{"id":286570,"date":"2025-07-24T00:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T00:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/286570\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T00:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T00:43:10","slug":"netflix-ends-deal-with-meghan-markle-after-her-show-fails-to-crack-top-300","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/286570\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix ends deal with Meghan Markle after her show fails to crack top 300"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a> and other outlets.<\/p>\n

That may mean that Netflix won\u2019t be involved in making any more seasons of Meghan\u2019s \u201cWith Love, Meghan\u201d lifestyle show. The first season debuted in March and initially cracked the streamer\u2019s top 10 but then fell to a disappointing 383rd place in the first half of 2025, according to Netflix engagement data.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deal is done; no more shows will be made,\u201d a source told The Sun.<\/a> \u201cNetflix feels they\u2019ve got all they can from the couple.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Page Six tried to put a positive spin on the news by reporting<\/a> that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were poised to sign a different kind of deal with Netflix \u2014 a \u201cfirst-look\u201d deal in which Netflix buys the right to produce any future projects they propose or pass it on to another studio.<\/p>\n

Netflix already filmed Season 2 of \u201cWith Love, Meghan,\u201d perhaps prior to pulling the plug on the deal,\u201d People reported. That season will air in the fall.<\/p>\n

The Sun reported that there was \u201cno animosity\u201d between the streamer and the Sussexes. But Netflix\u2019s decision to end its production deal with Harry and Meghan potentially constitutes a huge blow to their income \u2014 an estimated $20 million a year, The Sun also reported \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

The partnership with Netflix seemed to start off promising enough, with the company\u2019s 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, \u201cHarry and Meghan,\u201d the 2022 documentary they produced and starred in, was a blockbuster hit and remains Netflix\u2019s most-watched documentary to date.<\/p>\n

But the couple\u2019s critics have said that people only watched the documentary because Harry and Meghan dished dirt about his famous royal relatives. That\u2019s something that both Harry and Meghan continued to do to varying degrees in subsequent interviews and in Harry\u2019s memoir \u00a0\u201cSpare.\u201d 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\u2019t like people going public with their gripes about family members.<\/p>\n

\u201cNetflix (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,\u201d the source told The Sun. But People magazine said that the streamer\u2019s decision wasn\u2019t just related to the Sussexes\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cArchetypes,\u201d Meghan\u2019s 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 \u201c(expletive) grifters.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past year, Harry and Meghan produced \u201cPolo\u201d 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\u2019s rich and privileged friends. \u201cPolo\u201d was blasted by critics, who called it boring, \u201cterrible\u201d and \u201cunintentionally hilarious,\u201d and who didn\u2019t see why anyone would want to spend time in the company of these men. It turns out that not many did: \u201cPolo\u201d was only watched by 500,000 households and came in at a dismal 3,436 among shows watched in the first half of 2025.<\/p>\n

The low ratings for \u201cWith Love, Meghan\u201d and \u201cPolo\u201d may be disappointing for Netflix, given all the publicity that the couple enjoyed in the lead-up to their shows. \u00a0Meghan\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

But that attention wasn\u2019t 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 \u201cWith Love, Meghan,\u201d was nothing compared to compared to Netflix\u2019s No. 1 show for the time period, the searing crime drama \u201cAdolescence,\u201d which got 145 million views. Other top Netflix shows included seasons 2 and 3 of \u201cSquid Game.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Netflix had ended its production deal with the couple, it\u2019s not clear what will happen with Netflix\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Originally Published: July 18, 2025 at 9:22 AM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It looks like Netflix may have learned that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are not naturally gifted creators…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[77,12,5105,7710,519,448,6417],"class_list":{"0":"post-286570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-royal","11":"tag-royal-families","12":"tag-royal-family","13":"tag-royals","14":"tag-things-to-do"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114905442114201572","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}