Meghan Markle received an offer to host a show on the streaming platform Quibi a year before she and Prince Harry decided to quit their royal life.
According to reports, the Duchess of Sussex had discussions with Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO of the now-defunct streaming platform Quibi, to host a 10-minute-per-episode program about the royals and their pets. However, Meghan Markle turned down the show because she was not comfortable with the idea and found this offensive.
Insiders said that Katzenberg believes there was a lot of commercial value to have both royals and pets in one show. He also discussed a potential travel series with Harry, which would help highlight his causes in Africa.
Aside from Katzenberg, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex also met with Quibi's Janice Min and Brian Tannenbaum to discuss many possible projects from 2019 until January 2020. However, in early 2020, the couple announced to the world that they were stepping back from their royal roles. The couple decided not to sign up with the streaming platform and instead revealed, in September 2020, that they were making shows for Netflix.
The report comes as Harry and Markle said, during an interview with Oprah Winfrey, that they didn't have an actual plan before announcing their decision to quit their royal work and that the Netflix deal was only suggested to them by well-meaning friends. They said that they were left with little choice on what to do next since the royal family cut off their finances as soon as they were no longer working royals. Thus, they thought about going the route with the streaming platforms.
However, it has now emerged that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had been trying to land deals with media platforms since 2019, while they were still working royals. They made a good decision not to sign up with Quibi since the company shut down in July 2020 after only a few months of operation as it failed to secure subscribers to the mobile-only platform.
Meanwhile, Winfrey said that she was surprised with her interview with Harry and Markle because they had been forthcoming with the "truth." In a podcast interview for the Nancy O'Dell Channel, Winfrey said that she texted the couple first before they filmed the sit-down and asked them what about their intentions.
Winfrey said that Harry and Meghan Markle wanted the truth out about what really happened to them and the royal family. However, more than a month since the interview, various reports have come out debunking and contradicting the couple's claims.
