Meghan Markle\u2019s hot new opportunity to appear in a Guy Ritchie Netflix drama that\u2019s filmed in the United Kingdom has reportedly been withdrawn, due to all the backlash and chaos surrounding the sudden, shocking news that she and Prince Harry plan to leave California and move back to the U.K by the end of the month.<\/p>\n
Tina Brown, royal author and famed former editor of Vanity Fair and the New Yorker, reported Saturday<\/a> morning that the offer to the American former TV actor to appear in season 3 of Ritchie\u2019s \u201cThe Gentlemen\u201d \u201chas been withdrawn\u201d due to the backlash over the casting. Deadline and other U.S. outlets had reported Friday<\/a> that the \u201cSuits\u201d star was in \u201cearly talks\u201d to appear in the crime drama.<\/p>\n \u201cThe backlash in the UK was so intense, it became untenable to go forward,\u201d Brown reported on her Fresh Hell Substack. \u201cThis does not bode well for Meghan\u2019s acting comeback in the UK. More to come.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown and other royal observers also would say it doesn\u2019t bode well for Meghan and Harry\u2019s return for the U.K. if she doesn\u2019t have some kind of job lined up in the U.K.<\/p>\n On Friday, Brown reported that having work in the U.K. would make it easier for Meghan to join Harry in moving back to his home country. The job, Brown reported on her Substack, \u201callows Harry, at last, to get Meghan\u2019s buy-in for his growing desire to get the hell out of paradise and go home to the world he understands.\u201d<\/p>\n For Meghan, the U.K. is not a welcoming place. The Duchess of Sussex and aspiring lifestyle guru has become widely unpopular among the British public<\/a> since she and Harry exiled themselves to the United States in 2020 and publicly complained that the royal family and the British media were racist and treated her terribly and that she and their two children, Archie and Lilibet, were not safe visiting.<\/p>\n \u201cThe level of general hostility towards her is off the charts these days,\u201d added British journalist Tom Sykes, who writes the influential The Royalist Substack.<\/a> On Saturday, Sykes also shared Brown\u2019s report<\/a> and said he had reached out to Meghan and Harry\u2019s office for a comment about the reported collapse of the Ritchie talks. He said he had not heard back.<\/p>\n Over the past two days, Sykes also has raised questions about whether Meghan and Harry were truly moving back to the U.K. or if this was some kind of publicity stunt.<\/p>\n Sykes, who also writes for the Daily Beast, noted that the language that Sussex sources have slipped to major media outlets about their return has been \u201cflexible.\u201d They\u2019ve used the term \u201cextended period,\u201d which\u00a0 suggests that they don\u2019t intend to make England their new home base after all, even though their sources also have said that they\u2019ve enrolled Archie, 7, and Lilibt, 5, in British schools.<\/p>\n The \u201cimplied assumption\u201d is that their U.K. sojourn is not meant to be forever, Sykes said. He added: \u201cI find it incredibly hard to imagine that Meghan is going to be any happier living in the U.K. this time round than she was last time\u201d \u2014 when she at least had the cachet of being a working member of the royal family.<\/p>\n More than that, it\u2019s arguable that \u201cextended period\u201d could also mean that the couple only plan to stay in the U.K. for as long as it takes Meghan to film her role in \u201cThe Gentlemen,\u201d Sykes also wrote \u2014 before Brown reported Saturday that the role has been withdrawn.<\/p>\n If the role has been withdrawn, Sykes said on Saturday that it could bolster the idea that Harry and the children will move to the United Kingdom, while Meghan will \u201ccome and go,\u201d depending on her work opportunities. Sykes was told by a friend of Harry\u2019s that, for Meghan, it would be \u201cmainly, go.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, British entertainment writer Rob Shuter reported on his Naughty But Nice Substack<\/a> Thursday that Meghan had only agreed to move back to the U.K. for six months. He, People magazine and other outlets also said the couple would keep their mansion in Montecito and vacation home in Portugal.<\/p>\n Shuter furthermore reported on Friday<\/a> that Meghan had only agreed to go along with Harry\u2019s desire to return to his home country for a period of time \u2014 so he could reconcile with his father and put their children in British schools \u2014 because she felt it was necessary to make her husband happy and save their marriage.<\/a><\/p>\n Harry has become \u201cmiserable in California and increasingly unhappy with the life they built in Montecito,\u201d Shuter reported. He said sources told him\u00a0that the \u201cmarriage is in serious trouble \u2014 and moving back to the U.K. is their last attempt to save it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey are not in a good place,\u201d a source told Shuter. \u201cHarry is deeply unhappy, and Meghan knows she cannot keep asking him to live a life that is making him miserable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMeghan is not doing this because she wants to,\u201d Shuter\u2019s source further said. \u201cShe is doing it because she believes she has to. She does not want to lose Harry, and she knows something has to change.\u201d<\/p>\n Other royal journalists question whether a return to the U.K. would solve the couple\u2019s reported problems, which include their estrangement from Harry\u2019s father, King Charles, and his brother, Prince Wiliam. The king has made it clear that Harry and Meghan won\u2019t be returning to royal duties and they won\u2019t be given a royal residence to live in.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also been reported that they are hurting financially. Their multimillion-dollar media deals with Netflix and Spotify have dried up and Harry is potentially facing millions of dollars in legal fees after losing his privacy case against the Daily Mail.<\/p>\n