On paper, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s move to the leafy Californian enclave of Montecito looked like a dream: autonomy over their lives, a new home in sunny California, and a platform built for ‘impactful storytelling’ over royal protocol. The couple’s first creation for the streaming platform, the docuseries of their love story, Harry & Meghan, broke Netflix records as the streamer’s most-watched documentary of all time — 28 million households tuned in to watch two former Windsors set their own narrative in the first two weeks of its premiere. Even Meghan’s lifestyle series With Love, Meghan generated a briefly landed in Netflix’s top ten.
Yet it has now been reported, per People, that the couple’s reported $100 million (£75 million) deal with Netflix will not be renewed in September. The pair signed their multi-year Netflix deal in 2020, marking their first major project after stepping back from royal duties and relocating to California.
Behind the scenes, the numbers of the Sussexes’ projects tell a less regal tale. While Harry & Meghan proved a hit, their later projects — Polo and Heart of Invictus — struggled to keep the spotlight, with Polo only nabbing 500,000 viewers globally and With Love, Meghan falling outside Netflix’s coveted top 300 for 2025.
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Per People, however, there’s ‘no animosity’ between the royal couple and Netflix, with sources noting that it’s merely a symptom of Netflix shifting focus from high-cost exclusive deals like Archewell’s towards single-project options. The streaming service pivoted in the same way with with their deal involving former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground production company, which evolved into a first-look agreement, according to People.
‘Netflix were clever in that they got a hell of a lot of viewers for the first documentary series, and knew, realistically, it would prove the zenith of content from the Montecito pair,’ a source said. ‘They’re not unhappy with how things turned out — they got those initial hits, and produced one of the most talked-about shows of all time.’
In the meantime, the already-filmed second season of With Love, Meghan will premiere on Netflix in the autumn, while the Sussexes no doubt start working out what their next chapter will look like.
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Naomi May is a seasoned culture journalist and editor with over ten years’ worth of experience in shaping stories and building digital communities. After graduating with a First Class Honours from City University’s prestigious Journalism course, Naomi joined the Evening Standard, where she worked across both the newspaper and website. She is now the Digital Editor at ELLE Magazine and has written features for the likes of The Guardian, Vogue, Vice and Refinery29, among many others. Naomi is also the host of the ELLE Collective book club.