Is Meghan about to become the mega-bucks Duchess of Dior?

As rebrandings go, this one is being handled with the precision of a military campaign. 

When the news ricocheted around the world that Meghan Markle’s Spotify podcast had been axed – amid bitter accusations that the Duchess and husband Harry were ‘grifters’ (American for ‘con-artists’) – her high-octane Hollywood team were already on a war footing.

Headed by powerhouse agent Ari Emanuel, the charismatic chief of talent agency William Morris Endeavor (WME), the mission to re-invent Meghan is already well under way, The Mail on Sunday has learned. 

If the rumours swirling around LA are true, she may be on the brink of signing a major deal with French couture house Dior to make her a face of the company, alongside global stars such as Rihanna and Jennifer Lawrence. 

‘Meghan is all anyone is talking about,’ a prominent Beverly Hills socialite said last night.

Meghan Markle joined the royals in Kent for a service at Westminster Abbey, London to mark the 100th Anniversary of the Royal Air Force

Harry accompanied by his wife Meghan, while they attended a Reception hosted by Thomas Reilly the British Ambassador to Morocco at the British Residence, Rabat

‘There have been rumours for weeks that she’s about to sign a deal with Dior which has put the gossip mill into overdrive. If she pulls that off, then no one will remember that her silly little podcast got cancelled after one season.’ 

The Duchess, 41, has been immersed in meetings since signing with Emanuel, seemingly oblivious to an even bigger storm cloud which may be gathering, as streaming giant Netflix conducts an ‘ongoing review’ of its £80 million deal with the Sussexes. 

‘We knew the Spotify announcement was coming,’ a source at WME told me. 

‘It might be a shock to everyone else but we’ve been working on the rebranding of Meghan for weeks.

 ‘Ari is the best in the business when it comes to corporate deals and making money. He’s excited to be representing Meghan and has thrown all his energy into it. The offers have been pouring in, including from other podcast platforms.’ 

The Sussexes’ £15 million Spotify deal was signed in 2020 but delivered just 13 hours of programming in two and a half years: 12 episodes of Meghan’s Archetypes podcast and a one-off holiday special. 

The blow of the deal ending was exacerbated by Spotify executive Bill Simmons, its head of podcast innovation and monetisation, describing the couple as petty swindlers – or ‘f***ing grifters’ in his exact words. 

However, reputation crisis expert Eric Schiffer says Team Meghan will use the drama to their advantage. 

Meghan Markle leaving after a service of thanksgiving for the reign of Queen Elizabeth II at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, Friday, June 3

Meghan Markle ,pictured centre holding Archie, stunned in a white Dior dress for her son’s christening in Windsor

‘These guys were already on a war footing because they knew the Spotify announcement was coming,’ he said. 

‘Ari will have a strategic and tactical battle plan in place to link her with sophisticated brand partners, like Dior. This is an opportunity to distance Meghan from the negativity of the past. ‘It’s no accident that she didn’t go to the Coronation, that she didn’t show up in London alongside Prince Harry when he was in court recently,’he said, referring to the Duke’s appearance in the witness box in his phone hacking case against Mirror Group Newspapers. 

‘Meghan is wise to distance herself from her husband’s toxic dramas. This is a woman who constantly moves forward. This is about building a global brand. There will be some big deals announced soon.’ 

Those deals cannot come soon enough for the Sussexes, who vowed to become financially independent when they quit being senior Royals. 

They need a sizeable income to finance their lavish lifestyle and keep pace with their Hollywood friends. 

Public records in the US show they bought their 16-bathroom Montecito mansion in 2020 for $14.65 million (£11.4 million) and have a $9.5 million (£7.4 million) mortgage on it. On top of that there are annual property taxes of $141,403 (£113,000). 

Not to mention the cost of security, estimated at almost £2 million a year, nannies, household staff, office staff, gardeners and travel costs, including the private jets the couple are so fond of. 

The legal fees Harry is racking up in the five separate cases he is pursuing could be ‘in the millions’ according to experts. 

Meghan dazzled in a sweeping kaftan-inspired Dior gown as she joined husband Prince Harry for a reception at the British ambassador’s residence in Morocco

Meghan Markle paid a subtle tribute to her late mother-in-law Princess Diana by carrying a Dior bag named after her when she attended the Global Citizen Live event in New York 

If Meghan does sign with Dior, she could easily match or even eclipse Johnny Depp’s recent £15 million, three-year deal to remain the face of its men’s fragrance Sauvage. 

One insider who used to work for Oprah Winfrey – who turned a daytime talk show into a billion-dollar brand – said: ‘Meghan could end up being worth hundreds of millions of dollars.’ 

Indeed, if the rumours about Dior turn out to be true, it would be a match made in fashion heaven. Meghan has long been a fan, choosing to wear head-to-toe Dior for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee service. 

Two years ago, she carried a monogrammed version of the iconic Lady Dior bag to a Global Citizen concert in New York. 

The bag was named in tribute to Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, with a nod to her pre-marriage nickname of ‘Lady Di’. Harry, too, has seemingly become a devotee of the label, wearing a custom-made Dior suit to the King’s Coronation.

Another clue to Meghan’s brand-building aspirations came last week when it was revealed that the Sussexes’ private office was being run by Harrison Colcord. She was previously director of sales and marketing for the five-star San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito, a luxury hotel where rooms go for up to £3,200 a night. 

The establishment, not far from their mansion, is owned by tycoon Ty Warner, whose £4.5 billion fortune was built on the Beanie Babies toys he created. He has since amassed a luxury hotel portfolio which includes the Four Seasons in New York and Las Ventanas in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, beloved by stars such as Jennifer Aniston and Lady Gaga. 

Meghan and Harry reportedly stayed at San Ysidro while renovations were going on at their mansion and she was photographed in the lush grounds for a Variety magazine shoot. Meanwhile, Harry chose the hotel’s quaint cottages to film interviews to promote his memoir Spare, including the one with ITV’s Tom Bradby. 

The cottage was where President John F Kennedy honeymooned with Jackie in 1953. Whatever the grievances aired in Spare, Meghan is now ready to move on, says image expert Mr Schiffer, chairman of Reputation Management Consultants. 

‘I think Meghan is reading the tea leaves correctly in seeking to distance herself from the toxic emotional drama that Harry seems unable to put in the past,’ he says. ‘This is a strategy and she is getting very good advice. ‘People are sick and tired of Harry constantly castigating his family and I don’t think he is doing himself any favours to keep blaming the press for everything that went wrong in his life and dredging up stories from 25 years ago.

‘Meghan will focus on the positive and all the things which made her so appealing to millennials and Gens X and Z in the first place,’ he said, referring to the demographic terms for those under 40.

Meghan looked perfectly stylish a vintage Dior coat as she joined Prince Harry, 34, for Lena Tindall’s christening 

Meghan was elegant in Dior ‘D-Moi’ Pump as she attended an event for the Invictus Games in September

At the Queen’s funeral,she wore a black Stella McCartney cape dress with a Dior hat 

‘She will go back to an image of a strong, successful woman who built her own career and will focus on serious women’s issues, but also things that are fun and aspirational, like couture fashion.’ 

Her new agent Emanuel is ‘super connected’ in the Middle East and considers the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, a good friend. 

During Covid, WME – which owns the Ultimate Fighting Championship – set up a ‘bubble’ on an island off the Emirati coast, dubbed ‘Fight Island’, and continued to stage televised bouts, which brought in millions through television rights and pay-per-view streaming. 

‘Hollywood ground to a halt and no one was making money but Ari figured out a way to make millions, even during Covid,’ a source said. 

He will, no doubt, be careful to avoid any pitfalls if he chooses to link ‘Meghan Inc.’ to his wealthy Arab clients. 

The Duchess was criticised for wearing ‘blood diamond’ chandelier earrings gifted to her on her wedding day by Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the man whose regime was responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. At the time, her lawyers Schillings put out a strongly worded statement defending the Duchess, insisting she had no idea about Prince Mohammed’s suspected involvement in the murder. The source said: ‘Ari won’t make those kind of mistakes. He’s super connected, tough and brilliant.’ The influence of Emanuel on his latest client is already apparent. 

The agent is married to fashion designer Sarah Staudinger and Meghan chose to wear a two-piece pink linen suit from her Staud label for a recent – and much-photographed – appearance at an LA Lakers basketball game. ‘Emanuel’s incredibly disciplined in his personal life,’ my source tells me. ‘He’s been a strict vegan for years and knows everything there is to know about gut health. He becomes obsessed with subjects and talks to experts until he knows everything. When he goes to a restaurant he takes his own vegan food made by his private chef. ‘Meghan is fortunate to have him on her team. If Ari can’t build her into a global brand, no one can.’

WME also represents Meghan’s close friends Oprah Winfrey, Wimbledon champion Serena Williams and filmmaker Tyler Perry. 

It was Perry who loaned the Sussexes his Hollywood mansion when they arrived in Los Angeles after Megxit and he is godfather to their daughter Lilibet, two. 

The Sussexes are said to have enjoyed holidays on Perry’s private island in the Bahamas, too. THE circle offering business advice to the couple also includes close friend and neighbour Victoria Jackson, who built one of the first TV ‘infomercial’ make-up empires. 

Ms Jackson is married to Bill Guthy whose direct marketing company Guthy-Renker helped ex-supermodel Cindy Crawford turn her Meaningful Beauty line of creams and cosmetics into an £80 million brand, and also represents Jennifer Lopez’s JLo Beauty. 

‘Meghan and Victoria are very close,’ a Montecito source said.

‘If anyone can help Meghan develop a skincare or make-up brand it’s Victoria and Bill.’ Meghan recently renewed her trademark for The Tig, the wellness and lifestyle blog she started in 2014 but closed down in 2017 when she got engaged.

Experts believe she could earn up to £200,000 per post to endorse brands. 

Alison Bringe, of brand performance company Lauchmetrics, said: ‘She’ll be in line with the best-paid mega-influencers, if not the highest paid in the world.’ Jeremy Murphy, who runs New York’s 360bespoke PR agency, says Meghan is reclaiming her identity. 

‘She and Harry seem to be on different tracks which could be an issue,’ he said. 

‘I don’t think most people know what Harry believes in other than his wife and children. 

‘A growing number of people look at Harry as a deer caught in the headlights and she’s steering the car. Ari Emanuel is going to fix that. 

There’s finally an adult in the room.’ For now, the silence out of Montecito is deafening. 

But if the plans for Meghan Inc are anything to go by, it is unlikely that silence will last very long.