Meghan Markle is in a copycat disaster.
The Duchess of Sussex, 43, is going through plagiarism claims from British kids’s creator Mel Elliott.
Elliott advised the Each day Mail Friday that she despatched authorized letters to Markle over Markle’s cancelled animated Netflix present “Pearl” bearing “striking similarities” to Elliott’s “Pearl Power” books.
“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,’ who had been created seven years earlier,” Elliott advised the outlet.
“Of course, I can’t know if anyone on her team had seen it and been inspired by it, but the similarities were too great for me to ignore,” the creator added.
As a part of Markle and Prince Harry’s $100 million take care of Netflix, “Pearl” was introduced in improvement on the streamer in July 2021, with Markle serving as an govt producer alongside Elton John’s husband, David Furnish.
The collection was stated to be a few 12-year-old lady who “learns to step into her power and finds inspiration from influential women throughout history.”
However “Pearl” ended up being scrapped as Netflix claimed on the time they have been not prioritizing animation.
Elliott, who printed her “Pearl Power” books in 2014, 2015 and 2018 and was in discussions to adapt the franchise right into a TV collection involving tennis icon Billie Jean King in 2019, claimed her authorized crew despatched a proper letter to Markle’s camp in 2021 alleging potential infringement of her copyright.
“The similarities between your proposed animation series and my client’s work appear to be too many and too striking to be mere coincidence,” the letter learn, per the Each day Mail.
Elliott claimed she despatched two extra letters to Markle’s Archewell Productions and Netflix, however she by no means heard again.
“What saddened me most is that my objection was never acknowledged — neither Netflix nor Archewell responded to me when I would have loved to have contributed and collaborated,” Elliott stated.
The creator additionally clarified that she wasn’t making an attempt to get Markle’s present canceled, however she wished to be “acknowledged or invited to work as a collaborator on the series.”
“Pearl was my dream project and now, annoyingly, if I reprise my own creation, it’s going to look like I have copied the idea from someone else,” she defined.
The Put up has reached out to reps for Markle and Netflix.
The Sussexes have launched a number of tasks with Netflix, beginning with their five-part “Harry & Meghan” docuseries in 2022, the place the couple opened up about their choice to desert their lives as working royals.
That was adopted by “Heart of Invictus,” a documentary following athletes getting ready for the Harry-founded Invictus Video games, which aired in August 2023. The next 12 months, Harry launched his “Polo” documentary which he was barely featured in.
Most just lately, Markle got here out together with her eight-part “With Love, Meghan” way of life collection that received a frosty reception from critics and was even accused of being a ripoff of Pamela Anderson’s personal cooking present.
The As Ever founder additionally handled copying claims after she rebranded her way of life enterprise enterprise to the identical title as an impartial NYC clothes model. A Spanish city then accused her of copying their conventional coat of arms for As Ever’s new brand.
