Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix deal reportedly hinges on producing content, which seems normal

There’s a lot of scrutiny on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle lately, partly because there’s always scrutiny on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. But there’s also scrutiny over their faltering foray into the entertainment industry, which the Wall Street Journal has outright declared a “flop.” A recent Sun report spurred headlines that Netflix had issued the ex-royals an ultimatum over their streaming deal. Yet, truthfully, the inside source makes the situation sound quite run-of-the-mill.

“There’s no question of a headline-grabbing, public parting of the way,” this insider told The Sun, referencing the couple’s recent split with Spotify. “Netflix was pleased to sign Harry and Meghan, and is looking for some great ideas going forward. But the remainder of the deal relies on them producing those good ideas. The deal’s continually under review which is normal for ones of this magnitude.”

Actually having to produce content to get cash seems like a pretty normal way to do business, actually. But The Sun claims the couple have only received half of their reported $100 million contract and will only get the second half by producing “content of real interest.” That’s the tricky part, because although the Harry & Meghan docuseries did quite well for the streamer, the Sussexes have struggled with the follow-up (much like they did at Spotify). Per The Wall Street Journal, several of the couple’s ideas got shot down at Netflix, and their deal is unlikely to be renewed when it’s up in 2025.

Of course, that’s all the unofficial word from anonymous insiders. The official party line is that Harry & Meghan was Netflix’s biggest documentary debut, and “We’ll continue to work together on a number of projects,” a spokesperson for the streamer told WSJ.

The chatter beyond that scope has been less kind. Spotify exec and podcaster Bill Simmons called the duo “fucking grifters” upon their exodus from the audio platform. (As an aside: Markle apparently wrote a personal letter to Taylor Swift to have her on her Archetypes podcast, but Swift declined through a representative, per WSJ.) “Turns out Meghan Markle was not a great audio talent, or necessarily any kind of talent,” UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer snarked to Semafor.

Say what you will about streamers, but it’s probably a good precedent to set that people who get paid to create things create the things they’re getting paid for. In fact, we highly recommend that Netflix pay people fairly for things they create!