Having settled in California in the aftermath of their dramatic decoupling from the royal family in ۲۰۲۰, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced a partnership that appeared to set a clear destination for their new lives outside the House of Windsor.
With every global media stable clamouring for their signature, the couple revealed a deal with Netflix reportedly worth $۱۰۰m. The ambitions were lofty and broad, including scripted and unscripted projects, shows for all ages and documentaries.
A $۲۰m podcast deal with Spotify appeared to confirm their ambitions; the Sussexes were reinventing themselves in the competitive world of content creation, a media powerhouse in the booming universe of streaming and podcasting.
As the couple now prepare to return to the UK, they do so with those mega-deals either pared back or expired, and their media plans less clear. It raises the question: is this the end of their American dream?
As with all things Harry and Meghan-related, their various media forays have spawned copious amounts of reactionary content and commentary. Each appearance, commission and production has been dissected: there have been blockbuster hits, much-publicised misses and some brutal reviews along the way.
For Harry, the pull of returning to the UK, if perhaps not permanently, has been clear for a while.
He says he loves his country, and in an interview with the Guardian last year, he admitted he hankered for home.
“I have always loved the UK and I always will love the UK. It’s been good to reconnect with the causes I am passionate about. I have been able to spend some time with people that I have known for so long. It is hard to do it from far away.”
Perhaps more so recently because his father, King Charles, has been ill. And on the work front, it hasn’t been easy either.
Six years in the content game offers a case study in how difficult it can be to negotiate the shifting sands of a transformed media landscape, so difficult that even a Hollywood actor and a British prince are not guaranteed to succeed.
Those years have proved there is one bankable aspect of the Sussex brand: their relationship with the royal family continues to be devoured on an industrial scale. However, launching lifestyle brands and philanthropic pursuits that rely purely on name recognition – even with a packed contacts book of A-list friends to help – cannot guarantee reliable success in the cut-throat era of the attention economy.
“The Sussexes have kind of got caught up in the media’s awkward teenage transition,” said Evan Shapiro, a former US media executive turned leading analyst of the creator economy. “Just being famous is no longer enough … The last time Meghan Markle worked in show business [starring in the US legal drama Suits], it was a different era. It was top down: ‘We push it out, you watch it.’ That’s just how it worked.
“That era has passed. It’s fucking hard ۱۷۸۷۳۷۶۳۵۵ … the competition is literally every human on earth. Eight billion people with phones who are all competing with Meghan Markle.”
The Sussexes could scarcely have had better timing for their eye-catching ۲۰۲۰ Netflix deal, via their Archewell Productions organisation – global streamers were scrambling for big names to lure subscribers.
The pair were in demand, talking with the likes of Disney and Apple before the Netflix deal was signed. Spotify was also pursuing big-name deals when it secured the Sussexes.
While the Netflix announcement talked of a raft of potential projects, the greatest prize was always the story of the Sussexes’ relationship with the royal family. The subsequent ۲۰۲۲ documentary series, Harry & Meghan, duly delivered, setting record viewing figures for a documentary debut and ranking as one of its most successful docuseries ever.
Other Netflix projects featuring the couple followed, including the Live to Lead interview series, Harry’s Polo documentary and two series of the cooking and lifestyle show With Love, Meghan.
Unsurprisingly, content without the royal intrigue could not hit the heights of Harry & Meghan. Polo failed to make Netflix’s top ۱۰ lists around the world, while ratings for the second series of With Love, Meghan dropped off. It was the ۱,۲۱۷th most watched title on Netflix over the second half of last year. A mooted animated children’s series, Pearl, was cancelled.
Netflix also ended its partnership with Meghan’s lifestyle brand, As Ever, after seven months. The company said handing full control to Meghan was always the plan. However, the relationship endures. Netflix renewed its partnership with the Sussexes, but slimmed it down to a “first look” deal.
As for podcasting, the Spotify deal was ended by mutual consent in ۲۰۲۳, having only produced Meghan’s ۱۲-episode podcast Archetypes, featuring interviews with people such as the former tennis champion Serena Williams and pop star Mariah Carey.
Meghan subsequently launched another podcast series, Confessions of a Female Founder, in ۲۰۲۵, with Lemonada Media. Only nine episodes were made. She revealed last year that there would be no second series, saying she was focusing on As Ever.
In line with all of Harry and Meghan’s exploits, there have been some acerbic assessments of their media production efforts. Most notably, the Spotify executive Bill Simmons called them “fucking grifters” after the company’s deal with the couple ended.
Less incendiary industry analysts point to the significant timing. The Sussexes’ narrowed Netflix deal and split with Spotify coincided with content providers cutting back on their big celebrity bets, and the chaos being wrought by the rapid rise of the creator economy.
“This isn’t a story about nobody being interested in [the Sussexes],” said Matt Navarra, a social media consultant who has worked with broadcasters. “It’s quite the opposite. They can generate attention almost on demand. The harder thing is converting attention into a repeatable media proposition.
“Harry and Meghan arrived in Hollywood with almost every advantage imaginable, but audiences now effectively have infinite choice. They don’t care about how expensive the deal was, or how famous the person is.
“I think that’s one of the brutal lessons of the new media world: that fame can buy you the first click, but only the content earns the second … Their original Harry & Meghan series was pretty much a blockbuster. What they’ve struggled with is repeatability.”
Several industry insiders noted the comparisons with the Obamas, whose Higher Ground production company’s multi-year deal with Netflix narrowed to a “first look” deal in ۲۰۲۴. Their Spotify deal also ended in ۲۰۲۲.
Shapiro said the Sussexes had not yet proved they could draw big audiences beyond content directly related to their dealings with the royal family. “By no fault of their own, the Sussexes were not prepared for the current moment,” he said. “It turns out, other than marrying a prince, Meghan Markle just isn’t that special. Other than being born into royalty, Harry’s just not that interesting.”
Navarra said: “Enormous curiosity exists around them, but curiosity about a person isn’t necessarily the same as demand for everything that person produces. Celebrity is a distribution advantage, but it isn’t a content strategy.
“Harry and Meghan show that you can inherit enormous attention and still have to earn the audience every single time. To me, that is the really interesting shift.”
It is perhaps understandable, then, that Meghan is reportedly returning to a bankable acting career that she put on ice after her marriage to Harry. Initial reports from Australia of a UK-based role for Meghan were backed up by Tina Brown, the former Vanity Fair editor and founding editor of the Daily Beast.
Brown said it had been fuelled by Meghan’s positive experience as a celebrity judge on MasterChef Australia last month. “She finally realised how much easier – and more fun – it is to perform in a hit baked by someone else,” Brown wrote.
“She was back on the market, and it did not take long for Hollywood’s mega-deal machine, WME, the talent agency that still represents her, to get her a role.”
Sources close to the Sussexes have not denied the reports.
On Friday night it was reported that Meghan was in talks to return to acting in Netflix’s series The Gentlemen. According to Variety, she was in discussions to join the third season of the Guy Ritchie-created series.
However, the couple are not out of the media production game. Archewell has evolved into a more traditional production company. Its forthcoming Netflix projects include a polo drama and a film adaptation of the romantic novel Meet Me at the Lake. Several sources familiar with the company said there were also projects in the works beyond Netflix.
In practical terms, the move back to the UK creates few issues for their media ambitions. It is not unusual for major production companies to sit outside Hollywood and make shows away from the US, and the UK remains a major production hub.
As for Harry, he – or anyone else – will struggle to replicate the runaway media success of his memoir, Spare. He is focusing on his Invictus Games coming to Birmingham next year. Meanwhile, Meghan has suggested any return as a business podcaster may depend on the progress of her lifestyle brand.
“I would love to bring the show back when I am at a different end of my founder journey,” she said last summer, explaining why she had put her Confessions of a Female Founder podcast on hold. “I think a different time will be so exciting to compare and contrast.”
