Ari Emanuel confirms that Duchess Meghan is no longer his WME client

In retrospect, this readjusts my perspective on a lot of the past year. Super-agent Ari Emanuel is currently promoting Roll the Calls: A Memoir, a real bridge-burning tell-all about his life, his family and all of his Hollywood years. Emanuel has been making headlines in the trade papers for what he’s said and written about some major Hollywood figures. But in his Sunday Times interview, he broke some news about the Duchess of Sussex. Back in 2023, Emanuel personally courted Meghan and got her to sign on to WME for representation. Jill Smoller – aka Serena Williams’ agent – handled Meghan’s day-to-day needs, but Emanuel was the one to sign her. Since 2023, the tabloids have periodically claimed that Meghan had been “dumped” by WME. Well, Emanuel confirmed in this Times interview that he and Meghan parted ways in 2025.

Hollywood has changed and he no longer just represents the talent through his William Morris Endeavour (WME) agency; he has also become a sports mogul, boss of a multibillion dollar empire that owns the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and a wodge of UK assets including the Frieze art fairs and Winter Wonderland and he is closing a deal on several West End theatres. He is now the king of content, nerve centre of a sprawling sport and entertainment empire that spans from Adele to Serena Williams.

He used to represent Meghan Markle too, but they parted ways last year. Where does he think her career is heading? “Here’s the great thing: I don’t have to think about that any more.”

[From The Times]

For what it’s worth, I remember that Smoller joined Meghan at Paris Fashion Week last year, so Meghan still had representation with J-Smol and WME as of late September/early October of 2025. Radar Online picked up Emanuel’s comments and dusted off the old trope of “Meghan is too demanding, Emanuel dumped her.” It’s possible that Emanuel dumped Meghan, but he doesn’t say that. What’s far more likely (to me) is that Meghan and Harry began winding down their California connections in advance of this ill-conceived, haphazard UK move. The downgraded Netflix contract, Meghan backing away from doing any more With Love, Meghan episodes/seasons, the changes in Archewell’s charitable arm and now this, the severance of Meghan’s WME representation. Something else I keep thinking about is how much money Meghan has left on the table over the years, and how frustrating that probably was for WME.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.