Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's latest venture has been announced - and it's quite an unusual side step.
- The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's latest venture has been announced to the public.
- In an interesting career move, the couple made a rather romantic purchase.
- In other royal news, Princess Anne's layered whatever-the-weather look is giving us déjà vu with its key similarities to another royal fashion icon
It has just been announced that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have bought the rights to the bestselling novel Meet Me at the Lake. The royal couple has made this purchase through their company Archewell Productions and will work with Netflix to create this adaptation. This move was confirmed to Forbes on Monday, August 7, when a spokesperson for Penguin Random House confirmed the couple would be adapting a book for the small screen.
Carley Fortune, the author of the bestselling novel told The Independent, "I’m so thrilled about working with Netflix and Archewell to bring Meet Me at the Lake to the screen. Will and Fern’s love story is dear to my heart, and I can’t imagine a more perfect partnership."
The book is only Carley's second novel and was released in the US on May 2. The novel debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list and reportedly shares a number of similarities with Harry and Meghan's personal story.
What is Meet Me at the Lake about?
Meet Me at the Lake is a romantic novel set in Toronto which focuses on the characters Will and Fern, who reconnect nine years after they briefly met long ago.
Some outlets have drawn comparisons between the novel and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's own story. For example, at the start of the book, Fern is helping her mother who was in a car accident which left her paralysed. This of course draws a similar comparison with Prince Harry's mother Princess Diana who was killed in a car accident in 1997.
In the novel, Fern and Will both have to succumb to family obligations, such as running a family business or giving up career aspirations to help their respective families. This draws a parallel with Prince Harry's struggles with 'the firm' and being restricted by his family obligations to the Royal Family.
There are also themes of trauma, and drinking and partying to overcome and manage this trauma. Based on Prince Harry's novel Spare, this is a familiar pattern of self-destruction that he also had to cope with in his youth.
The fact that the novel is also based in Toronto will also be familiar to the Duchess of Sussex as she spent many years living in this part of Canada while she was filming her hit TV show Suits, in which she played Rachel Zane.
It is not thought that Meghan will be returning to her acting roots in this new adaptation, instead, it is presumed that she and Harry will be involved in the production side of this venture.
