Meghan Markle accused of ripping off children’s book series for animated Netflix show

An author has accused the Duchess of Sussex of ripping off her children’s book for a Netflix animated series.

Meghan Markle is in a copycat crisis.

The Duchess of Sussex, 43, is facing plagiarism claims from British children’s author Mel Elliott.

Elliott told the Daily Mail Friday that she sent legal letters to Markle over Markle’s cancelled animated Netflix show ‘Pearl’ bearing “striking similarities” to Elliott’s Pearl Power books.

“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,” Elliott told the outlet.

“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,” the author added.

Meghan Markle was set to produce an animated series for Netflix, until it was later axed.

British children’s author Mel Elliott penned the 'Pearl Power' books.

As part of Markle and Prince Harry’s $US100 million deal with Netflix, ‘Pearl’ was announced in development at the streamer in July 2021, with Markle serving as an executive producer alongside Elton John’s husband, David Furnish.

The series was said to be about a 12-year-old girl who “learns to step into her power and finds inspiration from influential women throughout history.”

But ‘Pearl’ ended up being scrapped as Netflix claimed at the time they were no longer prioritising animation.

Elliott, who published her Pearl Power books in 2014, 2015 and 2018 and was in discussions to adapt the franchise into a TV series involving tennis icon Billie Jean King in 2019, claimed her legal team sent a formal letter to Markle’s camp in 2021 alleging possible infringement of her copyright.

“The similarities between your proposed animation series and my client’s work appear to be too many and too striking to be mere coincidence,” the letter read, per the Daily Mail.

Elliott claimed she sent two more letters to Markle’s Archewell Productions and Netflix, but she never heard back.

“What saddened me most is that my objection was never acknowledged — neither Netflix nor Archewell responded to me when I would have loved to have contributed and collaborated,” Elliott said.

The author also clarified that she wasn’t trying to get Markle’s show cancelled, but she wanted to be “acknowledged or invited to work as a collaborator on the series”.

“Pearl was my dream project and now, annoyingly, if I reprise my own creation, it’s going to look like I have copied the idea from someone else,” she explained.

The Sussexes have released several projects with Netflix, starting with their five-part Harry & Meghan docuseries in 2022, where the couple opened up about their decision to abandon their lives as working royals.

Meghan’s latest Netflix series, With Love, Meghan, dropped in March. Picture: Supplied

That was followed by Heart of Invictus, a documentary following athletes preparing for the Harry-founded Invictus Games, which aired in August 2023. The following year, Harry released his Polo documentary which he was barely featured in.

Most recently, Markle came out with her eight-part With Love, Meghan lifestyle series that got a frosty reception from critics and was even accused of being a ripoff of Pamela Anderson’s own cooking show.

The As Ever founder also dealt with copying claims after she rebranded her lifestyle business venture to the same name as an independent NYC clothing brand. A Spanish town then accused her of copying their traditional coat of arms for As Ever’s new logo.

This story originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission