former chief of staff for the couple, arrives at The Invictus Games Foundation 10th Anniversary Service at St Paul’s Cathedral in May

Previously, Kettler was chief of staff and head of strategic partnerships at communication platform Cognixion. He also spent more than a decade working for the outdoor clothing company Patagonia, and a year at the San Francisco-based Better Place Forests. On LinkedIn, he describes himself as ‘an experienced executive accelerator, organiser and confidant,’ as well as a ‘steadfast supporter of conservation and the environment’.

Although Kettler was only hired on a trial basis, his departure highlights the problems the couple have long had when it comes to attracting and keeping their employees. The Sussexes’ last known chief of staff was Cathering St-Laurent, who formerly worked as an adviser to another high-profile couple: Bill and Melinda Gates. She joined the Sussexes’ foundation, Archewell, in April 2020, but left after a year, despite giving up her role with the Gates family in order to take on the post. James Holt, the duke and duchess’ former communications director, stepped into St-Laurent’s shoes and was named executive director of Archewell, a position he still holds.

The couple, who are heading off on a tour of Colombia later this week, have had trouble in the past with keeping their staf

Other senior members of Harry and Meghan’s team have walked away from their seemingly starry jobs. During their time as working royals, Meghan was reportedly branded ‘Duchess Difficult’ for the way she treated her staff. Whilst the Sussex team has always vehemently denied the claims, she was privately accused of bullying two personal assistants at Kensington Palace, and of making life tough for Samantha Cohen, her most senior aide. Harry addressed the departure of one of the PAs in his book, Spare, in an attempt to quell the rumours, writing that the ‘assistant was asked to resign by Palace HR after we showed them evidence she’d traded on her position with Meg to get freebies’.

Mutterings have persisted, however, as staff departures continue to occur at awkward times. Rebecca Sananes, who was made head of audio at Archewell in July 2021, walked away after 18 months, while Mandana Dayani, who ran the foundation for less than a year and a half, left in December 2022.

The duke and duchess have been trying to rebrand themselves, both in the US and across the pond

In the May 2019 issue of Tatler, David Jenkins wrote about the 365 days that had passed since Meghan Markle’s marriage to Prince Harry. Now, many of the anecdotes of courtier gossip and fall outs with friends ring resoundingly true, as the Duke officially changes his primary residence to US and the Duchess launches American Riviera Orchard.

Oscar-nominated producer Ben Browning and head of marketing Fara Taylor left Archewell in the same month that Spare was published and the couple’s Netflix show, Harry & Meghan, aired. Many will see it as more than a coincidence that two senior members of the foundation’s team handed in their notice as the couple’s popularity in the US nosedived. Now, the Sussexes are up to a reported 18 staff departures over six years – or an average of three a year.

The timing of Kettler’s departure will no doubt be a blow to the duke and duchess, who will kick off their four-day tour of Colombia later this week. While they visit Bogotá, Cartagena and Cali, the couple will reportedly focus on their campaign for safer digital environments ahead of the first World Ministerial Conference on the Elimination of Violence Against Children, hosted by the country in November.

It’s likely that Meghan and Harry will be hoping to replicate the success of their Nigeria tour, to all extents a PR triumph, with this visit to Colombia. It marks a continued effort by the couple to improve their image, both in the US and across the pond, after a spate of negative headlines. Meghan’s forthcoming lifestyle business, American Riviera Orchard, is set to form part of that rebrand – and, incidentally, she is looking for a chief executive to head up the venture. One can only hope that the chosen candidate has a more successful tenure than Kettler.