Royal commentator Kinsey Schofield says Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s best hope for Hollywood success is letting their new producing partners take the wheel.
Schofield, 40, who hosts the YouTube podcast “Kinsey Schofield Unfiltered,” said that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex should “surrender control” of their upcoming scripted drama to Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage’s production company Fake Empire. The couple, Harry, 41, and Markle, 45, signed on as executive producers through Archewell Productions this past March, with Deadline first reporting the collaboration.
“Of everything Harry and Meghan have teased in recent years, I actually think their collaboration with Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage’s [production company] Fake Empire has the most potential,” Schofield said.
“And that has far more to do with my confidence in Fake Empire than my confidence in the premise.”
The scripted drama follows a rivalry between two polo teams amid the wealth, romance, family drama and social politics of Wellington, Florida’s elite equestrian scene. Schofield pointed to Schwartz and Savage’s “extraordinary track record,” which includes Fox’s “The O.C.,” The CW’s “Hart of Dixie” and their most recent commercial hit, Amazon Prime’s “Sterling Point.”
“They’re still proving they understand what audiences want,” Schofield said.
Schofield believes audiences will gravitate more toward the sexy new series versus Harry’s widely panned 2024 Netflix doc, “Polo.”
“Do I think an upstairs-downstairs drama about rival polo families in Wellington, Florida, naturally screams mass appeal? Not particularly,” Schofield said, referring to the doc. “But wealthy families, beautiful people, status, rivalry, romance, money, and scandal? Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage have built careers out of making those worlds irresistible.”
But Schofield warned that Harry and Markle should leave it to the professionals and take a back seat to any calls on creative direction.
“Harry and Meghan’s best move might actually be to surrender control,” Schofield said, urging them to “let Fake Empire do the heavy lifting.”
“Don’t turn it into a vehicle for Harry, don’t use it as an advertisement for polo, and don’t burden it with messaging,” she added. “Give the experienced television producers the keys and get out of their way.”
Markle and Harry may have a shot at breaking into the biz if the upcoming drama earns “Gossip Girl”-level praise.
“If Fake Empire can turn this into ‘Gossip Girl’ on horseback, Harry and Meghan could finally have the mainstream entertainment hit they desperately need,” she said. “And perhaps the greatest irony would be that their most successful Hollywood project could be the one that succeeds because audiences forget Harry and Meghan are involved.”
The call for the Sussexes to step back comes after years of high-profile stumbles. Just last week, Harry and Markle’s latest documentary, “Cookie Queens,” crumbled at the box office, earning approximately $354,000 from 446 theaters and finishing behind “CatVideoFest 2026,” a compilation of viral internet cat videos that earned approximately $569,000 on just 255 screens.
“Harry and Meghan remain extraordinarily effective at generating headlines, but headlines and paying customers are two very different things,” Schofield said in a separate interview last week. “There was a period when simply attaching their names to something guaranteed enormous curiosity. I’m not convinced that’s true anymore.”
In the viral moment that crystallized their Hollywood struggles, the former “Suits” alum cut ties with Netflix in March after several projects flopped, including her cooking show, “With Love, Meghan.” In 2023, Spotify cancelled Markle’s “Archetypes” podcast after just one season — effectively ending her and Harry’s promising $20 million deal with the streamer. Meanwhile, Markle’s lifestyle brand, As Ever, has faced several blows since its launch in 2024, and Netflix announced last month that it was parting ways with the brand entirely.
“When Harry and Meghan first arrived in California, they were the story,” Schofield said. “Hollywood was essentially buying access to two people who had just walked away from the royal family, and the curiosity surrounding them was enormous. Six years later, the novelty has diminished. The questions are much more conventional now: What can you produce? What can you sell? Can you build an audience around something that isn’t royal drama?”
Harry and Markle are currently on a privately organized four-day trip to Australia with stops in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.