Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s previously close business alliance has moved past a quiet strategic shift. It’s now publicly unraveling, marked by damaging headlines, notable rebuffs, and reports of growing personal strain on the couple.
The change has been unfolding for a while. After leaving the British Royal Family and relocating to California, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex launched Archewell — a combination of commercial and charitable efforts — and landed lucrative deals with Netflix and Spotify. They hoped to mirror power couples like George and Amal Clooney. That plan now appears far more fragile.
A California source previously signaled the shift in direction: “Meghan has decided that their interests are best served by pursuing separate careers. They will still carry out charitable engagements together and embark on foreign visits, but their work projects will be separate.” What initially sounded like a deliberate, mutual adjustment now reads more like the beginning of a broader breakdown.
The biggest setback arrived in mid-March 2026, when a Variety report claimed that Netflix was essentially “done” with the Sussexes after several joint projects underperformed. Insiders said tensions existed between the couple and the streamer. Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria pushed back on March 18, urging fact-checking, and later clarified on March 24 at Next on Netflix that films and a documentary are still in development, and that the couple are executive producing an untitled scripted polo drama through Archewell Productions. Netflix also announced it would stop funding Meghan’s As Ever lifestyle brand, though spokespeople said the brand will continue independently.
The Variety story also included a sensitive claim: that Meghan dominates Harry in business meetings. Prince Harry quickly moved to dismiss those allegations as “categorically false.”
The Netflix developments mark a clear turning point. Spotify had already ended its agreement after Meghan’s podcast Archetypes was not renewed. With their main streaming partnership in doubt, the media base intended to support the Archewell vision has been significantly weakened.
Their professional paths are literally diverging. Harry and Meghan are booked for separate Australian engagements — Meghan at a women’s retreat in Sydney and Harry delivering a keynote in Melbourne. The trip is organized as a commercial venture: Harry is set to receive a mid-five-figure speaking fee for the InterEdge Psychological Safety Summit in Melbourne, while Meghan’s Sydney “Her Best Life” retreat charges about AUD $3,000 per ticket. Adding to the controversy, the Gemmie Agency — run by promoter Gemma O’Neill, who is organizing Meghan’s Sydney event — collapsed last year owing more than $540,000 to the Australian Tax Office.
The trip has already sparked backlash, with a Change.org petition collecting over 35,000 signatures asking that Australian taxpayers not cover the couple’s security costs given their 2020 exit from royal duties. A spokesperson for the couple called the petition “a moot point,” said the trip is privately funded, and sarcastically suggested that the 26.5 million Australians who hadn’t signed could be taken as support for taxpayer funding, labeling that reasoning “a stupid assertion.”
Meghan continues to concentrate on entertainment and lifestyle ventures, matching her acting background and brand-building aims. Harry has focused more on philanthropy and legacy projects — including causes linked to his late mother, Princess Diana, such as The HALO Trust and Sentebale, which he promoted during a solo visit to New York City in September 2024.
Royal author and broadcaster Victoria Murphy observed that Meghan seems driven to push her business ambitions forward, while Harry appears partly oriented toward his past — trying to mend family ties in the U.K. His memoir Spare, which fueled controversy and deepened tensions with the Royal Family, remains a defining and complicating element of his public image.
Perhaps most notably, the strain is no longer described as only professional. An OK magazine report published on March 22 described the couple as living increasingly “separate lives” and warned that the pressure from their public image and faltering business efforts “has started to take a real toll on the relationship.”
Daily Mail editor Richard Eden has already declared their A-list power couple dream “in ruins.” A Newsweek analysis on March 29 went further, noting that Harry and Meghan are now more than three years removed from their last major success, so their string of setbacks has outlasted the period when they appeared unstoppable. Recent developments have done little to challenge that view.
The couple are expected to continue joint charitable activities, though likely less often. Archewell, created as the platform for their shared work, faces uncertainty as both pursue more separate directions. Whether it can be repurposed effectively — or quietly fades — will depend on how each of their solo careers progresses.
What is clear is that Harry and Meghan’s story has entered a more turbulent stage. The carefully curated narrative of a couple building something together has given way to a messier, more contested, and much harder-to-control reality.