OH, THE DELICIOUS IRONY! Five years after Meghan Markle SMUGLY boasted about writing The Bench as a heartfelt Father’s Day poem for Prince Harry — “The Bench started as a poem I wrote for my husband on Father’s Day… That poem became this story,” — the children’s book has become a mocking punchline. Because while she loves romanticizing fatherhood for the cameras and cashing in on the “perfect dad” image for Harry, she has spent years publicly torching her own father, Thomas Markle, in one of the most bitter and ugly family feuds the royal world has ever seen. What was supposed to be the poetic launch of her grand publishing empire has instead become a pathetic symbol of her endless flops, desperate reinventions, and selective sentimentality.
Five years after Meghan Markle’s children’s book hit shelves, The Bench has become the benchmark for her ‘inconsistent and erratic’ career.
Meghan Markle may be best known for her role on Suits, but the former actress has tried her hand at many different businesses since quitting the royal family – from publishing and film production to podcasting.
Soon after they moved to Montecito in California, Prince Harry, 41, and Meghan, 44, found themselves inundated with lucrative offers from Netflix and Spotify.
In June 2021, Meghan released her first children’s book, The Bench, with Random House Children’s Books, and shortly afterwards, news broke that publishing behemoth Penguin Random House had given her and Harry $40 million (£29 million) to write four books.
Much of the money was spent on acquiring the rights to Prince Harry’s memoir, which was published in 2023, and became a huge hit – despite including several damaging accusations about the Royal Family.
But since the release of Spare, things have been suspiciously quiet on the book front – especially after Prince Harry’s autobiography raked in millions in sales around the world.
While Meghan was rumoured to be working on a ‘wellness’ book with her husband, before it was claimed she would follow in the Duke’s footsteps and pen her own tell-all, the deal seems to have hit a wall with no new releases expected.
It perhaps indicates that Penguin Random House, like Netflix and Spotify, is ‘done’ with the Sussexes five years after the firm printed Meghan’s children’s book as part of an earlier deal with the Duchess.
Today, The Bench has become the benchmark for Meghan’s struggling career after royal expert Kinsey Schofield told the Daily Mail that the Duchess’s brand is ‘inconsistent and erratic’ amid reports the Sussexes’ $40 million four-book deal is on the rocks.
From Meghan’s embattled lifestyle company American Riviera Orchard, which became As Ever, to her podcast about inspiring female founders, many of her ventures have either hit a dead end or failed to take off after Netflix and Spotify cut business ties with the Sussexes.
Meghan Markle may be best known for her role on Suits, but the former actress has tried her hand at many different businesses since quitting the royal family – from publishing and film production to podcasting
Penguin Random House
The £12.99 book was published on June 8, 2021, but failed to make the UK Official Top 50 chart after selling just 3,212 copies in its first week
After Netflix, Harry and Meghan closed a $40 million four-book deal with Penguin Random House after a bidding war for the Duke’s ghostwritten autobiography in 2021.
It came after Meghan released a children’s book, titled The Bench, which landed her an advance of up to £500,000 in 2019, Forbes reported.
Unlike Harry’s memoir Spare, The Bench – which explores the ‘special bond between father and son’ as ‘seen through a mother’s eyes’ – was not a commercial success.
The £12.99 book was published on June 8, 2021, but failed to make the UK Official Top 50 chart after selling just 3,212 copies in its first week.
This was followed by the release of Prince Harry’s controversial memoir in January 2023, but there has since been no word on the remaining two books.
For a while, there were rumours that Harry and Meghan might jointly author a wellness guide, but that has failed to materialise so far.
Neither has Meghan’s memoir been released after widespread speculation that the Duchess could follow in her husband’s footsteps.
Talks of another prospective project for Meghan in the form of a book began circulating a few years ago, Vanity Fair claimed in an explosive article last year, which was intended to be written ‘post-divorce’.
The potential manuscript was not meant to detail Meghan’s past experience with her former husband of three years, producer Trevor Engelson, but that of her second spouse, Prince Harry.
It was not based on current events in Meghan’s life, but set to take place in the event of a separation between the Duke and Duchess.
However, Meghan’s friends shut down the claims, with one knowledgeable source saying: ‘If that’s true to any degree, she would have been approached and not vice versa.’