Netflix executives ‘paid £3 million’ for movie rights to romantic novel Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will produce for streaming service as part of their £80 million deal

Netflix executives paid £3 million for the movie rights to a romance novel that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will produce for the streaming service as part of their £80 million deal, it was alleged today.

Initial reports suggested that the couple had personally saved the money for Carley Fortune’s The Meet Me At The Lake reflects their personal story and features a character whose parent dies in a car accident.

However, an insider has now told that Page six it was Netflix itself that bought the rights for them to produce a film adaptation under their Archewell Productions arm.

The source described the book as “right up their alley” because they “love love stories and rom-coms.” The Sussexes wanted to tell their own ‘love story’ in their amazing 2022 Netflix documentary ‘Harry & Meghan’.

The US-based outlet also reported that the couple has restructured their team following the departure of producer Ben Browning – former head of internal content at Archewell Productions who oversaw the documentary.

They reportedly parted ways with Archewell’s senior vice president of scripted television, Nishika Kumble, after less than two years in the role.

PR guru Mark Borkowski believes the financiers of the Netflix adaptation paid too much because the Sussexes “have zero track record in drama or producing anything meaningful.”

Penguin Random House, the publisher of Harry’s global bestseller Spare, “probably” helped with the deal because Penguin also released Meet Me At The Lake, he said.

Author Carley Fortune, who is a big fan of Meghan’s, calls her book a “love letter to Toronto” – where Meghan filmed the hit series Suits. The Duchess could have a personal connection with Ms. Fortune, who worked as a journalist in the town for many years.

Mr Borkowski told MailOnline he believes the adaptation is a ‘playbook’ attempt by Harry and Meghan to revive their media careers after multiple deals fell through and business interests flopped.

“They’re so far off the radar,” he said.

Mr Borkowski says the timing of the announcement, with a lot of negativity surrounding the couple, leads him to suspect there is more to the matter than meets the eye.

He said, ‘They have to do something. According to Tom Bower, they got into a fight with the Beckhams. Harry was forced to leave Becks alone because of Meghan’s stance on Victoria.

‘The rights for this could have cost up to three million pounds. Although, if it’s a bestseller, you wouldn’t hand it over to Harry and Meghan. There are some great drama producers out there. Why would you give away a prize pool?’

MailOnline has reached out to Penguin Random House for comment.

The adaptation will be the Sussexes’ first attempt at producing a fiction hit as part of a multimillion-pound Netflix deal that is reportedly under threat.

The author of the novel is a fan of the Sussexes and has said she was in tears watching their 2018 wedding.

Ms Fortune, a Canadian writer and journalist based in Toronto, woke up at 4am to watch the royal wedding at St George’s Chapel in Windsor as the Sussexes tied the knot in 2018.

After seeing the Duchess in her wedding dress designed by Clare Waight Keller, she tweeted, “Meghan Markle pulls up at the chapel and I feel very tearful! Maybe it’s the four o’clock start in the morning.’

Meet Me At The Lakes, her second novel, is set in Ontario and the city of Toronto.

It’s said to have captured the Sussexes’ imaginations – perhaps because of Meghan’s connection to the Canadian city, where she lived when she was filming Suits.

An insider told the Sun“The themes of the book grabbed the couple and it was chosen for their first adaptation with Netflix.”

The project comes after the pair lost their reported £18 million deal with Spotify following a series of Meghan’s podcast Archetypes.

While Ms Fortune has yet to comment on the reported deal, it is believed she will be pleased to have handed over the rights to the Duke and Duchess.

The author and mother of two has revealed that she is a fan of Suits, previously sharing on Twitter that she was binge-watching the legal drama, which was Meghan’s big break in the entertainment industry.

Shortly before Harry and Meghan tied the knot, Fortune tweeted, “I’m binging my way through Suits. I felt a little sheepish about it at first, but I’ve decided to own my fandom. PAST ROCKS, YOU! (I think Meghan Markle is going somewhere).’

Despite knowing that royal life wasn’t “a world they wanted for their family,” as one friend claimed, Harry and Meghan have faced some harsh realities since they left to move their kids away from the limelight of the firm.

Having signed large multi-million pound deals with giants Netflix and Spotify, as well as Harry’s own book deal, they have since faced hurdles, including the loss of the Spotify partnership.

Meghan hosted a series of her Archetype podcast on the platform, but it has not been renewed by the streaming service and the couple announced in June that they had ‘mutually’ agreed to part ways. They’ve also struggled to break into Hollywood, despite Meghan’s background as an actress in Suits.

While their docuseries Harry and Meghan has been widely viewed around the world, experts say their brand is a tough sell due to the drama surrounding it that raises customer expectations.

But Harry is currently working on a series centered around the Invictus Games, which he has set up as an opportunity for ex-servicemen to exercise in a similar way to the Paralympics or Commonwealth Games. Heart of Invictus is expected to release on Netflix later this year.

Netflix declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline today.