This latest Sussex pile-on seems to be centered around the Duchess of Sussex separating her brand, As Ever, from Netflix. I was left with the impression that As Ever has been so successful in its first year that Meghan is able to divest the brand from Netflix and stand on her own. Obviously, Netflix’s mid-level employees disagreed, and they’ve been leaking some really bonkers smears against Meghan in particular, not only about As Ever, but about the work Meghan and Harry did within their initial five-year production deal with Netflix. The Variety hit piece was full of unnamed sources trying to re-litigate faux-issues from four or five years ago and trying to make it sound like various successes (the viewership of the Oprah interview, the ratings for the H&M docuseries) are bad, bad, bad (because reasons). Well, now the Daily Mail – which is currently on trial in a lawsuit brought by Prince Harry and others – has a big exclusive about the falling out between Netflix, Meghan, As Ever and Harry. The quotes in this piece are insane. The Mail’s Alison Boshoff also basically calls Ted Sarandos and Bela Bajaria liars when Sarandos and Bajaria are on the record repeatedly denying all of these smears.
So much jam, you guys: Essentially, the streaming giant put money in but the [As Ever] brand struggled, and the plug was officially pulled on Friday, March 6. As one source said: ‘There was just all this jam. We had thought that there would be more to it.’
Netflix was shocked by As Ever’s statement on the split: ‘We have experienced meaningful and rapid growth and As ever is now ready to stand on its own,’ said the spokesperson. At Netflix’s massive headquarters in Los Gatos, California, they were somewhat surprised to read those distinctly snarky words….In fact, the partnership had broken down far earlier – at the first available opportunity, exactly one year after coming into being.
Relations between the Sussexes & Netflix broke down last fall: I am told this week that relations have been in serious difficulty since the autumn of 2025. A source says that the streamer will never badmouth Meghan: ‘No one is willing to be other than supportive in public’, and yet, as was asserted in an explosive account published in Variety magazine this week, Netflix is ‘done’ with the Sussexes – at least when it comes to As ever. It’s not out of the question that there will be a further ‘seasonal special’ of With Love, Meghan, but I’m told: ‘I don’t think anyone is going to be killing themselves with an effort to work with them at this point.’
Harry & Meghan will be broke, you guys: That’s very bad news for Meghan and Harry, who have a first-look deal with Netflix. If it doesn’t greenlight projects from the couple’s company Archewell Productions, then their money hose will run dry.
Ted Sarandos unfollowed Meghan? Netflix boss Ted Sarandos has unfollowed both Meghan and As ever on Instagram. So has his creative chief Bela Bajaria. Both have been extremely positive about Meghan previously, with Sarandos calling her ‘the rock star’ as recently as last spring. He was in awe of her ability to capture attention, and was impressed by the way every item shown in their 2022 blockbuster, score-settling, documentary Harry & Meghan sold out – even the Hermes blanket which was seen artfully folded over the back of a chair. However, the mood music has changed. Both Sarandos and Bajaria have been heard saying things in private about the pair which were ‘not complimentary’, although my sources declined to share exactly what.
So much jam!!!! And those turbo sales didn’t arrive at As ever, which has acres of unsold stock – up to $10 million (£7.5 million) worth according to the entertainment bible Variety. So much for ‘meaningful and rapid growth’. Some unsold stock was put out on tables at the Netflix offices earlier this year for staff to take if they wanted. Of course, this is standard in some establishments, but it certainly gave the impression there was more As ever product than anyone knew what to do with.
Sarandos let the Sussexes stay at his home: It’s quite a falling off, as I’m told Sarandos was so ‘all in’ with the couple that he even allowed Harry, Meghan and her family to stay in his $34 million (£26 million) home in Santa Barbara when they bought their own huge place in Montecito. ‘Ted let them stay over at his while their place was being renovated. They were very close,’ says a Californian source… Meghan was close to Sarandos’ wife, Nicole Avant, a powerhouse who was the US ambassador to the Bahamas and whose father was the chairman of Motown Records. But Avant has also unfollowed Meghan and As ever on Instagram, too. The same is true for the coterie of Netflix executives who used to work with Meghan and the brand. Meghan has effectively been purged.
Netflix’s vision for As Ever: As to what went wrong, fundamentally there were differences over the direction of the brand. It can be revealed that Netflix had a vision, which would have started with rose wine, and gone on through five phases including the introduction of china and glassware, then food, followed by an expansion into physical retail spaces, and finally a cookbook. All of it was to be sold on the back of Meghan’s sophistication and elegance. I hear that Netflix simply wasn’t able to interest Meghan in any of that.
All of this jam!!!! A source says: ‘The issue was sales in the end. The product was not taken up in the way that people had hoped. The jam thing became totemic. There was just all this jam. We had thought there would be more to it. The failure was more to do with the product and the business model, which didn’t work, than a people thing about Meghan being difficult. Although I hear there was an element of both.’ The source added: ‘What we have with Bridgerton, for instance, is a commercial brand partnership with an existing outlet, but that’s not what we had here. It didn’t work, and so it came to an end.’
You guys. What are we even doing at this point? Throughout 2025, As Ever jam was regularly selling out. The jam is As Ever’s “hero product,” the most popular product and the stand-out for the entire As Ever line. This idea that Netflix’s executives spent half of their day complaining about jam stock and “where are we going to put all of this jam” is absurd. Also absurd? “Then their money hose will run dry” – it’s been over six years. I’m begging these people to stop excitedly forecasting that Meghan and Harry will be broke any day now, we promise! The Sussexes have plenty of money and they’re not coming back to be screamed at by a bald demon. Now, the details about all of the Netflix people unfollowing As Ever’s Instagram account and Meghan’s Instagram account… what is that? Did Sarandos follow those accounts in the first place? And do we really think that Sarandos operates his own social media accounts? Also: what is this, f–king high school??? “The head of Netflix doesn’t follow Meghan!!” Jesus.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, As Ever’s Instagram.
