Meghan Markle’s new show may be her final shot in Hollywood
Meghan Markle’s new cooking show is looking like a pressure cooker.
“With Love, Meghan,” premiering January 15, is reportedly the final entry in Markle and Prince Harry’s multi-million Netflix deal, which is slated to end this year.
Earlier this month, the couple released their “Polo” docu-series on the streamer to lackluster reviews. (Wrote the Guardian: It “feels like a spoof documentary designed to play on screens in the background of episodes of ‘Succession.’”) And while 2022’s “Harry & Meghan” reportedly set a documentary audience record on Netflix when it premiered, it was a one-off, limited series.
This is all on top of the Sussexes getting dropped from a Spotify podcast deal in 2023 — a split so ugly it led exec Bill Simmons to call them “f–king grifters.”
One Hollywood exec told The Post that Markle’s new series is the pair’s last chance at streaming relevancy.
“It’s so sad because they had this huge platform,” the exec said. “Now I can’t really see [Markle] doing much else in terms of … pushing herself into the public eye.”
A rep for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle declined to comment.
Since the trailer dropped late last week for “With Love, Meghan” — showing Markle picking flowers, serving Mindy Kaling cake and having cocktails in a rented $5 million Montecito mansion — it’s been viewed nearly 50 million times on X alone and covered by every major media outlet.
But some of that coverage has been ruthless.
“Regardless of how relatable Markle believes herself to be, hers is a lifestyle that very few people can actually emulate,” Eater wrote, adding: “I’m already bored.” Clucked the Independent: “Oh, Meghan — we expected more from you than ‘trad wife.’”
“I don’t think anyone is excited by this,” the Hollywood executive told The Post. “Everybody in entertainment is sending that ridiculous trailer back and forth, being like … ‘What is this show about? I don’t get it.’”
While former “Suits” Markle actress had her own lifestyle blog, The Tig, before her marriage, entertainment experts say “With Love, Meghan” feels contrived.
“Audiences are smart. When a celebrity or brand is inauthentic, audiences and consumers can tell right away. I think that’s what is missing. The choices they have made don’t feel authentic,” Cassie Zebisch-Schienle, founder of Hollywood-based PR firm CMZPR, who works with talent such as HGTV queen Christina Haack, told The Post. “There have been so many pivots [from Harry and Markle] and what feels like throwing things out there to see what sticks. And nothing is, because it isn’t authentic.”
As soon as the trailer — set to The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Do You Believe in Magic” — dropped, social media quickly lit up with online sleuths comparing Markle’s floral dresses and peony-dappled tablescape to “Emma’s Kitchen,” a YouTube series featuring British socialite Emma Thynn, who has the noble title of the Marchioness of Bath.
“Why is Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex trying to channel Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath?” read a typical tweet.
But there were also accusations that a scene of Markle tending to bees was a copy of Kate Middleton’s beekeeping hobby, and that the Duchess of Sussex’s “Ladybug Caprese Bruschetta” was lifted from a number of online recipes.
“Do you believe in tragic, more like. I don’t think this show stands a chance,” British TalkTV radio host Kevin O’Sullivan said on his show Monday.
When Meghan and Harry left the royal family in February 2020, the future looked bright. Before the year was over, they’d launched their Archewell production company and philanthropic arm and signed mega deals with both Netflix and Spotify.
Then came their bombshell media debut, an interview by Oprah Winfrey, in March 2021 — when they made their accusations of racism in the palace, claiming a senior royal had questioned what color their as-yet-to-be-born son Archie’s skin would be.
It was a blockbuster — as was Harry’s tell-all memoir, “Spare.”
But sources wonder if the Sussexes are good at creating compelling content about anything other than themselves.
“They don’t have anything else to trade on besides their story,” the Hollywood executive told The Post.
The Sussexes released two podcasts with Spotify: a holiday special and the “Archetypes” series in 2022, where Markle hosted discussions about stereotypes of women, featuring guests like Mariah Carey and Paris Hilton. It ran for 12 episodes and, although it generated a lot of buzz and had a short-lived spot at the top of Spotify’s charts, quickly faded from public consciousness. (Lemonada Media, who Meghan later signed with, have teased its return this year.)
Archwell’s head of communications left that year, along with its head of audio and scripted content.
“If you look at someone like the Obamas and their production deal, none of it is based on [their own lives] … It’s a completely different way of looking at talent and approaching it,” the Hollywood exec. “I don’t know that Harry and Meghan have a worldview to do so. They’re running out of things that are interesting to the public.”
There’s a lot riding on this new show — which could be a launching pad for Markle’s pending lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard.
Page Six reported Tuesday Markle will sell her lifestyle brand’s products directly to viewers through Netflix. But it’s unclear what happens for the Sussexes post-Netflix.
Last March, she gifted jars of homemade jam to celebrity pals like Kris Jenner and Chrissy Teigen, who then posted about it on social media. But the brand has faced ongoing trademark troubles. In November, longtime lifestyle brand Harry & David filed a protest letter against American Riviera Orchard, claiming its name was too similar to Harry & David’s Royal Riviera product line.
