Meghan Markle has been embroiled in a plagiarism dispute after a British creator described “striking similarities” between her personal books and a proposal by Markle for a kids’s TV present.
Markle was listed as one of many government producers of Netflix’s animated sequence Pearl, introduced in July 2021 as a part of the reported $100million improvement deal between the streamer and Markle and husband Prince Harry, following their transfer to the US in 2020.
In the blurb for the mission, Pearl was described because the story of a younger lady who learns to step into her energy and finds inspiration from influential girls all through historical past.”
The mission was binned earlier than improvement, however now The Daily Mail newspaper studies that UK creator Mel Elliott claims she despatched a authorized letter to Archewell Productions, the corporate behind Markle and Prince Harry’s TV initiatives, and to Netflix, alleging attainable infringement of her copyright.
Elliott is the creator of a sequence of Pearl Power books, which debuted in 2014. The third guide within the sequence was printed in 2016 and translated into a number of languages. Elliott advised The Daily Mail:
“Meghan is a feminist who sticks up for different girls, so I used to be disillusioned and confused to see how related Netflix’s proposed present Pearl was to my very own Pearl Power, who had been created seven years earlier.
“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 advised the newspaper she despatched two letters, however didn’t obtain reply or acknowledgement. The Sun newspaper reported that it had reached out to each Netflix and Archewell Productions for remark.