Meghan Markle's new controversy: Duchess of Sussex accused of copying British author’s work for TV show — Here’s what happened

Looks like Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, is controversy's favourite child. A report by The Daily Mail reveals that Meghan was drawn into a new plagiarism controversy after a British author sent her a legal notice highlighting "striking similarities" between Meghan’s animated TV project 'Pearl' (which later got shelved) and her own children's books.
For the unversed, in July 2021, Meghan Markle had announced her project 'Pearl'-- an animated series about a young girl who finds empowerment through lessons from influential women in history. It was one of the main projects under the $100 million deal signed by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, with Netflix. Meghan was credited as Executive Producer alongside David Furnish for the feminist children's show. However, in less than a year, the show was quietly dropped and Meghan's Archewell Productions removed all references about it from its official website.
Now, British children's author and illustrator Mel Elliott has disclosed to The Daily Mail that she had sent a legal letter to Meghan’s production company, Archewell, suggesting that the proposed show was very similar to her own children's book series based on a character named Pearl Power. It is noted that Elliott had already written and published three 'Pearl Power' books by the time Meghan had announced her show back in 2021. This lead to Elliott feeling "disappointed and confused" by the similarities.

"I can't know if anyone on her team had seen my work, but the similarities were too great to ignore," Mel told The Daily Mail. She added that despite reaching out formally to Meghan Markle's production company Archewell — and sending two personal follow-up letters — she never received a response from Netflix or Archewell.
Mel’s lawyers had also warned of potential copyright infringement in 2021. Still, no action was taken. Eventually, in May 2022, Meghan's feminist TV show for children titled 'Pearl' was scrapped as a part of Netflix’s broader cutbacks.
Talking about why she is speaking up about the striking similarities of her book series and Meghan's now-shelved TV show, Mel further said that she initially remained silent out of fear of online trolling. However, seeing recurring concerns over Meghan's projects prompted her to finally speak out to The Daily Mail.

It is noted that isn't the first time Meghan's projects have faced accusations of bearing strong similarities with pre-existing works by others. For instance: Earlier this year, fans drew parallels between Meghan’s lifestyle show 'With Love, Meghan' and Pamela Anderson’s earlier show 'Cooking with Love' — but Anderson’s team had brushed off concerns. Similarly, after Meghan relaunched her lifestyle brand as 'As Ever' and released its logo, it was said to be similar to a Spanish town’s historic coat of arms! And, more recently, her new podcast 'Confessions of a Female Founder' is said to resemble an existing podcast of the same name.