Harry and Meghan will produce Netflix film after buying rights to £3m novel about parent dying in car crash
HARRY and Meghan have snapped up the rights to film a best-selling book in a Hollywood-or-bust move after the collapse of their Spotify deal.
Their first off-camera-only venture for Netflix marks a change in direction away from their personal documentaries into fiction production.
The major shift by the US-based royal couple comes amid reports their star is waning in America after Spotify dropped them.
Experts estimate it may have cost up to £3million for the romantic novel Meet Me At The Lake by former journalist turned author Carley Fortune.
It is a “love story” about a couple who meet in their 30s with echoes of the Duke and Duchess’s real-life relationship.
The novel — which shifted a whopping 37,000 copies in the first week of its release in May alone — deals with themes including childhood trauma over losing a parent in a car crash, mental health and post-natal depression.
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It also has “steamy sex scenes” and “drug use” and is set near Toronto in Canada — where Meghan lived when she started dating Harry.
Buying the rights to the book is the first major deal the couple have scored since losing their £16million Spotify contract.
It is also the first time Archewell Productions has paid to turn a novel into a fictional drama as part of their Netflix deal reported to be £80million.
We revealed in May they will stop making royal-bashing shows for the streamer because there is “nothing left to say”.
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But the new production has stalled because screenwriters in Hollywood have been on strike for more than three months.
An insider said: “The themes of the book gripped the couple and it was chosen for their first adaptation with Netflix.”
PR guru Mark Borkowski questioned why publishers Penguin Random House sold it to them.
He said: “The rights for this could have cost up to £3million.
“Although if it’s a best-seller, you wouldn’t be handing it to Harry and Meghan.
“There’s some amazing drama producers out there. Why would you give away a prize asset?
Penguin Random House published Harry’s explosive book Spare and it is thought ex-actress Meghan could have a personal connection to the Toronto-based author - which may explain how they have landed the deal.
The pair’s Netflix agreement was also said to be under threat.
They signed it just six months after giving up on their royal duties to set up a new life California.
Harry, 38, has been filming the Heart of Invictus documentary, to be released this month ahead of the games for wounded veterans in Dusseldorf in September.
The couple have also been involved in the Live to Lead series in which they celebrate activists and other world figures, such as Greta Thunberg.
But ex-New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who was the subject in one episode, distanced herself from the Netflix project claiming she was unaware it was a Harry and Meghan production.
She has since joined the Board of Trustees of Prince William’s Earthshot Prize.
Harry was also a producer on Archetypes and Journey Into The Rhino War, while Meghan was lined up to work on animated series Pearl, which was later dropped by Netflix.
A source said of Meet Me at the Lake: “This is their biggest and most significant as producers.”
The Sussexes’ biggest hit was their Netflix docu-series Harry & Meghan, which broke viewing records.
The six-parter included home video shot by the couple and interviews in which they dished the dirt on the Royal Family.
Meghan, 42, was slammed for an over-elaborate curtsy which appeared to mock her first meeting with the late Queen Elizabeth II.
And Harry claimed brother William “screamed and shouted” at him and their father King Charles “lied” during Megxit talks.
But they lost their deal with Spotify this year after releasing just a handful of podcasts.
The Sun also revealed the couple will not front any more TV series or write books about themselves.
Insiders revealed: “That period in their life is over.”
They are now focusing on more scripted fiction and turning the cameras on other characters rather than themselves.
Harry and Meghan have frequently spoken about issues similar to those brought up in Meet Me at the Lake, which spent two weeks in the top ten of the New York Times Best Sellers List.
The Duke confessed to drug use in Spare, saying he smoked weed and took cocaine.
He has described his use of hallucinogenic drugs too.
Harry also told in an interview of growing up in a “broken home”, describing his “incredibly painful” childhood.
He took his family to the US to break the “cycle of pain”.
In their Oprah Winfrey interview in 2021, the couple bared their souls over Meghan’s suicidal thoughts when they were still residing at Frogmore Cottage after the birth of Archie, now four.
Meghan lived in Toronto for seven years while starring in drama series Suits.
Author Carley, also a mother-of-two, is from the city and set her book nearby.
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It is her second novel and is gaining a cult following.
Her debut, Every Summer After, was a huge hit — selling 21,000 copies in week one — but the author was once a lifestyle journalist who wrote an online article about Meghan’s unkempt hairstyle.
STORY’S SO SIMILAR
MEET Me at the Lake bears many striking parallels to Harry and Meghan’s own lives and relationship.
Main characters Fern Brookbanks and Will Baxter fight mental health problems stemming from child birth and grief over the death of a parent in a tragic car accident.
Harry lost his mother Princess Diana in a crash and Meghan revealed she suffered deep depression around the birth of son Archie.
Fern comes from a broken home like both Harry and Meghan.
The book is set in Canada, where Meghan made her name in Toronto-based TV show Suits and where she and Harry made their first photographed appearance together.
There are even similarities in choice of clothing with Fern alternating between fashionable city heels and comfy, trendy Birkenstock sandals — both of which are worn by Meghan.
And Will and Fern wear ripped jeans at various points in the book, a style adopted by the royal couple on occasions.
And like Harry, who wears a mysterious black ring, Will is frequently referred to as toying with one.