Bela Bajaria Responds to Meghan Markle Netflix Report
Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria on Wednesday batted down reporting that the streamer has been distancing itself from Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.
“I would say don’t believe whatever you read,” she said about a recent story in Variety reporting on Netflix’s “falling out” with the Montecito-based couple. “Maybe we should all do a little fact-checking. But here’s the thing: We still have a relationship with them, we have movies in development with them, we have an amazing doc with them, they have things in development on the TV and film side.”
Bajaria added, “Deals come and go all the time and… we don’t renew so many deals and those don’t get as much press for obvious reasons, I guess. So there’s no juicy story there.”
Bajaria made the remarks at the Next on Netflix presentation of the streamer’s upcoming slate, which spotlighted projects like Ben Affleck’s upcoming film Animals and the second season of Beef (but nothing from the former royals).
The comments weren’t surprising, given that Netflix vociferously responded to the Variety piece, with a spokesperson telling the publication that it is “absolutely inaccurate” that the streamer had run out of enthusiasm for the couple and their Archewell Productions. Variety and The Hollywood Reporter are owned by the same parent company, Penske Media Corporation.
But it’s clear that the streamer has been disentangling themselves from business deals with the couple over the last year or so. On March 6, Netflix announced that it was exiting Markle’s lifestyle brand As Ever as a business partner. The moved followed Netflix downgrading the couple’s rich overall deal to a first-look deal in August 2025 after the company had produced the documentary Harry & Meghan and unscripted series Polo and With Love, Meghan.
Not long after the news of Netflix’s exit from As Ever broke, the Variety feature story reported the company was getting fed up with the cumulatively poor track record of the couple’s shows, their communication style and “bedside manner.” One Netflix insider told Variety, “The mood in the building is ‘We’re done.’”
The publication even reported that Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, a neighbor of the couple’s in Montecito, had grown tired of the pair. Two sources told the magazine that Sarandos said he wouldn’t get on a recent call with Markle unless a lawyer was present, and it was unclear whether he was joking or not. A Netflix spokesperson called that “absolutely inaccurate.”
