Duchess accused of copyright infringement by British author in latest setback
Meghan Markle has been hit with a legal notice over her cancelled Netflix project Pearl, as British author Mel Elliott accuses the Duchess of Sussex of copying her children’s book series Pearl Power.
The controversy emerges as Meghan continues to expand her public ventures, including her recently launched Netflix show With Love, Meghan, lifestyle brand As Ever, and podcast Confessions of a Female Founder.
Elliott, 51, issued a statement claiming the animated series Pearl, which Meghan was set to executive produce as part of her and Prince Harry’s $100 million Netflix deal, bore striking similarities to her original work. Elliott’s Pearl Power books, published between 2014 and 2016, follow a young girl who champions feminism and empowerment—much like the concept behind Meghan’s now-shelved series.
“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, created seven years earlier,” Elliott said.
While she stopped short of accusing Meghan or her team of deliberate plagiarism, Elliott said the similarities were “too great to ignore.” She also expressed frustration that neither Netflix nor Meghan’s Archewell Foundation acknowledged her attempts to raise the issue.
“What saddened me most is that, having brought the similarities between my Pearl and Meghan’s Pearl to the attention of Netflix and Archewell, my objection was never acknowledged,” she said. “I would have loved to have contributed and collaborated.”
The show Pearl was announced in 2021 as a flagship project highlighting a young girl’s journey to empowerment through stories of influential women in history. However, it was quietly dropped within a year, and all references to it were later removed from Archewell’s website.
Elliott revealed she had already begun developing her Pearl Power series for television in 2019—two years before Meghan’s project was made public.
The legal notice has added to Meghan’s growing challenges in the media space, raising fresh questions about originality and the protection of creative work within the industry.
