Meghan Markle is facing fresh accusations of plagiarism after a British TV presenter claimed to have evidence suggesting she copied the concept for her now-cancelled Netflix animated series Pearl.
GB News host Ben Leo made the explosive revelation during a recent broadcast, stating he has held onto emails for years that could support allegations made by a children’s author, Meg Elliott. Elliott, according to Leo, believes the Duchess of Sussex lifted key ideas from her book Pearl Power for the Netflix project.
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“I knew about this story a couple of years ago, and I’ve been sitting on the emails, I think probably from the same author,” Leo disclosed live on air. The host elaborated further, saying, “I have emails from somebody who sent me a plan of her idea for film transcripts, the scripts, and everything, which looked very, very similar to Pearl. This lady sent it to Meghan and her team at Archewell and never heard back.
And then suddenly the sort of brief for Pearl came out and this lady who I spoke to said, ‘goodness me, that’s pretty uncanny.’” Elliott’s legal team reportedly sent letters to Meghan in 2021, a full year before Netflix cancelled Pearl as part of broader programming cutbacks. While no lawsuit has been filed publicly, the letters suggest serious concern over potential intellectual property infringement.
Leo admitted he had refrained from reporting on the claims earlier because the author was reluctant to go public. “The lady didn’t want to do the story. Basically, she didn’t want to upset Meghan, didn’t want to upset Archewell, and it’s just been sitting in my inbox for a couple of years, but I’ve got the transcripts still – maybe we can regurgitate it,” he said.
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Pearl, which was announced in 2021, was set to follow a 12-year-old girl inspired by influential women in history. It was one of several projects under Meghan and Prince Harry’s Archewell Productions deal with Netflix. However, the show was shelved in 2022 amid broader cost-cutting measures by the streaming giant.
Representatives for Meghan Markle and Archewell have yet to respond publicly to the plagiarism claims. As of now, no formal legal action appears to be underway. The controversy adds to a growing list of public challenges for the Duchess, whose business ventures and media projects have faced increased scrutiny since she and Prince Harry stepped down as senior members of the royal family.
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