On May 1, Netflix announced that it would not move forward with “Pearl,” Meghan Markle’s proposed animated series, per Deadline. According to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Archewell Productions, “Pearl” was set to tell the story of “the heroic adventures of a 12-year-old girl who is inspired by influential women from history.”
David Furnish, one of the series’ executive producers and husband to rock legend Elton John, expressed his enthusiasm when the show was announced, saying that he and Meghan “are deeply passionate about bringing the inspirational and positive stories of extraordinary women from around the world to a global audience of all ages” (via Hello!).
The program’s title appeared to have a close connection to the duchess, since Meghan is the Welsh name for “pearl,” per The Bump. Like the series’ protagonist, Meghan also looked to the leading women of the time when she was a child. Speaking on International Women’s Day in 2015, the duchess recalled her dismay at sexism in a TV commercial. To get the wording changed, she began a letter-writing campaign. “My 11-year-old self worked out that if I really wanted someone to hear me, well then I should write a letter to the First Lady,” she said, per YouTube. Meghan not only received responses back from the three women she wrote to, including then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, she also got the company to change the sexist wording of the commercial.
