A British author claimed Netflix canceled Meghan Markle’s animated show after she sent a legal letter pointing out “striking similarities” between the proposed series and her children’s books.
Markle announced in July 2021 that she and the streaming giant planned to launch “Pearl,” which would have followed a young girl of the same name “as she learns to step into her power and finds inspiration from influential women throughout history.”
The show was a key component of the massive $100 million deal that she and her husband, Prince Harry, signed with Netflix one year prior.
However, in May 2022, the streamer announced it had axed the series — which author Mel Elliott now believes was due to a letter she sent suggesting plagiarism.
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“Meghan is a feminist who sticks up for other women, so I was disappointed and confused to see how similarNetflix’s proposed show ‘Pearl’ was to my own Pearl Power, who had been created seven years earlier,” Elliott told the Daily Mail on Saturday.
“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. The world of arts and media are very competitive, and I’m afraid it’s quite common for powerful to people to rip off the work of less well-known creatives — although I’m not saying that’s what happened here.”
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In the summer of 2021, Elliott’s legal team wrote to the Duchess of Sussex regarding the “similarities between [her] proposed animation series and [Elliott’s] work,” which they stated were “too many and too striking to be mere coincidence.”
“It also appears that there is a risk that your proposed series may infringe intellectual property rights belonging to my client and/or may give rise to a claim in passing off (or in the US, some form of unfair competition,'” the letter, obtained by the outlet, stated.
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Elliott, 51, found success in the 2010s after creating a series of children’s books about a little British girl named Pearl Power.
The author and illustrator published three books in the series from 2014 to 2016 before pitching a potential animated TV show in early 2019.
The original books focused on themes of female empowerment and equality. However, Elliott wanted to take it one step further in the animated series by adding historical elements.
She told the Daily Mail that she planned to have the titular character present a project about one famous woman, such as Billie Jean King, Maya Angelou andAmelia Earhart,per episode.
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She allegedly posted her first test animation online and also shared her ideas on a “website that enables creators to connect with film and TV producers.”
“In that listing, my client says: ‘I would love to turn Pearl Power into an animated series someday, educating children about inspirational women from modern history (as well as a few men),'” the letter sent by Elliott’s attorney stated, per the Daily Mail.
The letter said Elliott had “been discussing this proposed series with her agent for more than two years” before Markle announced her version.
Elliott’s legal team sent a total of three letters to Markle and Netflix about their concerns — a second in October 2021 and then again in February 2022 —but claim they never got a response.
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The author told the outlet that she also sent several personal letters to those involved and never heard back.
Markle’s “Pearl” was canceled due to “budget cuts” less than three months after the last letter was sent, Elliott claimed.
The writer said she was “glad that Meghan’s ‘Pearl’ show was dropped” and hopes she “had something to do with it.”
“But what I really wanted was for it to have gone ahead and for me to have been acknowledged or invited to work as a collaborator on the series,” she said. “Pearl was my dream project and now, annoyingly, if I reprise my own creation, it’s going to look like I have copied the idea from someone else.”
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Elliott said what “saddened [her] most” was that her “objection was never acknowledged.”
“Neither Netflix nor Archewell responded to me when I would have loved to have contributed and collaborated,” she said, referencing Harry and Markle’s company.
Elliott finally felt compelled to speak out after some of Markle’s other projects, such as her “With Love, Meghan” series and As Ever branding, were called out for seemingly taking inspiration from other sources.
Reps for Markle did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
