Royals

A Netflix Deal, a $15 Million Memoir, and Other Likelihoods of Harry and Meghan’s Post-Royal Business Model

Hollywood and publishing sources say Megxit can definitely be monetized. But “the idea that there’s an Obama analog here strikes me as a real stretch,” says one.

By Joe Pompeo

January 22, 2020

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It happened sometime within the past couple of days. In a development that shook the very foundations of the royal-celebrity-media axis, the second digit on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Instagram account, @sussexroyal, changed from a zero to a one, nudging the duke and duchess into the 11 million-follower zone. Just a few weeks ago, the uptick may have gone mostly unnoticed, but in the news cycle that has exploded in the wake of Harry and Meghan’s partial defection from the royal household, it was a moment that warranted breathless media coverage, including one of those eyeball devouring Daily Mail stories with a million photos and subheads. What made it particularly newsy was that @sussexroyal, which has become the definitive platform for Harry and Meghan’s messaging since its creation last April, has now caught up with @kensingtonroyal, the official Instagram account of Prince William and Kate Middleton. As my colleague Kenzie Bryant noted, “In less than a year, the Sussexes made up the difference, plus a few mil. They are now tied for the most followers for a British royal account.”

Beyond the obvious sibling rivalry, of course, the Instagram increase was also a sign of the intense interest Harry and Meghan have managed to generate, not just since going rogue a couple of weeks ago, but in the past year overall. There’s a combination of factors at play: their reportedly tumultuous integration into the royal apparatus; their emotional and intensifying war with the tabloid press; the extent to which they are effectively leveraging their worldwide celebrity to disrupt the monarchy, to advocate for causes close to their heart—climate change, HIV, mental health—and, above all, to grab their own destiny by the reins.

Part of the Sussexes' break with the family has to do with their stated goal of financial independence. Aside from paying back the $3.1 million worth of renovations they made to Frogmore Cottage, a reimbursement that is part of an exit package brokered with Queen Elizabeth, they have a wildly expensive lifestyle. (Private jets, tabloid lawsuits, etc.) And there’s no shortage of charities salivating to accept their bequests, such as those that have previously benefited from Harry and Meghan’s royal largesse. (Smart Works, Hubb Community Kitchen, Halo Trust.)

But how exactly do a now-Canada-dwelling former television actor and a guy who was born with a sapphire-encrusted spoon in his mouth make money in the modern economy? The current thinking is that Harry and Meghan are poised to replicate the Obama playbook, with the potential to build out a media portfolio similar to the one that has netted tens of millions of dollars for the former first couple through publishing contracts, stadium tours, and production deals with streaming-entertainment titans like Netflix and Spotify. As one London-based talent agent suggested this week to the Associated Press, “They are 100% more valuable than the Obamas. The Obamas aren’t royal. They are.”

Reports that the Obamas were advising Harry and Meghan turned out to be hogwash. But the tea leaves do seem to suggest ambition in the media space. Meghan is an erstwhile lifestyle blogger who knows her way around Hollywood, after all, and Harry has already dipped his toe in the water with a mental health documentary series he is coexecutive-producing with Oprah Winfrey. There was that video of Harry schmoozing with Disney chief Bob Iger, and Ted Sarandos seemed to open the door during a recent event in Los Angeles. Asked if Netflix would be interested in doing something with the couple, Sarandos told the Press Association news agency, “Who wouldn’t be interested? Yes, sure.”

“There really only is one choice for them given the global reach of the royals,” said media analyst Rich Greenfield of LightShed Partners. “It has to be Netflix. Everyone else just doesn’t make sense.” In other words, Greenfield explained, none of the other streaming players that would be obvious contenders—never mind Meghan's supposedly forthcoming voiceover work for Disney—have the international footprint and genre flexibility that Netflix does. “If I think about Meghan and Harry’s global appeal,” Greenfield continued, “which mirrors a show like The Crown, I literally think there’s only one place on planet Earth you’d want to be if you wanted to maximize your celebrity. They’re a global franchise, and there’s just not a lot of ways to truly penetrate the global reach of the crown, pun intended, other than Netflix.”

Harry and Meghan may choose to start a little smaller—say, with a book or two. Publishing sources put the likely price tag of a Harry memoir in the ballpark of $15 million, worldwide rights. “I think it would have to be a memoir by him,” a senior industry source told me, “since writing it together would probably be unwieldy and would look tacky and opportunistic. And there might not be enough there yet for a memoir by her, as much as people want to hear from her.”

After the hypothetical best seller, what comes next, and what could it look like? ”I literally have no idea,” said Greenfield. “But I have to believe that leveraging their global visibility into some form of production entity would make a tremendous amount of sense, and the Obamas have kind of blazed the trail both on the video and the audio side.”

Part of the reason that the Obama comparison has made sense to people is that Harry and Meghan have made much of their social media engagement, especially in comparison with their stodgy relatives. But it’s worth remembering that the Obamas have a brand built on more than pageantry and a few centuries of bloody history. “The idea that there’s an Obama analog here strikes me as a real stretch,” said a high-level Hollywood source. “Mrs. Obama is a proven public intellectual who had a highly deserved reputation, as first lady, for being an advocate on causes that are important to her, and also for being an excellent communicator of those things. Then you go to the 44th president, who is just a world-class rock star, who knows as much about myriad different things as anybody on the public stage. They’re both just filled with knowledge and the ability to communicate. With the greatest respect to Harry and Meghan, what do they know about anything?”

I countered that we’re in the midst of content gold rush, and that Harry and Meghan would be a valuable get for any of the platforms that are out there fighting for eyes and ears. My source had a response to that point too. “The next question is, can it be monetized in some way? The answer to that is, probably. But just because something can be monetized doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.”

Joe Pompeo

Senior Media Correspondent