Meghan Markle's reported acting comeback 'axed' after UK backlash
Meghan Markle's reported return to acting has collapsed just days after it was first reported, according to royal biographer Tina Brown.
The Duchess of Sussex had been in early talks to join the yet-to-be-announced third season of Guy Ritchie's Netflix series The Gentlemen, but Brown says that casting has now been 'withdrawn'.
Brown, the former editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, shared the update on her 'Fresh Hell' Substack on Saturday.
"I learned this morning that the casting of Meghan Markle in season 3 of Guy Ritchie's Netflix series 'The Gentlemen' has been withdrawn," she wrote.
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"The backlash in the UK was so intense, it became untenable to go forward.
"This does not bode well for Meghan's acting comeback in the UK."
The reported role would have marked Markle's first acting job since she left the legal drama Suits in 2018, the same year she married Prince Harry and joined the royal family.
Why did Meghan Markle's Gentlemen role fall through?
According to Brown's report, the sheer scale of UK criticism following Friday's news made the casting impossible to sustain.
The timing is notable: the reports of Markle's potential comeback surfaced just as it emerged that she and Harry are planning to relocate their family back to England by the end of the month, a move already generating intense media scrutiny.
Royal broadcaster Ian Pelham Turner told Fox News Digital on Friday, before the casting was pulled, that renewed attention on Markle's career and the couple's charity work could complicate things further within the royal family.
He said it risked putting "William and Kate into a media shade which will not go down well with them and, in reality, increase the difficulties with the warring brothers."
What has Meghan Markle done since leaving the royal family?
Since stepping back from royal duties in 2020, Markle has built out a broad portfolio spanning streaming, podcasting, lifestyle brands and philanthropy, though acting had remained absent from that list until this reported approach. She and Harry signed a multi-project deal with Netflix after relocating to California that year, which produced their 2022 docuseries Harry & Meghan, in which the couple spoke openly about their experiences within palace life.
That original agreement was significantly scaled back last year, when the Sussexes signed a new 'first-look' deal with Netflix widely seen as a downgrade from their initial contract.
Brown is a best-selling author in her own right, having written The Diana Chronicles in 2007 and The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor – the Truth and the Turmoil in 2022, giving her reporting on royal affairs particular weight.
Neither Markle nor representatives for Guy Ritchie or Netflix have publicly commented on the reported casting decision.
UNILAD has approached Netflix for comment.
Topics: Meghan Markle, Netflix, Royal Family, Entertainment
Thomas Bamford