Meghan Markle has been embroiled in a plagiarism dispute after a British author described “striking similarities” between her own books and a proposal by Markle for a children’s TV show.
Markle was listed as one of the executive producers of Netflix’s animated series Pearl, announced in July 2021 as part of the reported $100million development deal between the streamer and Markle and husband Prince Harry, following their move to the US in 2020.
In the blurb for the project, Pearl was described as the story of a young girl who learns to step into her power and finds inspiration from influential women throughout history.”
The project was binned before development, but now The Daily Mail newspaper reports that UK author Mel Elliott claims she sent a legal letter to Archewell Productions, the company behind Markle and Prince Harry’s TV projects, and to Netflix, alleging possible infringement of her copyright.
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Elliott is the author of a series of Pearl Power books, which debuted in 2014. The third book in the series was published in 2016 and translated into several languages. Elliott told The Daily Mail:
“Meghan is a feminist who sticks up for other women, so I was disappointed and confused to see how similar Netflix’s proposed show Pearl was to my own Pearl Power, who had been created seven years earlier.
“Of course, I can’t know if anyone on her team had seen it and been inspired by it, but the similarities were too great for me to ignore.”
Elliott told the newspaper she sent two letters, but did not receive reply or acknowledgement. The Sun newspaper reported that it had reached out to both Netflix and Archewell Productions for comment.