Prince Harry is making plans to return to Africa solo for a new Netflix documentary, Page Six can reveal.
Despite questions over the future of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s $100 million Netflix deal, the renegade royal is planning a new doc, we’re told.
The Sussexes are under pressure to come up with winning content for Netflix after it was revealed their Spotify deal had imploded.
Harry’s potential African journey will inevitably be seen as following in the footsteps of his mother, Princess Diana, who traveled to Africa to campaign against landmines shortly before her death.
It’s not yet known what the documentary will be about. However, the ongoing Hollywood writers’ strike means the prince cannot move forward with his plans yet, we are told.
A source said: “Obviously, Harry has a lot of roots in Africa and he feels at home there”, while a Netflix insider confirmed it was one of a number of ideas that the royal had been discussing.
Harry appeared jointly with Meghan in their first, and so far only, documentary for the streamer, in “Meghan & Harry” last year. Before that, he appeared without his wife in an Apple TV project about mental health “The Me You Can’t See.”
Harry, 38, has a long-time passion for Africa and took Markle, 41, camping there on one of their first dates.
He also set up a charity in Lesotho called Sentebale, meaning forget-me-not, with Prince Seeiso, the country’s king’s younger brother.
It was his mother who first forged a public bond with the continent: just months before she died in a car crash in Paris, she walked through an active minefield in Huambo, Angola with The Halo Trust.
Harry then retraced his mother’s steps by walking through another minefield in Angola in 2019.
The British royal is also president of conservation group African Parks. Sources said that he could well delve into the continent’s national parks and efforts at wildlife conservation for his planned documentary.
Speaking about his love for Africa in 2017, he said: “This is where I feel more like myself than anywhere else in the world. I wish I could spend more time in Africa.”
The new project comes amid rumors of trouble between Netflix and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, whose $20m deal with Spotify came to an abrupt end earlier in June.
A source familiar with their $100 million Netflix deal insisted: “Things are great,” while a Netflix spokesperson said this week: “We value our partnership with Archewell Productions.”
The streamer’s spokesperson add they would “continue to work together on a number of projects,” including “Heart of Invictus,” which follows the annual games for service members and veterans which Harry founded.
It will air on Netflix in August. Both Harry and Meghan will be in the docu-series.
The couple are under pressure to come up with good content ideas for Netflix after their Spotify deal was canceled because, sources told Page Six, the Sussexes had failed to come up with any great ideas for the podcaster.
Harry was reported to have pitched Spotify on interviewing Donald Trump, Mark Zuckerberg and Vladimir Putin on their “childhood trauma,” and Pope Francis on religion. Executives were reported by Bloomberg to be “puzzled” by the pitches.
Bill Simmons, the sports podcaster who is one of Spotify’s most senior executives called the couple “f–ing grifters” in the wake of the deal being canceled.
It capped a disastrous run of bad PR, which included their widely mocked claim to have been victims of a high-speed car-chase by paparazzi in New York in May.
Industry insiders told Page Six that the Sussexes have been reworking their ideas for Netflix.
The Wall Street Journal reported the Sussexes have a drama about Dickens’ character, Miss Havisham, in the works. It would re-tell her story as a “strong woman” rather than as the jilted bride Dickens portrayed her as in “Great Expectations.”
A Sussex rep was unavailable for comment. A Netflix spokesperson declined to comment.