California Gov. Gavin Newsom broke away from a press conference Tuesday, on transforming the state’s mental health system, to address the “technical paperwork issue” that he said “unfairly” embroiled Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Archewell Foundation in a blaze of “overhyped” headlines about being “delinquent” on its renewal with the state.
Newsom said he thought it was “important” for him to “clarify” why the Archewell Foundation shouldn’t have been labeled delinquent with the state’s Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, referring to a May 3 notice sent by the office of Attorney General Rob Bonta. Newsom insisted that the Archewell Foundation was in “full compliance,” meaning that it had submitted the necessary tax returns, payment and other documents for staying in “good standing” with the state.
Archewell sources had also told the media this week that it had complied with reporting requirements, though one source suggested that the delinquency notice came after a payment had gone missing in the mail. On Tuesday, the foundation was back “in good standing,” according to the registry’s online records.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, visit Lightway Academy on May 10, 2024, in Abuja, Nigeria. (Andrew Esiebo/Getty Images for The Archewell Foundation/TNS)
Newsom expressed frustration with all the global news reports about the delinquency notice, saying, “I hope people that ran those headlines run this headline: that it was a very typical issue around paperwork that persists for so many others as well.”
He said the Archewell Foundation is “a celebrated organization that does great work in the state of California, so I wanted to clarify that because that’s important, and I just thought there was a little bit (of) a piling on that was deeply unfair.”
It’s not clear why Newsom felt the need to so assiduously defend the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their foundation at the press conference, which was otherwise focused on the disbursement of $3.3 billion from Prop. 1, the new mental health bond, to fund new treatment services and homeless housing units statewide.
When asked why the Sussexes’ foundation merited Newsom’s attention at Tuesday’s event, Izzy Gardon, a spokesperson for the governor’s office told this news organization, “The governor’s comments speak for themselves.” Gordon also said the governor’s office did not intervene in clearing up the “paperwork issue” so that Archewell would return to “good standing.”
In his comments, Newsom did draw a connection to Tuesday’s event, which took place outside the nearly completed state-funded treatment facility at the Cordilleras Mental Health Center in San Mateo County, to Harry and Meghan’s work to promote mental health.
Newsom’s comments on Harry and Meghan came near the end of the hour-long presentation. A reporter got in a final question that he admitted was “off topic.” But the question didn’t have anything to do with the Archewell Foundation; the reporter asked when a portion of Highway 1 near Big Sur would reopen after it was severely damaged in storms in late March.
At that point, Newsom said he had “two additional announcements,” with his assurance that Highway 1 would reopen Friday coming after he made his comments about Harry and Meghan’s foundation.
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Newsom has been welcoming to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in the past. Nearly eight months after they stepped away from royal duties in 2020 and moved to California, the governor made time — in the midst of handling the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic — to get to know them in a one-hour video-link meeting, according to a report in the U.K. tabloid, The Sun.
What The Sun described as a one-hour call took place in October 2020 and was listed as an “introductory” meeting, The Sun added, citing a memo it viewed about the meeting.
A spokesperson for Newsom at the time declined to reveal what the governor and the Sussexes talked about, saying: “We do not comment on the content of meetings between the governor and private parties or his staff.”
Harry and Meghan established the Archewell Foundation after they moved to California. The foundation was originally registered with the state in 2021. But a May 3 letter from Bonta’s office said that the foundation was listed as delinquent with its renewal because it had failed “to submit required annual report(s) and/or renewal fees.”
The Sussexes did not comment on the drama on Monday. But a source close to Archewell told People that the foundation’s tax filings were completed in compliance with all regulations and were made public in December. The California state filing, renewal and necessary payment also were sent “via tracked mail” to the Attorney General’s office. But the source specifically said that a check that was sent was never received. The foundation only became aware of the missing check when the delinquency notice was issued.
