JOIN OUR WHATSAPP CHANNEL
Meghan Markle Faces Plagiarism Claims Over Shelved Netflix Show; Author Says Similarities Were ‘Too Great’
British author Mel Elliott claims that Meghan Markle’s canceled animated Netflix project Pearl closely resembled her own children’s book series, Pearl Power.
Meghan Markle has found herself at the center of a plagiarism controversy after UK author Mel Elliott alleged that the Duchess’s scrapped Netflix series bore “striking similarities” to her own published works. The dispute casts a shadow over Pearl, a proposed animated series Markle was set to executive produce as part of her multimillion-dollar deal with Netflix.
Announced in July 2021, Pearl was described as the story of a young girl who embarks on a journey of self-discovery, drawing inspiration from influential women throughout history. Although the show was shelved before production began, Elliott has since raised concerns that the concept mirrors her own creation — the Pearl Power series, which debuted in 2014 and follows a similarly empowered young girl.
According to The Daily Mail, Elliott claimed that the likeness between the two works was difficult to dismiss. “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,” she told the publication. While acknowledging she cannot be certain anyone from Markle’s team directly copied her work, Elliott maintained that “the similarities were too great to ignore.”
The author also revealed she had sent legal letters to both Archewell Productions and Netflix but received no response. Meanwhile, The Sun reported that both companies have been approached for comment, though neither has issued a statement at the time of writing.
While Markle’s Pearl never made it past the development stage, Elliott’s claims have reignited the conversation around creative originality and intellectual property in high-profile media projects. As the situation continues to unfold, attention now turns to Netflix and Archewell’s response to the allegations.
Latest Articles
