Meghan Markle and Prince Harry may have exited the podcast space, but they’re still making content for Netflix. The Duke and Ducchess of Sussex’s Archewell Productions has acquired the rights to Carley Fortune‘s best selling romance novel Meet Me at the Lake, which bears a passing resemblance to Meghan and Harry’s own love story.
“I’m so thrilled about working with Netflix and Archewell to bring Meet Me at the Lake to the screen,” said Fortune in a statement to The Independent. “Will and Fern’s love story is dear to my heart, and I can’t imagine a more perfect partnership.”
Released on May 2nd, Meet Me at the Lake debuted at number one on the New York Times bestsellers list for paperback trade fiction. Fortune’s second novel was published by Penguin Random House, which also published Prince Harry’s massively successful autobiography, Spare, this past January. Markle, too, has a connection to Penguin Random House: her children’s book, The Bench, was published by a Random House imprint, Random House Books for Young Readers, in June of 2021.
Meet Me at the Lake follows two strangers, Will and Fern, on a daylong adventure where, per The Independent, “they make a promise one keeps and the other breaks, with life-changing effects.” The novel takes place in Toronto—where Meghan was shooting Suits when she first met Prince Harry—and the couple find each other in their thirties, which is also when Harry met Meghan. One of the novel’s protagonists lost their mother in a car accident, much like Prince Harry—whose mother, Princess Diana, died in a car crash when he was 12 years old.
In June, Meghan and Harry’s Archewell Audio mutually agreed to part ways with Spotify, after just a single season of Markle’s podcast Archetypes. While the reportedly $15 million Spotify partnership fell apart, Archewell’s relationship with Netflix is going strong. “We value our partnership with Archewell Productions,” a Netflix spokesperson told PEOPLE following the Spotify news. “Harry & Meghan was Netflix’s biggest documentary debut ever, and we’ll continue to work together on a number of projects, including the upcoming documentary series Heart of Invictus.”
“I never thought I’d be making this announcement, but since I am, it feels fitting that I’m doing it from the cottage where it all began,” wrote Fortune on Instagram. “I’m thrilled to confirm that I’m teaming up with Netflix and Archewell productions on the adaption of Meet Me at the Lake. Will and Fern’s love story is dear to my heart, and I can’t imagine a more perfect partnership. Writing this book was a tremendous personal challenge, and to see it recognized in this way is truly incredible.”
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