It’s Been One Year Since Harry & Meghan Quit the Royal Family. Here’s Everything They’ve Done Since.

The clock had barely struck 2020 when the royal decree, er, IG came through: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would be stepping down as senior members of the royal family and moving to North America. Their plan (which as it turned out, had yet to receive the blessing of HRH the queen, oops) was to become financially independent, but also to take a break from the merciless tabloid reporters and raise Archie away from the spotlight, all while launching their own charity and finding their voice away from the monarchy—no small job.

But after a hiccup or two (like—cough, cough—the palace’s reaction when it came to the use of their intended brand name, Sussex Royal), they rode off into the sunset disembarked in Canada (eventually California) and, even during a pandemic, haven’t stopped making moves since. But what have they actually accomplished? Here, Harry and Meghan’s year in review.

The first royals to don masks publicly, Harry and Meghan hit the streets of Los Angeles, delivering meals to those in need on behalf of Project Angel Food in early April. Their last official day as working royals was March 31. Pandemic or not, they made it clear they were prepared to continue to do the work.

It’d been a minute since we’d heard from Harry and Meghan in an official capacity but come May 6—Archie’s first birthday—they didn’t disappoint. With their @SussexRoyal Instagram channel now defunct, they partnered with Save the Children’s #SaveWithStories campaign to release a video of Meghan reading Archie one of his favorite books, Duck! Rabbit! with Harry filming and quacking in the background. Aw.

Meghan Zoomed on behalf of Smartworks; they both participated in a virtual panel on behalf of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust. But that’s not all: Harry kept us in the loop on the future of the Invictus Games (a Paralympic-style competition for wounded service members and veterans that he created) and the pair were accidentally outed for their work with the Crisis Text Line in Atlanta…which just so happened to coincide with Mental Health Awareness week in the U.K.

The June forum was thoughtful and impactful: Meghan gave the virtual commencement speech at her own alma mater, the Immaculate Heart High School in L.A. In it, she spoke to graduates about their accomplishments, but also the police killings of unarmed Black people across the U.S. “George Floyd’s life mattered and Breonna Taylor’s life mattered and Philando Castile’s life mattered and Tamir Rice’s life mattered. And so did so many other people whose names we know and whose names we don’t know,” she said. Harry followed up in July, pledging to fight racism via a surprise speech at the Diana Award’s virtual awards ceremony and making a public commitment to be part of the change.

Meghan joined as keynote speaker, speaking about gender equality and racial injustice. She also set the stage for what would become one of her biggest initiatives with Harry going forward: a healthier digital community. “We are not meant to be breaking each other down, we are meant to be building each other up,” she remarked.

With the election upon us, Meghan teamed up with activist Gloria Steinem and Makers Women in August to discuss the power of a single vote, but also the pivotal role that Black women play in each election, especially for Democrats. As part of this, we also saw Meghan looking quite at home in her new backyard.

First up, an appearance at Time Magazine’s Time100 TV special, where Harry and Meghan advocated for others to vote. Then, in October, the Sussexes teamed up with Time again, this time to host one of their Time100 Talks series, where they connected guests ranging from Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian to Rappler CEO and executive editor Maria Ressa to discuss the future of the digital landscape.

In a pre-Thanksgiving op-ed she penned for The New York Times, Meghan revealed that, over the summer, she had experienced a miscarriage. The name of the piece—“The Losses We Share”—connected her experience to the grief that everyone (the world over) is experiencing in bits in pieces as a result of the pandemic, police brutality and more, but she also talked about the need to normalize miscarriage and regularly ask others “Are you OK?” (A mantra from her and Harry since their ITV interview in Africa last year.)

The company? Clevr Brands, a woman-founded wellness startup that specializes in oat milk lattes. There to help her make the announcement and test the product? Meghan’s pal Oprah, of course.

Ending the year with a bang: Harry and Meghan are coming to a Spotify account near you thanks to a multi-year deal with the audio streaming service in partnership with—you guessed it—Archewell. (Did we mention their first episode—a holiday special—features a toddler-aged Archie wishing all listeners “Happy New Year” and belly laughing?)