It looks like Netflix may have learned that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are not naturally gifted creators of streaming series, documentaries, feature films or other content and has decided to not renew its five-year, $100 million deal to produce content with the couple, according to People and other outlets.

That may mean that Netflix won’t be involved in making any more seasons of Meghan’s “With Love, Meghan” lifestyle show. The first season debuted in March and initially cracked the streamer’s top 10 but then fell to a disappointing 383rd place in the first half of 2025, according to Netflix engagement data.

“The deal is done; no more shows will be made,” a source told The Sun. “Netflix feels they’ve got all they can from the couple.”

However, Page Six tried to put a positive spin on the news by reporting that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were poised to sign a different kind of deal with Netflix — a “first-look” deal in which Netflix buys the right to produce any future projects they propose or pass it on to another studio.

Netflix already filmed Season 2 of “With Love, Meghan,” perhaps prior to pulling the plug on the deal,” People reported. That season will air in the fall.

The Sun reported that there was “no animosity” between the streamer and the Sussexes. But Netflix’s decision to end its production deal with Harry and Meghan potentially constitutes a huge blow to their income — an estimated $20 million a year, The Sun also reported — as they continue to try and make their fortune in the United States, five years after acrimoniously parting ways with life in England and in the British royal family.

The partnership with Netflix seemed to start off promising enough, with the company’s executives apparently imagining that their global celebrity and royal connections would be a font of material and ideas for engaging programming that audiences would clamor to watch. Indeed, “Harry and Meghan,” the 2022 documentary they produced and starred in, was a blockbuster hit and remains Netflix’s most-watched documentary to date.

But the couple’s critics have said that people only watched the documentary because Harry and Meghan dished dirt about his famous royal relatives. That’s something that both Harry and Meghan continued to do to varying degrees in subsequent interviews and in Harry’s memoir  “Spare.” In some ways, revealing insider information about alleged royal family dysfunction, cruelty or racism won Harry and Meghan devoted online followers, who see them as courageously standing up to an outdated institution. But such disclosures also made the couple unpopular in Britain and even turned off some Americans who don’t like people going public with their gripes about family members.

“Netflix (was) clever in that they got a hell of a lot of viewers for the first documentary, and knew, realistically, it would prove the zenith of content from the Montecito pair,” the source told The Sun. But People magazine said that the streamer’s decision wasn’t just related to the Sussexes’ successes or failure, but it part of a larger strategy to move away from large, multi-project agreements, like the one it had with Barack and Michelle Obama.

But Harry and Meghan also saw their reported $20 million deal to produce podcasts with Spotify end in 2023, after they only produced 12 episodes of “Archetypes,” Meghan’s series about empowering women by interviewing some of her famous friends. Bill Simmons, a Spotify executive who runs The Ringer, a popular network of sports and culture podcasts, revealed some less than edifying experiences with the couple and called them “(expletive) grifters.”

In the past year, Harry and Meghan produced “Polo” for Netflix, a reality TV-type series that was released Dec. 10 and followed a group of elite polo players, some of whom happen be Harry’s rich and privileged friends. “Polo” was blasted by critics, who called it boring, “terrible” and “unintentionally hilarious,” and who didn’t see why anyone would want to spend time in the company of these men. It turns out that not many did: “Polo” was only watched by 500,000 households and came in at a dismal 3,436 among shows watched in the first half of 2025.

The low ratings for “With Love, Meghan” and “Polo” may be disappointing for Netflix, given all the publicity that the couple enjoyed in the lead-up to their shows.  Meghan’s show was a constant source of news about her interactions with celebrity friends, her sometimes quirky ideas about freely using edible flower sprinkles on many dishes and anything she revealed about her life in Montecito and their two children.

But that attention wasn’t enough to get large numbers of people to watch, outside of people who may have already been fans. The 5.3 million viewers who steamed “With Love, Meghan,” was nothing compared to compared to Netflix’s No. 1 show for the time period, the searing crime drama “Adolescence,” which got 145 million views. Other top Netflix shows included seasons 2 and 3 of “Squid Game.”

While Netflix had ended its production deal with the couple, it’s not clear what will happen with Netflix’s deal with Meghan on her As Ever lifestyle brand, People reported. Meghan launched As Ever alongside her life-style show, and Netflix is a partner in the brand, which has thus far sold small quantities of strawberry spread, crepe mixes and honey, People reported.

 

Originally Published: July 18, 2025 at 9:22 AM PDT