'Queen Charlotte' Debut Episode Dedicated to Jacqueline Avant

'Queen Charlotte' pays tribute to the late Jacqueline Avant.

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story dedicated its debut to a special philanthropist who inspired the show.

The first episode of the Netflix TV show featured a dedication placard to the late Jacqueline Avant, who was killed in a home invasion robbery at her Beverly Hills home in 2021.

While Avant, 81, did not have any direct ties to the show and its filming, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who is married to Avant's daughter Nicole, said the late philanthropist initially inspired the series.

Sarandos, 58, revealed that his mother-in-law's "favourite historical figure" was Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in an Instagram post published on Thursday. Queen Charlotte is the subject of the series.

Jacqueline Avant 'inspired' the  Queen Charlotte 'spinoff'

Sarandos claimed that Avant even gave him the concept for a Queen Charlotte spinoff.

"After the release of the first season of Bridgerton, I had the occasion to be at [Avant's] home with my wife @Nicoleavantofficial and while Nicole was talking to her father Clarence, Jacquie pulled me aside and said, 'you really must do something on Netflix about Queen Charlotte,'" he wrote in the post, which featured one of the Queen's letters.

"When I told her that [Queen Charlotte] was in Bridgerton she rolled her eyes and disappeared down the hallway and returned with a stack of books and actual handwritten letters written by Queen Charlotte that she had bought at auctions and collected over the years," he continued.

Sarandos said he "politely took them home and started to read and instantly could see what an amazing story she had and my head filled with possibilities."

He then called Bridgerton creator and showrunner Shonda Rhimes "about Jacquie's inspired idea" and told her that "someone was certainly going to tell her story in a film or series and it should be her."

The 53-year-old Rhimes "loved the idea and jumped in," according to Sarandos, before assisting in bringing the "first expansion of Bridgerton beyond the book series" to Netflix screens.

Avant, unfortunately, passed away before witnessing the outcome, however. She was fatally shot at her Beverly Hills home during a home invasion robbery in late November 2021.

"Jacqueline did not live to see what you all will see tonight but you will see in the last moments of episode one, Shonda has dedicated the series to the memory of Jacqueline Avant," Sarandos concluded his post.

"I love that Jacquie and I shared that special moment and it led to the creation of something really magical."

He also remarked that Queen Charlotte was "the story of a queen, inspired by a queen."