Last month, Variety’s Matt Donnelly wrote a bonkers hit-piece on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, related specifically to their Netflix production deal and Meghan’s now-finished partnership with Netflix on As Ever. Throughout the Variety piece, Netflix executives and Meghan’s lawyer gave on-the-record statements disputing the unnamed sources’ claims. Netflix’s Bela Bajaria also went on the record after the piece was published, saying “don’t believe whatever you read” and confirming that Netflix has many projects in development with Archewell. Within a week, Archewell and Netflix announced a polo drama series in development, as if to say “Variety has no idea what they’re talking about.” So, what’s new? This guy, Matt Donnelly, is now being welcomed in the Deranger community. He appeared on Tom Sykes’ Royalist podcast and he and Sykes went on and on about how obviously, everyone at Netflix hates the Sussexes and Netflix didn’t want to be in the As Ever business anymore. Here’s just part of what was said:
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex really screwed the pooch with their Netflix deal, Variety chief correspondent Matt Donnelly told The Royalist Podcast. On March 17, Donnelly published a bombshell report in the trade magazine about the Sussexes’ disastrous business relationship with the mega streamer, just over a week after Netflix dropped its investment in Meghan Markle’s jam and tea brand, As Ever.
Netflix was a major backer of the consumer-products brand that launched last April alongside her series With Love, Meghan, which was canceled after only two seasons. According to a Page Six report last month, the media company had been sitting on an excess of unsold As Ever products—such as tea and baking mixes—and had been “just giving it away to employees.”
“The sense seems to be that the brand actually hasn’t worked out either, because despite all these claims from their office that they’ve sold $60 million worth of jam and more than major jam manufacturers, the truth is, it’s hard to imagine that Netflix would have split from them if that was the case,” The Royalist Podcast‘s Tom Sykes said.
“It defies common sense,” Donnelly agreed. “Netflix is a publicly traded company, so if they’ve decided to take a huge gamble and invest in an experimental field, like consumer goods, as they did with As Ever… Ted Sarandos told this to me on the record in a cover story we did with him last March: He said that this model, this business, this venture for them was a huge discovery model for Netflix.”
“And I can tell you personally from sources and from my prior reporting, Netflix paid everything,” Donnelly continued. “Netflix paid for the manufacturing, Netflix paid for the shipping, Netflix paid for the branding.”
“This is a massive investment, so if they are going from success to success to record-breaking jam haul to record-breaking jam haul, why then, after a year, does Netflix bail? Doesn’t that contradict the responsibility they have for shareholders, which is to provide value?” he asked. “It defies common sense.”
Sometimes I wonder how many of the conspiracies about Harry and Meghan just boil down to “stupid people not understanding money or business.” I think about that a lot with the pocket-watching stories about the Sussexes’ money, wherein people say with their whole chest that Harry and Meghan are broke and they’ve already spent their $100 Netflix contract, their $20 million Spotify contract and all of Harry’s book money and salary from BetterUp. Like, do they not understand money? Investments? Savings? Salaries? Profits? That’s what I think is happening with all of these conversations about Netflix’s investment in As Ever – by the looks of things, As Ever had a fantastic first year, to the point where the business is already turning a significant profit and Meghan is now confident enough to grow her business on her own. She’s either already paid back Netflix’s investment or she will pay it back in the coming months/years. This conversation about “As Ever isn’t turning a profit, it’s not selling, Netflix LOST all of that money” makes zero sense.
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Photos courtesy of Netflix.
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