Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s decision to pay up to £3million for the film rights to a novel with parallels to the Prince after the death of his mother is a desperate and expensive attempt to try to resurrect their media careers, it was claimed today.
PR guru Mark Borkowski believes the Sussexes have overpaid to make Meet Me At The Lake into a Netflix movie because ‘they have zero track record in drama or producing anything of consequence’.
Penguin Random House, the publishers of Harry’s global bestseller Spare, may even have helped do the deal with Archewell Productions because Penguin also put out Meet Me At The Lake, he said.
Author Carley Fortune, who is a big fan of Meghan’s, calls her book a ‘love letter to Toronto’ – where Meghan filmed Suits and fell head over heels for Harry. Ms Markle could have a personal connection with Ms Fortune, who worked as a journalist in the city for many years.
The romantic novel has a plotline that echoes the couple’s own story. It contains a character whose parent dies in a car crash and then leans on drink and drugs. It also deals with themes such as mental health and post-natal depression.
Mark Borkowski told MailOnline that he believes that buying the film rights is a ‘playbook’ attempt to resurrect their media careers after multiple deals collapsed and business interests flopped. ‘They are so far off the radar’, he said.
He believes that pinning their career revival hopes on a romance novel with echoes of Harry’s own life is ‘playbook stuff’. He said: ‘They must have overpaid for the rights. It’s a best seller so why would the rights holders sell it to Meghan and Harry when they have zero track record in drama or producing anything of consequence?’.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during an official photocall to announce the engagement. The couple are said to have paid £3million for the rights to a book with parallels to their romance
Author Carley Fortune with the cover of her NYT bestseller
Meet Me At The Lake is the New York Times bestselling author’s second novel, about two people who fall in love after a chance encounter several years after they first met
Mr Borkowski says the timing of the announcement, with lots of negativity around the couple, makes him ‘suspect there is more to this than meets the eye’.
He said: ‘They need to do something. According to Tom Bower they fell out with the Beckhams. Harry was forced to cold shoulder Becks because of Meghan’s position on Victoria’.
MailOnline has asked Penguin Random House to comment.
The Sussexes reportedly stumped up £3million for Ms Fortune’s chicklit book. It will be Harry and actress Meghan’s first attempt at producing a fiction hit as part of their multimillion-pound Netflix deal which is reportedly under threat – and described as a ‘Hollywood-or-bust’ decision.
The author of the novel bought by Harry and Meghan for an estimated £3million is a fan of the Sussexes and was left in tears watching their wedding in 2018.
Carley Fortune, a Canadian writer and journalist based in Toronto, woke up at 4am to watch the royal wedding at St George’s Chapel in Windsor as the Sussexes tied the knot in a ceremony broadcast to millions around the world.
After seeing the duchess in her wedding gown designed by Clare Waight Keller, she tweeted: ‘Meghan Markle is pulling up to the chapel and I am feeling very teary! Maybe it’s the 4am start.’
The duke and duchess have reportedly bought the rights to Fortune’s second novel Meet Me At The Lake – a romance about two people who meet by chance at two different stages of their lives – to produce a televised adaptation for Netflix.
Carley is a journalist and author. Her fans have said they hope her novel remains set in Canada and not moved to the US when it makes it to the big screen
Ms Fortune’s Meet Me at the Lake topped The New York Times’ Paperback Trade Fiction bestsellers list when it was released in May
On Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding day, Carley revealed she’d woken up at 4am to watch the ceremony on TV and said it had left her ‘teary’
The novel, which is set in the lakes of Ontario and the city of Toronto, is said to have captured the Sussexes’ imaginations – perhaps due to Meghan’s connection to the Canadian city, which is where she lived when she was filming Suits.
An insider told the Sun: ‘The themes of the book gripped the couple and it was chosen for their first adaptation with Netflix.’
The project comes after the couple lost their reported £18million deal with Spotify after one series of Meghan’s podcast Archetypes.
Although Fortune has not yet commented on the reported deal, she will likely be pleased to have handed over the rights to the duke and duchess.
The author and mother-of-two has revealed she is a fan of Suits, and previously shared on Twitter that she was binge-watching the legal drama, which was Meghan’s big break in the entertainment industry.
Shortly before Harry and Meghan tied the knot, Fortune tweeted: ‘I’m binging my way through Suits. I felt a bit sheepish about it at first but I’ve decided to own my fandom. SUITS ROCKS, YOU GUYS! (I think that Meghan Markle is going places).’
Some PR experts have questioned why the novel, which is the second project from the New York Times bestselling author, has been sold to the Sussexes when it could have gone to more experienced producers. However Fortune’s apparent fondness for the couple may explain the decision.
Carley Fortune, author of Meet Me At The Lake, is a fan of the Sussexes
Despite knowing that royal life was not ‘a world they wanted for their family’, as a friend has claimed, Harry and Meghan have faced some hard realities since they left to bring up their children away from the limelight of the Firm.
Having signed major multi-million pound deals with giants Netflix and Spotify, as well as Harry’s own book deal, they have since faced hurdles including the loss of the Spotify partnership.
Meghan hosted a series of her Archetype podcast on the platform, but it has not been renewed by the streaming service and the couple announced in June they had ‘mutually’ agreed to part ways. They have also struggled to break into Hollywood, despite Meghan’s background as an actress in Suits.
Although their docuseries Harry and Meghan was watched extensively all over the world, experts say their brand is a tricky one to sell, due to the drama surrounding them raising clients’ expectations.
But Harry is currently working on a series based around the Invictus Games, which he set up as an opportunity for ex-service people to compete in sports in a similar way to the Paralympics or Commonwealth games. Heart of Invictus is expected to be released on Netflix later this year.
