Meghan Markle accused of ripping off childrens book series for animated Netflix show

Meghan Markle is in a copycat crisis.The Duchess of Sussex, 43, is facing plagiarism claims from British children’s author Mel Elliott.Elliott told the Daily Mail Friday that she sent legal letters to Markle over Markle’s cancelled animated Netflix show “Pearl” bearing “striking similarities” to Elliott’s “Pearl Power” books.“Meghan is a feminist who sticks up for other women, so I was disappointed and confused to see how similar Netflix’s proposed show ‘Pearl’ was to my own ‘Pearl Power,’ who had been created seven years earlier,” Elliott told the outlet.“Of course, I can’t know if anyone on her team had seen it and been inspired by it, but the similarities were too great for me to ignore,” the author added.As part of Markle and Prince Harry’s $100 million deal with Netflix, “Pearl” was announced in development at the streamer in July 2021, with Markle serving as an executive producer alongside Elton John’s husband, David Furnish.The series was said to be about a 12-year-old girl who “learns to step into her power and finds inspiration from influential women throughout history.”But “Pearl” ended up being scrapped as Netflix claimed at the time they were no longer prioritizing animation.Elliott, who published her “Pearl Power” books in 2014, 2015 and 2018 and was in discussions to adapt the franchise into a TV series involving tennis icon Billie Jean King in 2019, claimed her legal team sent a formal letter to Markle’s camp in 2021 alleging possible infringement of her copyright.“The similarities between your proposed animation series and my client’s work appear to be too many and too striking to be mere coincidence,” the letter read, per the Daily Mail.Elliott claimed she sent two more letters to Markle’s Archewell Productions and Netflix, but she never heard back.“What saddened me most is that my objection was never acknowledged — neither Netflix nor Archewell responded to me when I woul...