One other day, one other controversy involving Meghan Markle. Because the premiere of With Love, Meghan on the 2025 TV schedule, folks haven’t stopped speaking about it — whether or not it’s the viral clip of her correcting Mindy Kaling on her identify, the cookware she’s utilizing or her recipe for one-pot pasta. The newest drama, nevertheless, revolves across the animated collection Pearl — already canceled from the Netflix schedule — as British writer Mel Elliot says the challenge bore “putting similarities” to her personal Pearl Energy collection.
In July 2021, Meghan Markle introduced the upcoming animated collection Pearl, which might middle on just a little lady studying “to step into her energy” via conversations with influential girls in historical past. Mel Elliot revealed final week (per the Each day Mail) that she took motion again then because of the resemblance of the collection to her personal, saying:
Meghan is a feminist who sticks up for different girls, so I used to be upset and confused to see how related Netflix’s proposed present Pearl was to my very own Pearl Energy who had been created seven years earlier. After all, I can not know if anybody on her staff had seen it and been impressed by it, however the similarities have been too nice for me to disregard.
The writer launched three Pearl Energy books from 2014 to 2016 and turned the character — impressed by her personal daughter Pearl — into an animated collection in 2019, two years earlier than Meghan Markle introduced her Netflix Pearl collection.
Mel Elliot’s lawyer despatched a authorized letter to the Duchess of Sussex via her manufacturing firm Archewell that reportedly mentioned:
The similarities between your proposed animation collection and my consumer’s work seem like too many and too putting to be mere coincidence. It additionally seems that there’s a danger that your proposed collection might infringe mental property rights belonging to my consumer and/or might give rise to a declare in passing off (or within the US, some type of unfair competitors.)
She then adopted up with two private letters to Archewell and Netflix in October 2021 and February 2022 asking for updates, the writer mentioned, however by no means heard again. Meghan Markle’s challenge was canceled quickly after, in Could 2022, with all references to it reportedly faraway from the Archewell web site.
Two different kids’s exhibits have been axed on the identical time by Netflix, which cited falling subscriber numbers because the trigger, however Mel Elliot mentioned she couldn’t assist however marvel if her letters had one thing to do with it. She mentioned:
What saddened me most is that, having introduced the similarities between my Pearl and Meghan’s Pearl to the eye of Netflix and Archewell, my objection was by no means acknowledged – neither Netflix nor Archewell responded to me once I would have beloved to have contributed and collaborated.
Meghan Markle’s proposed 2021 collection noticed Pearl assembly girls in historical past, together with her first encounter to be with Billie Jean King, who the Each day Mail mentioned publicly supported the duchess’ challenge championing feminine empowerment and equality.
Whereas Mel Elliot’s books didn’t embody historic girls, that was a part of her 2019 pitch for spinning the character off into an animated collection. She wished every episode to start out with Pearl presenting a challenge a few well-known lady to her class, kicking off an journey with that individual. The primary check animation reportedly featured Billie Jean King and was allegedly accessible to view on Elliot’s web site and social media.
Nevertheless, in response to the Each day Telegraph, Meghan Markle was in dialog with Netflix about Pearl earlier than she and Prince Harry even stepped away from their royal duties, as early as 2018, which might have pre-dated Elliot’s collection.
We’ll must see if every other information comes from this. With Meghan Markle’s Pearl collection being dropped a number of years in the past, I wouldn’t anticipate her to touch upon these new accusations. Though she did break her silence concerning the criticism of her Netflix present, so who is aware of?
Within the meantime, you may stream With Love, Meghan on Netflix.