Meghan Markle, Prince Harry US Backlash: American Public Sentiment Allegedly Shifting Following Series of Business Disruptions

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are facing a marked shift in US public sentiment as the couple navigates a string of disrupted media deals and a cooler reception from the American entertainment industry than when they first arrived in California in 2020.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were initially greeted as the ultimate crossover act; British royalty with Hollywood credentials, perfectly placed to cash in on America's appetite for star power and confessional storytelling. Multi‑million‑pound agreements followed in rapid succession.

Netflix reportedly committed around £60 million, while Spotify is said to have pledged £15 million through the couple's Archewell Audio venture in late 2020. At the time, it looked like a near‑risk‑free bet.

That early wave of goodwill is at the heart of Channel 5's new documentary Harry & Meghan: Has America had Enough?, in which royal experts suggest the tide has now turned for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in the US.

Richard Kay, editor at large for the Daily Mail, told the programme there was 'an enormous sense of goodwill' when the couple relocated in 2021, with many Americans seeing Harry as a man starting over after feeling 'driven out' of his home country.

'America likes people who are having another go,' Kay said, arguing that, initially at least, the Sussexes fitted neatly into a familiar US narrative of reinvention and second chances.

Meghan Markle, Netflix And A Fading Media Brand

Netflix moved fast to secure the Sussexes, clearly hoping for a defining royal confessional. Yet the most explosive first-person revelations did not arrive on the platform's schedule.

Instead, Harry and Meghan chose Oprah Winfrey and CBS for their initial tell‑all interview, before Harry published his memoir Spare, which carried yet more highly marketable material.

'Netflix were the least beneficial,' journalist Jack Royston told the Channel 5 documentary, noting that Oprah 'got the first bite of the cherry' while Spare was packed with exclusives that never made it to Netflix.

Alexander Larman, author of Power and Glory: Elizabeth II and the Rebirth of Royalty, went further, suggesting the streamer may have badly misjudged the long‑term appeal of the Sussexes' media output.

'Netflix are not a stupid company,' he said, 'but they are beginning to look, very strongly, like they have gambled far too much money on a public appetite for a brand that doesn't exist.'

It is a brutal assessment, but one that reflects a broader cooling. According to the documentary, US audiences may still enjoy the institution of the monarchy, while simultaneously concluding that Harry and Meghan 'were not quite the people they thought they were going to be.'

The Netflix relationship visibly frayed earlier this year. In March, Meghan Markle reportedly split from the platform and took full control of her As Ever food and homeware brand, a move that followed the streamer's decision to drop her lifestyle show.

Insiders claimed Meghan thought Netflix's approach was too cautious and that she wanted to 'go global,' believing her brand 'can stand on its own.' Yet the separation came only two months after Netflix axed With Love, Meghan, after two series, undercutting the narrative that this was purely about creative divergence.

South Park, Spotify And The Meghan Markle 'Tide' In America

If the corporate wrangling played out mostly behind closed doors, the moment many observers point to as a cultural turning point for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in America arrived in February 2023, with an episode of South Park titled 'The World Wide Privacy Tour.'

The cartoon skewered the couple's demands for privacy while they simultaneously promoted Harry's memoir, parodying the book as 'Waaaagh.' Animated versions of the pair marched around with placards reading 'Respect Our Privacy' while aggressively courting attention. It was harsh, but it landed.

Journalist Emma Loffhagen told the Channel 5 programme that this was 'perhaps the first time' such a perception of the Sussexes had been broadcast so bluntly to an American audience. 'It's a sign that the tide was turning,' she said, noting that the scathing tone soon became more familiar in US commentary about the couple.

Around the same period, their Spotify venture was unravelling. Archewell Audio's reported £15 million deal with the streaming giant, struck in late 2020, had been trumpeted as a mutually beneficial partnership.

A 'well‑placed' royal source told The Mirror then that Meghan had been the driving force, impressing executives with 'a clear vision' and aligning perfectly with Spotify's strategy of signing 'the world's most talked about celebrities in one place.'

Dawn Ostroff, Spotify's chief content and advertising business officer at the time, issued a glowing statement, praising the Sussexes' 'status as citizens of the world' and their stated ambition to 'elevate underrepresented voices.'

Yet after a single season of Meghan's podcast Archetypes, Spotify announced in June 2023 that the deal was over. Insiders subsequently claimed the couple had failed to meet productivity benchmarks required for the full payout. Other sources painted a picture of creative drift.

The Sussexes allegedly 'wanted a big theme that would explain the world, but they had no ideas,' with some of Harry's reported concepts ranging from rating hot chocolate every week to interviewing Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump about being 'sociopaths.'

Meghan, meanwhile, was said to struggle to commit to any one idea, 'backtracking' and 'watering them down,' which meant episodes had to be 'completely reimagined late in production.' None of these allegations has been publicly addressed in detail by the couple, so they should be treated with caution, but the impression of a chaotic development process has stuck.

Public criticism from within Spotify did not help. Podcaster and executive Bill Simmons, who worked with the Sussexes at the company, described them in June 2023 as 'grifters,' adding that he had a story about a Zoom call with Harry to discuss podcast ideas that he said was one of his 'best stories.'

He rounded off his tirade with an expletive and repeated his 'grifters' charge. The remarks were never formally endorsed by Spotify management, but they circulated widely and framed the narrative of a failed partnership.

The wider lesson, at least as told by those speaking in Harry & Meghan: Has America had Enough?, is that the US media machine that once embraced Meghan Markle and Prince Harry as surefire hits now appears to be pricing in something more uncertain. Whether that means America truly has 'had enough' of the couple is still unproven. What is clear is that the blank cheque of early enthusiasm has been replaced by a more sceptical, numbers‑driven calculation.