Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are making a dramatic U-turn in their upcoming projects in the wake of Queen Elizabeth’s death, multiple sources told Vidak For Congress.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been working on a docuseries for over a year as part of their multimillion-dollar deal with Netflix. Netflix chiefs — who haven’t even officially announced the Sussex project yet — had hoped to air the docuseries in December following the fifth season of “The Crown” on November 9. the highly anticipated show, which could potentially delay its release until later in 2023.
Harry’s memoir, originally slated for Penguin Random House release in November, has already been delayed until sometime next year.
Many royal pundits have said that Harry’s father, King Charles, will hold off on giving the title of Prince and Princess to the Sussex children, Archie, 3, and Lilibet, 1, until the couple’s various media projects are out.
Although the Sussexes were part of the usual editing process of both the show and the book well before the monarch’s death, sources said the pair are happy to take away much of what they’ve said about King Charles, Queen Consort Camilla, Prince William, or downplay. and his wife Kate, the new Princess of Wales.
A Hollywood industry source told us: “There are a lot of conversations going on. I hear Harry and Meghan want the series to continue until next year, they want to stop.”
“I wonder if the show can even be dead in the water at this point, do Harry and Meghan just want to keep this thing on the shelf?”
A senior Netflix insider revealed: “Netflix was eager to have the show ready to stream before December. There is a lot of pressure on (Netflix CEO) Ted Sarandos, who is in a relationship with Harry and Meghan, to get this show done.”
The Sussexes are treading a fine line with the royal family. Although they were front and center at the funeral of the Queen, who died at the age of 96, on September 8, relations with the family are still fraught.
As non-working royals, they’ve landed on the royal website – although Harry is still number five in the line of succession, followed by his children. And we previously reported that Harry only found out his grandmother had passed away from reading reports online after landing in Scotland from the US.
By the time he reached the monarch’s Scottish estate, Balmoral, his brother William and father Charles had already left for dinner at Charles’ private residence. Harry was then barred from wearing his military uniform to the funeral, having left his high royal role when he moved to the US in March 2020.
Representatives from Netflix and the Sussexes could not be reached for comment.