Can a saccharine romance novel save Harry and Meghan’s tarnished brand?

In their latest bid to save their floundering fortunes, the Sussexes have snapped up the film rights to Carley Fortune’s New York Times bestseller Meet Me at the Lake for a reported $3m. Katie Rosseinsky explores the real life parallels – and whether the project can translate into a much-needed hit

‘Meet Me at the Lake’ was flying high in the book charts even before brand Sussex gave it their seal of approval (Getty/The Independent)

A tale of two star-crossed lovers who hit it off in their thirties. A mother tragically killed in a car crash. The burden of having to live up to parental expectation and take on the family business. These are not – spoiler alert – themes from Harry and Meghan’s recent tell-all Netflix documentary, but plot points from Meet Me at the Lake, the saccharine romance novel that the Sussexes recently opted to adapt for the screen, as part of their production deal with the streamer.

The rumoured $3m deal is the latest big entertainment industry play for the couple, who could do with another hit. Harry’s autobiography Spare broke UK first-day sales records when it was released back in January, but aside from that, the aspiring multimedia moguls have floundered. Plans for their first animated series, Pearl, which would have told the story of a young girl travelling through history to meet inspirational women, were scrapped last year. The biggest blow has been the end of their rumoured $20m podcast deal with Spotify; the partnership resulted in just one show, Archetypes, Meghan’s girl boss-inflected exploration of female stereotypes.

The decision to split with the audio company was mutual, but the fact that one of Spotify’s top executives, Bill Simmons, later publicly branded the Sussexes as “grifters” had to hurt. “They know all eyes will be on what they do [next],” says celebrity manager and PR expert Mayah Riaz – and crucially, after sharing a lifetime’s worth of Windsor goss in both Spare and their docu-series, the pair need “a way to show the public that they can do projects which are not about [the royals] and still get accolades”.