After struggling to find their footing in Hollywood, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle seemed to finally hit their stride in late 2025. Meghan made a splashy Fashion Week debut in October at Balenciaga’s Spring/Summer 2026 runway show, positioning herself as a formidable player in the lifestyle space six months after launching her As Ever line of jams and teas. She landed the cover of Harper’s Bazaar’s winter issue, and in December, it was announced that the couple’s Archewell Productions would produce the film adaptation of the bestselling book The Wedding Date for Netflix.
Then the chips started to fall. Multiple outlets reported in January that Meghan’s lifestyle series, With Love, Meghan, wasn’t being renewed for a third season, and in early March, Us Weekly confirmed that Netflix had ended its partnership with her As Ever brand. At the time, an insider told Us the streamer had “cut ties” with Meghan because her show was “not performing well.” (Harry and Meghan signed a $100 million deal with Netflix in 2020; it was downgraded to a first-look deal in July 2025.)
In mid-March, Variety published a bombshell report claiming Harry and Meghan had a falling out with Netflix, with low ratings and poor communication factoring into the demise of the partnership. A spokesperson for the couple denied the accusations, and Netflix exec Bela Bajaria told Variety that Archewell “has been a thoughtful and collaborative partner.”
Now it seems Harry and Meghan are back to square one, with a few projects in the works (in addition to The Wedding Date, they’re working on an adaptation of the romance novel Meet Me at the Lake and a scripted series about polo) — but no clear path forward. “The main issue is they haven’t made the right decisions creatively,” says a source. “In Hollywood, you only get so many chances to make mistakes.”
The Variety article claimed interpersonal and professional issues plagued the relationship between the Sussexes and Netflix. Sources said Meghan would often “talk over” or “recast” Harry’s thoughts in meetings (Harry called the assertion “categorically false” in a statement to Variety), and would “disappear” for long stretches during video meetings, with Netflix’s marketing team later being informed Meghan had been “offended by something that was said.” Meghan’s lawyer, Michael J. Kump, said the duchess, who shares son Archie, 6, and daughter Lilibet, 4, with Harry, is a typical work-from-home parent who “often encounters children who enter the space unexpectedly during a meeting.”
The outlet also claimed Harry and Meghan’s “bedside manner has ruffled feathers” and that Netflix was not informed the couple had planned their bombshell 2021 CBS interview prior to its airing. There was also said to be tension over Harry’s 2023 tell-all, Spare, overshadowing Netflix’s Harry & Meghan docuseries. (A Sussex spokesperson called the claims “categorically false” and “untrue,” and at a Netflix event on March 18, Bajaria said, “don’t believe whatever you read” when asked about the Variety story.)
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David E. Johnson of Strategic Vision PR says there were “consistent reports of creative differences, high expectations, and challenges in execution” when it came to Harry and Meghan’s Netflix deal. Former media exec Travis Pomposello adds: “There was a gap between what was expected and what was delivered. Harry and Meghan still bring attention,” he adds, “but the bigger question is whether that attention leads to lasting shows, not just launch-day buzz.”
Harry and Meghan are trying to look at the bright side. According to the source, the couple have wanted “more creative freedom… and now they can partner with various streamers and networks depending on who buys their projects.” A second source close to the Sussexes underscores that the first-look deal with the streamer is “still very active,” with various projects in development and With Love, Meghan, set to return as a seasonal special. The source adds that Netflix still has an office space on the lot for Archewell employees.
The first source says it’s “business as usual” for the Sussexes. “They look at hit pieces [like the Variety article] as something that comes with the territory. They’re used to it.” However, a third source who has worked with the Sussexes tells Us that Meghan is “disappointed” that her show didn’t truly take off. “She poured so much heart and soul into it and really believed in it,” says the source, adding that Netflix had predicted “much higher” viewership numbers. The second source maintains that With Love, Meghan was “on par” with other lifestyle shows on Netflix.
Experts agree Harry and Meghan have a brand identity issue. Johnson says they lost momentum shortly after they arrived in Hollywood following their 2020 exit from royal life. “They were everywhere. It became nearly impossible to watch the news or scroll online without seeing them. At the same time, their brand lacked [definition]. Were they still royals? Private citizens? Activists? Media entrepreneurs? They never answered that question.”
PR expert Mark Borkowski says the public wants clarity. “When a brand arrives and says, ‘We are many things, all of them meaningful,’ the audience hears: ‘Work it out yourself.’ And they don’t,” he adds. Brand and PR expert Natalie Trice believes that while “there’s still strong public interest in what Meghan does,” her constantly changing stance is problematic. “Is [her thing] jam? Is it fashion? Is it charity work? Yes, you can do it all — but that true passion needs to be clear.” The second source, however, contends that they have various types of projects that speak to their interests.
The first source says their projects to date “have [too] narrow [of an] appeal.” In addition to With Love, Meghan, Netflix also aired Polo, Harry’s 2024 docuseries about his friend Nacho Figueras, and 2023’s Heart of Invictus, a docuseries centered around the Invictus Games, his global sporting event for wounded service members. Their next TV series is set to be about polo, and they just recently sold Cookie Queens — a documentary about Girl Scouts — which they executive-produced.
Meghan has received multiple offers to write her memoir, but “it’s not something she wants to pursue,” the first source says, noting that there’s a demand for content about their private life and the royals, “but those are the types of projects they don’t want to do.” Harry and Meghan’s luxe lifestyle — they own a $14 million Montecito mansion with a spa and 16 bathrooms — isn’t exactly cheap. A memoir is “the one area where Meghan has a lot of financial clout. It would be hugely lucrative for her,” adds the source, noting it may be worth even more than Harry’s.
Harry’s ties to the royal family continue to be a consideration. “Meghan and Harry are cautious about everything they do and say in order to uphold the standards of the monarchy,” says the source. (In November, the couple asked Kris Jenner and her daughter Kim Kardashian to remove photos of them from social media after attending Kris’ 70th birthday party, which coincided with Remembrance Day in the U.K.) “They do the best they can not to upset the royals,” says the source. “Everyone who goes into business with them knows there are confines, but it hurts the creativity of the project. They are adamant about having creative control and final edit… and what they can’t say limits things.” Adds Johnson: “Their repeated public criticisms of the royal family have undercut an association that once gave them value. They need to lean away from it.”
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Christopher Andersen, author of Brothers and Wives, tells Us Harry would have preferred to remain a part-time working royal. “Unfortunately, Queen Elizabeth II strongly believed that you’re either all in or all out,” he explains. Johnson believes that Meghan’s role in Harry’s break from royal life may be weighing down her personal brand. “Fair or not, those perceptions are sticky,” he says. “And in lifestyle and media branding, perception is everything.”
The first source points out that Harry and Meghan’s perceived work failures feel more glaring because they’re such high-profile figures. “Producers don’t have success with every single project. [Harry and Meghan’s misfires] are just magnified.” The third source says that brands still want to work with the couple. “They get many inquiries but have been very selective.” However, that hasn’t stopped them from feeling “a bit unfairly portrayed,” adds the third source. “They are also genuinely concerned about how it impacts their brand and future deals.”
According to the first source, Meghan has “no intention” of distancing herself from As Ever. “She’s expanding it and will be doing more collaborations with existing brands.” In November, As Ever did a pop-up event at Soho House in West Hollywood, and announced on March 17 that it was partnering with luxury flower company High Camp Supply on a collection of artfully arranged blooms. The second source says the brand will be introducing even more “drops” in 2026. “These [types of collabs] have been very well received. The Fell Asleep Here bookmark sold out in just 10 minutes and her Valentine’s Day collaboration with [chocolatier] Compartes sold out in under an hour.”
The third source says Meghan is “super focused on her family, her foundation work, and bigger-picture projects that feel purposeful, not just Hollywood roles.” When she launched As Ever in March 2025, Meghan also unveiled a ShopMy Instagram page, which allowed her to earn commissions through affiliate links featuring her outfits. But by September, she’d shut it down. “She had thought she wanted to do the blog/influencer route but realized that wasn’t for her,” the third source says of Meghan, who previously ran her lifestyle blog The Tig from 2014 to 2017. “It felt too transactional, too much about promoting products instead of creating meaningful content or impact. She wants her work to reflect who she is and what she cares about, not just selling stuff.”
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Borkowski believes Meghan can still build something real. “But that doesn’t mean grand; it means controlled,” he cautions. Harry, however, “sits on something far more combustible — [the] truth,” he notes. “Not the Netflix version, but the raw, slightly uncomfortable, occasionally inconvenient truth. When he’s near that, it works. When he drifts into ‘content,’ he becomes just another voice in a very crowded room of people earnestly explaining things to us.” Pomposello believes Harry’s best course of action is to hone in on “documentaries with a purpose, stories about veterans, mental health and causes where he has real credibility.”
The more straightforward their next moves are, the better. “What would actually cut through now is almost offensively simple,” says Borkowski. “Fewer pronouncements, more specificity and projects that exist because they’re good — not because they’re meaningful.” Adds Johnson: “Harry and Meghan need a full rebrand. They can’t continue trying to be everything to everyone. They have to shift from a narrative rooted in past grievances to one focused on their future — it’s about what they can contribute, not what they left behind.”
For more on Harry and Meghan, watch the exclusive video above and pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly — on newsstands now.
With reporting by Andrea Simpson, Erin Strecker and Amanda Williams
