An acclaimed British children’s author has become the latest person to go public with a claim that Meghan Markle used another person’s work and ideas in a creative endeavor without giving proper credit.
Author and illustrator Mel Elliott revealed over the weekend that her series of Pearl Power children’s books may have offered more than inspiration for a Netflix project that Meghan planned to undertake, as part of her and Prince Harry’s $100 million production deal with the streaming giant, according to a Daily Mail report.
Elliott said she went as far as to have her legal team send letters to the Duchess of Sussex, via her Archewell production company, raising concerns about the “striking similarities” between her three books about a little girl named Pearl Power and “Pearl,” an animated series about another little girl that the duchess planned to produce with Sir Elton John’s husband David Furnish.
This image released by Netflix shows Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, in a scene from “With Love, Meghan.” (Netflix via AP)
In 2021, Meghan and her Archewell production company announced with great fanfare that they were “partnering” with Netflix to produce “Pearl,” which follows a girl, “as she learns to step into her power and finds inspiration from influential women throughout history.”
Meghan said she would be executive producer, and the first episode would show Pearl meeting tennis legend Billie Jean King, who publicly endorsed the project.
But then “Pearl” was quietly scrapped, scrubbed from the Archewell website and never publicly spoken of again, the Daily Beast’s European editor wrote. At the time, the official line was that Netflix was “moving away from animation.”
Elliott can’t say for sure, but she believes her legal letter might have something to do with “Pearl” getting the ax.
She told the Daily Mail: “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’s creation is a girl who becomes involved in ordinary situations that allow her challenge gender stereotyping or to get to know a new friend who has two same-sex parents.
Prior to Meghan’s Netflix announcement, Elliott also had been in talks to turn her Pearl Power books into an animated TV series — in which her protagonist also would go on adventures and meet famous women, the Dailly Mail reported. A test episode was made. It, too, featured Billie Jean King and was publicly visible on Elliott’s website and social media channels, the Daily Mail said.
“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,” Elliott continued.
“The world of arts and media are very competitive and I’m afraid it’s quite common for powerful people to rip off the work of less well-known creatives — although I’m not saying that’s what happened here,” Elliott also said.
Elliott said she would have been happy for Meghan to go forward with her Netflix animated series, but she would have liked to contribute to the project — and get credit, of course.
“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,” Elliott told the Daily Mail.
Elliott said she’s speaking out now out of concern that she would be accused of copying Meghan’s Netflix show if she were to revisit her Pearl Power character in another book or media project.
Meanwhile, as the Daily Beast’s Sykes wrote, Elliott’s issues with Meghan’s series represent the latest “controversy over the originality” in her “creative empire.”
The California-based duchess, who recently launched her Netflix lifestyle show and released her As Ever line of jams and other food products, has “championed authenticity and originality as the cornerstones of her personal brand,” Sykes wrote.
Yet, she has faced multiple accusations in recent months of “repackaging” other people’s work and ideas and not giving credit, Sykes added.
Meghan’s lifestyle brand, As Ever, seemed to borrow both its name and aesthetic from an existing New York-based clothing shop. Then, the mayor of a small town on the Spanish island of Mallorca publicly complained that the logo for Meghan’s As Ever brand was strikingly similar to the coat of arms of her own community.
Even the title and concept for Meghan’s new podcast, “Confessions of a Female Founder” may not be so original, according to Sykes. There’s a YouTube channel called “Confessions of a Female Founder and other podcasts called “Confessions of a CEO” and “Confessions of a Founder.” The YouTuber, Kady Méite, actually suggested that Meghan’s use of the same title as her show was “a coincidence.”
But Sykes wrote that all these coincidences, “taken together,” risk undermining Meghan’s carefully curated image “as a creative force for good.”
“For someone who frequently speaks about values like authenticity, empowerment, and lifting up women’s voices, it all feels increasingly off-brand,” Sykes said, especially because she often seems to be repackaging the ideas and aesthetics of women “who have been quietly working in their fields for years without the benefit of royal fame or Netflix deals.”
“The optics are not great,” Sykes said.
