Prince Harry and Meghan Markle may not be admitting it any time soon but there is a slow, painful break happening behind the scenes.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who taking on more individual pursuits in the past year, recently renewed their lucrative contract with Netflix after months of speculation over the future of the deal.
While the deal may have been a major source of income for the Sussexes, it appears to a be a brutal setback delivered in a ‘polite’ contract.
In the previous deal, the Sussexes were written a massive cheque upfront, but this time, the streaming giant has resorted to ‘first look’ policy. This means that the company is not obligated to fund each project the Sussexes come up with but they choose to as they get first dibs on it.
According to a PR expert, this seems to a slow departure of Netflix from the Sussexes.
“This ‘partnership extension’ is basically a demotion dressed as a promotion,” expert Renae Smith, told the Express UK. “My bet is it’s a clever way for Netflix to avoid headlines about dropping them, and for the Sussexes to say they still have a deal.”
She noted that the deal feels like a “polite break-up”.
“Netflix may also be trying to manage a soft exit,” she said. “They’re more the ‘throw a grenade back as you leave the building’ type and I am sure Netflix considered the blowout if Meghan did decide to complain about being ‘dumped’ etc.”
The expert also doubted if the streaming giant would be interested in renewing another deal with the Sussexes. “Whether they’ll actually do anything significant together after this is questionable,” she surmised.