Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had their Netflix show Polo taken ‘out of their control’, an insider has claimed.
Receiving two stars or less out of five across the board, reports claimed that Netflix is ‘exhausted’ with Harry and Meghan, according to the Mail’s Alison Boshoff. Read the full mail+ report here.
The Prince, 40, only appears a handful of times throughout the five episodes, with his wife Meghan, 43, appearing even less – despite both being executive producers of the series.
But the couple allegedly had little control over the programme, a source told Closer magazine.
‘Truth is, it was pretty much out of their control. The bosses wanted the series to appeal to the masses and pushed this reality TV slant so it’s not entirely their fault,’ the source reportedly said.
They added: ‘It’s pretty ironic because they’ve always acted so above this sort of thing and now, here they are producing the exact type of content they’ve always looked down on.’
It comes as Meghan’s favoured magazine The Cut appears to have turned against her, with a new article saying her projects ‘keep flopping’.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry arrive at the Grand Champions Polo in Wellington in April this year
The couple received scathing reviews for their latest TV endeavour Polo, the newest installment of their £80million deal with the streaming service
Meghan’s 2022 cover interview with the magazine sparked backlash with its claims against the royal family
The site – which is part of New York Magazine – famously published a cover interview with the Duchess in August 2022, in which she made controversial comments about the royal family.
The left-leaning publication now seems to have followed in the wake of other US outlets that have turned on the couple following their bombshell Netflix series and the prince’s biography, Spare.
This week, The Cut published a piece titled ‘Harry and Meghan’s Projects Can’t Stop Flopping’ by pop culture and entertainment writer Danielle Cohen – marking a very different attitude to that of two years ago.
Harry, who served as an executive producer alongside Meghan for the Polo series, promised the programme – released globally this week – would showcase the ‘true depth and spirit of the sport’ as well as the ‘intensity of its high-stakes moments’.
However, the five-part docuseries, which centres around the build-up to the polo World Cup in Florida and mainly focuses on players such as Adolfo and Poroto Cambiaso, Timmy Dutta, and Nacho Figueras, struggled to impress critics.
The reviews are in for Harry and Meghan’s latest Netflix endeavour Polo (pictured), the latest installment of their £80million deal with the streaming service
It’s a reality that Ede considered threatening for the Sussex’s Netflix deal, telling MailOnline: ‘The new polo documentary hasn’t received good reviews, and this is another foray into producing from Meghan and Harry.
‘All eyes will be on whether the show rates and makes the very important top ten. It could, like the Invictus documentary, start well due to the public’s fascination with the pair and with polo potentially.
‘But it’s more than likely to fair badly when up against blockbusters like Black Dove and safe Lindsay Lohan Christmas films.
‘This could potentially be a nail in the coffin for their deal with the streaming giant who now use algorithms to make sure their programming is perfect for their subscribers.’