“It’s a brave step into an unknown world.”

It’s safe to assume that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s future won’t include a return to royal life—but without their ties to the royal family, what will their future look like? As they continue to forge their own path in the States, a royal expert claims that a future without their royal titles may look “rather bleak” for the couple.

Royal historian Hugo Vickers discussed the pair during an appearance on The Times’ “The Royals With Roya and Kate” podcast, and suggested that the pair are still trying to find their footing in America.

“It’s very difficult because he is part of an extraordinary institution and then suddenly he’s cut free from that, he’s gone off on his own, it’s a brave step into an unknown world,” said Vickers.

He added that he was concerned by the apparent demands of their lifestyle. “What worries me is that I think, whenever I see images of Range Rovers and things coming to the airport and security people that’s jolly expensive and they’ve got to keep moving the whole time to finance this life and I’ve been to Montecito and that’s pretty and lush and expensive, too, and there are lots of people around keeping the show on the road,” he said. The thing right now that seems to be keeping their finances afloat, he said, was their royal association. As he put it, “They’re relying to a large extent on ‘Celebrity with a Royal connection’.”

This, he claimed, is why the pair are seemingly so focused on building and maintaining their joint brand. The pair, after all, have kept themselves in the public eye since leaving the royal family with multiple confessional interviews and documentaries. Harry released his tell-all memoir, Spare, while Meghan has written a children’s book and launched a lifestyle brand. They’ve done two non-royal tours, visiting Nigeria and Colombia. They allegedly have “a movie and a TV show and a couple of unscripted shows” in the works at Netflix. This year, the pair launched a new initiative, The Parents’ Network, to support families impacted by cyberbullying.

“Unless they keep coming up with new initiatives and new goods, they’re going to disappear like so many other celebrities, and once that happens I think the future is going to look rather bleak,” Vickers explained.

Despite what may be an uncertain future for the royal couple, the host of the podcast, royal editor Roya Nikkhah, noted that she had interviewed people close to Harry who claimed he was largely content in his new life despite any potential concerns about finances.

“I think he has got a lot of what he wanted,” she said. “He wanted a settled, calm family life, which he didn’t feel he had growing up and I don’t think he felt he was going to be able get when he was here in the royal family because of all the pressures. He feels very happy and settled in that.”