Meghan Markle’s Next Career Move: Highly Paid Influencer?

Meghan Markle in white at the Invictus Games

(Image credit: Getty)

published 20 June 2023

With her deal with Spotify ending and her blog, “The Tig,” potentially being resurrected—plus the ongoing Netflix deal, book rumors, and more—Meghan Markle’s plate is full. It’ll likely get even more so now that she has Ari Emanuel of WME as her agent, but we’re curious: Does her career involve a future as an influencer? Multiple outlets seem to think so.

Apparently Meghan stands to not just become an influencer but one of the highest-paid influencers globally, netting £250,000 per post (!), The Sun reports. No doubt that Emanuel and the WME team will broker deals on that level.

“A lot of people are surprised she’s signed with a talent agency,” says marketing expert David Olusegun, cofounder of Creative Control Ventures. “She is the first royal to do so. But they’re going to rebrand her. They want to take away the toxicity and negativity and put her in a new space. After the collapse of the Spotify deal, it’s clear people don’t care about them as much as before. WME wants to realign her with luxury brands like Dior.” (There have been rampant rumors about a Sussex/Dior partnership as of late, but nothing has been confirmed.)

Whatever brands Meghan chooses to associate with, “I think she’s going to be very picky in terms of what posts she does,” he says. “I don’t see her being like other influencers who bombard their feeds. She’ll only post the right brands that align with her. And it wouldn’t be obvious. She’ll do classy, intentional posts that match whatever setting she’s in.”

Andy Barr, public relations expert and CEO of 10 Yetis, says “the commercials will be one of the closest guarded secrets in endorsement history. With the world-respected WME talent agency rumored to be handling the negotiations, the Sussexes will be looking around at deals like Beyoncé’s last $20 million contract with Adidas and expecting a similar or better offer.”

Meghan Markle with her hands together at the Invictus Games

Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams says the couple need to bounce back quickly from the Spotify deal falling through (and rumors of their Netflix deal following suit and doing the same). “The couple face a dilemma that is both challenging and potentially disastrous, but they could still come out on top,” he says. “If they were to lose Spotify and Netflix and not announce anything else, that really would be seen as extremely serious.”

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.