Meghan Markle’s now-canceled Netflix series Pearl has come under fire from British author Mel Elliott, who claims that the proposed children’s show bore significant resemblances to her own Pearl Power book series. Elliott told The Daily Mail that the similarities between the two projects were “too great to ignore,” adding that she was disappointed by the apparent overlap, especially given Meghan’s advocacy for female empowerment.
Pearl was a series created by Meghan and set to be executive produced by the Duchess of Sussex alongside David Furnish. It focused on a young girl who learns to embrace her power and finds inspiration from influential women throughout history. Elliott’s Pearl Power, a series she began working on in 2018, centered on female empowerment but did not initially feature historical figures. Elliott had plans to adapt Pearl Power into an animated series, even creating test animations featuring legendary figures like tennis icon Billie Jean King.
Elliott expressed her disappointment in Meghan, a known feminist, for the similarities. “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,” she said, though she stopped short of directly accusing Meghan or her team of plagiarism.
Elliott reportedly reached out multiple times to both Meghan’s Archewell Foundation and Netflix, sending letters in 2021 and 2022 but received no response. In May 2022, Netflix announced that Pearl had been canceled as part of a broader scaling back of animated projects. Elliott, however, expressed that her main desire was not for the show to be canceled but for acknowledgment and the opportunity to collaborate.
Though Elliott is pleased that Pearl was ultimately dropped, she still feels the sting of not being recognized for her work. “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 added.
Despite her health struggles, including a breast cancer diagnosis in 2019, Elliott has continued to advocate for recognition of her work, which she considers a deeply personal project. With the cancelation of Pearl, Elliott now worries that any future iterations of Pearl Power will appear to be derivative of Meghan’s show.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex signed a reported $100 million deal with Netflix in 2020, which has resulted in projects like With Love, Meghan, Harry & Meghan docuseries, and other content.
