Pour out a glass of As Ever rosé and sprinkle some flower confetti on the grave of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s dreams of Hollywood moguldom: Their Netflix deal will reportedly not be renewed when it expires in September.
The Sun broke the story yesterday that the contract, worth $100 million when it was signed shortly after the two exited the Royal Family business in 2020, would end with the second season of ”With Love, Meghan” when it airs this September. A “Hollywood insider” also confirmed the story to People magazine.
“There’s no animosity from either side. Things have just run their course,” the Sun’s anonymous source said, adding that there is a mutual agreement to just quietly part ways without the fanfare of an official announcement. “Netflix feel they’ve got all they can from the couple … They’re not unhappy with how things turned out — they got those initial hits, and produced one of the most talked-about shows of all time.”
That, of course, was “Harry & Meghan,” the couple’s tell-all series, which became the streamer’s most-watched documentary of all time.
The Daily Mail, true to form as the couple’s detractors-in-chief, called on a source with a more venomous, less diplomatic take. “They’re just waiting for the credits to roll. They’re letting it expire without drama. There’s no appetite for anything new.”
This latest development is hardly a shock, of course. The couple have produced a string of flops — most notably, last fall’s ”Polo,” which The Guardian dubbed an “unintentional comedy” — and their Hail Mary attempt, Meghan’s lifestyle show, “With Love,” seems to have attracted more parodists than it did actual viewers.
Empirically, we know — per Netflix’s own annual reports — it ranked 383 out of 7,500 shows, totalling 5.3 million viewers since it dropped in March. For comparison, one viral TikTok poking fun at how she repackaged store-bought pretzels as a “hack” on the show has been viewed nearly 50 million times.
As with all things Sussex, however, precisely how disastrous this is depends on who you’re asking.
Page Six, for its part, has a source who claims that “more TV projects are coming soon from the duke and the duchess.” They’re about to sign a “first look deal” with Netflix, apparently, meaning that while the streamer won’t be paying them $20 million a year anymore, they get first dibs on any ideas the couple wants to make in future. This is the model that Barack and Michelle Obama have with their production company, by the way. There are also claims that other networks are interested in content from the pair.
As for Meghan’s As Ever line of products, which she creates in partnership with Netflix, there’s every indication it isn’t going anywhere: Each release has sold out, including a rosé launch earlier this month, and there are apparently plans for a Champagne and a holiday collection in the months ahead.
That said: 100 million dollars is a major gap to fill in any budget, and it’s a development that casts recent claims of a “peace summit” between Harry’s people and King Charles’s people in a fascinating light. Signs that their American dream might be running out of cash? A purely personal attempt at reconciliation now that the dust has settled? Or nothing more than a formality between teams?
We’ll see in time, perhaps — but probably not on Netflix.
