Meghan Markle Accused of Plagiarizing Children’s Books

The similarities are too great to call it an unfortunate coincidence. Meghan Markle is once again slapped with plagiarism accusations, this time from a British author who wrote the children’s book series, Pearl Power. The author spoke up and said how the similarities between her work and the canceled Netflix show are “too great for me to ignore.” 

Meghan Markle announced in 2021 alongside David Furnish, Elton John's husband, a collaboration with Netflix to produce an animated series, Pearl. The Daily Mail reported that the animated series about a little girl who “learns to step into her power and finds inspiration from influential women throughout history” is one of the reasons for the Duke and Duchess’ $100 million deal with Netflix in 2020. Netflix cancelled the show, and Markle removed all posts about the show from Archewell, her production company.

The streaming platform’s decision to kill the project might be tied to a legal letter from Mel Elliott, author of the Pearl Power children’s book series, who claimed it infringed on her copyright. 

Elliott told the publication, “Meghan is a feminist who sticks up for other women, so I was disappointed and confused to see how similar Netflix's proposed show Pearl was to my own Pearl Power who had been created seven years earlier.” She also acknowledged that she can’t know for sure if Markle or anyone from her team had seen her work and had “been inspired by it” but that she simply can’t ignore the similarities.  

The author and illustrator also shared that she did not hear back from Netflix and Archewell after raising the issue saying, “My objection was never acknowledged - neither Netflix nor Archewell responded to me when I would have loved to have contributed and collaborated.” 

In 2018, Elliott planned to turn the book series into an animated series. The test episode is still up on her Facebook page. Pearl’s first adventure was to be with tennis legend Billie Jean King, who also publicly endorsed the animated project. 

Earlier this year, Markle was also involved in a trademark dispute with a clothing brand in New York, after she changed the name of her lifestyle brand, American Riviera to As Ever. The brand’s logo also bore a striking resemblance to a municipality in Spain’s coat of arms, which the town’s been using since 1370.