Meghan Markle must show she is authentic in new Netflix series
Who is Meghan Markle?
That’s the question that’s resonating before her new Netflix series, “With Love, Meghan,” premieres on March 4.
“Nobody knows who she really is,” said a TV insider who has had a glimpse at the show. “[The world] created this image of who they think she is.”
Is she a survivor, a victim or the biggest thorn in the royal family’s side?
Is Markle, as she has described herself over the past few years, “the most trolled person in the entire world” — or are she and Prince Harry, as Spotify exec Bill Simmons deemed the couple after their scrapped deal with the platform, “f–king grifters“?
Even Bethenny Frankel weighed in on it this week, saying: “I think the reason [Markle] can’t win for losing is that there is a lack of identity and understanding as to exactly who she is to the audience.”
Markle is said to be “going back to her roots” with her new Netflix show, but she faces an uphill battle to prove that she can truly be authentic.
This week, the Duchess of Sussex, 43, released an Instagram video to reveal that she was re-branding her lifestyle range — changing the name from American Riviera Orchard to the romantic As Ever.
While the March 2024 teaser for American Riviera Orchard included footage of Markle wearing a ball gown while standing in a grand stone breezeway, this time she presented a laid-back California girl image, complete with glowing, bare face and tousled hair falling over her eyes.
“She doesn’t claim to be perfect,” the TV insider added. “That’s what the gist of the show is — she’s just having fun.”
“With Love, Meghan” will apparently present an earthy version of Markle: cooking, gardening, hosting, and even bee keeping, albeit with celebrity friends popping in sometimes.
One of them, Mindy Kaling, even seemed to help promote Markle’s desired image this week, telling Time, “I think a misconception about Meghan is that she’s in any way fussy or has expectations of fanciness.”
“The show is really her being in her own space and doing her thing,” the TV insider said. “It’s such a joyous show.”
But there is a snag.
Sources told us that the As Ever lifestyle products won’t be ready for sale until a few months after the show’s launch.
As Page Six previously revealed, the mom-of-two has teamed up with Netflix to sell her products. Contrary to reports, we are told there won’t be any pop-up installations or branded cafes at malls across the country.
When Markle met her husband, Prince Harry, 40, in 2016, she was still an actress on the USA show “Suits” and had her own lifestyle blog, The Tig, where she posted recipes, interviews with friends like Serena Williams, and photos from her travels.
It was also where she first teased her then-secret romance with Harry, posting a photo of two bananas “spooning” as well as a picture of the matching bracelet the royal gave her.
He makes just a brief cameo in her new show, we’re told. However, the As Ever logo includes a palm tree in a nod to the Sussexes’ California home, along with two hummingbirds — a favorite of Prince Harry’s,” an insider told People.
“Harry is a true partner,” said a source who knows the couple. “He’s happy that Meghan is sharing this part of herself again … inspiring people with beautiful ideas is one of her greatest passions. In many ways, this show is now going back to the beginning of their love story.”
After acknowledging “there has been a lot of curiosity” about the launch of her company, Markle shared this week, “Last year, I had thought, You know what? American Riviera, that sounds like such a great name. It’s my neighborhood, it’s a nickname for Santa Barbara, but it limited me to things that were just manufactured and grown in this area.”
There was no acknowledgement of having failed to get a trademark approved for the name.
The trademark snafus were issues “just like any new business owner would experience,” claimed the source who knows the couple. “Meghan’s vision was initially using fruit from her backyard for her jams.” (Last year, Markle sent jars of jam, featuring the American Riviera Orchard logo, to stars like Kris Jenner and Chrissy Tiegen — who then posted about it on social media.)
“But there were issues because you can’t trademark a geographical area, and this new name allows for the evolution of categories,” the source added, pointing out that “As ever” is how Markle signs letters and notes.
But the new name has also run into a road block, as it’s been used for years by a NYC-based clothing brand run by Mark Kolshi and his family. Kolski admitted he doesn’t own the trademark to As Ever, but he told the US Sun this week that he would not be changing the name and is “exploring all possibilities.”
Meanwhile, the mayor of Porreres, Spain, claimed the As Ever logo is “nearly identical” to the small town’s emblem, dating back to 1370, and said residents are “upset” because Markle is using their coat of arms to “sell products like jam around the world.”
Asked if there was a scramble behind the scenes to ready the new brand for the show, the TV insider insisted the decisions were not “last minute,” adding Markle held conversations with Netflix as her partner.
Markle and Harry signed a multi-million dollar deal with the streamer after moving to the US back in 2020.
Their docu-series “Harry and Meghan” debuted in December 2022 and broke Netflix’s record for highest viewing hours of any documentary title in a premiere week.
Multiple sources have suggested that the Sussexes’ Netflix deal could end this year — as their subsequent projects, including “Heart of Invictus” and “Polo,” failed to move the needle.
But a second industry insider told Page Six that if Markle’s new show is a hit, Netflix could well extend the deal. (And Netflix’s chief content officer Bela Bajaria recently confirmed to the Daily Mail that the Sussexes are still working on a screen adaptation of the bestselling romance novel “Meet Me at the Lake” by Carley Fortune.)
“With all the other projects, you only saw Meghan and Harry for like two seconds. But this is Meghan back to being Meghan … love her or hate her, people are fascinated by her,” said the second insider. “This show is really her being in her space and doing her thing … she’s going back to her roots.”
Markle filmed the new series at an estate owned by Tom and Sherrie Cipolla, close to her own $14 million home in Montecito, Calif.
“I was on maternity leave with my daughter in March and April, and Meghan texted me that she was doing a show where she was going to cook for her friends,” Kaling told Time. “Would I want to come to Montecito and have her cook for me? … I left with a basket of fresh produce and homemade jam and hot sauce because she knew I loved hot sauce. She’s a very generous woman who knew I needed a break.”
And let us not forget that Markle is a one-woman promotional machine.
This week, she also posted a photo of her 2025 vision board to Instagram, delivering some Easter eggs about what we can expect from As Ever.
“Farm fresh eggs, carrots two ways, sweet treats,” is written in calligraphy.
There’s a black-and-white photo of the duchess with pioneering farm-to-table chef Alice Waters, who appears in the new show. There are jam labels (“Jam is my jam”, she joked on Instagram this week), alongside a green paper star with the name “Archie” on it.
It’s thought that the sweet memento was made by Markle and Prince Harry’s eldest child, Prince Archie, 5. (Daughter Princess Lilibet can be seen, albeit barely, on the As Ever website.) Other items include printouts of quotes, including one that reads, “I love you with all my butt. I would say heart but my butt is bigger.”
There’s also photo of Markle with her late dog Guy, whose death she mourned in a heartfelt Instagram post last month.
Potentially clouding the happiness, though, is the news that the Department of Homeland Security will make information from Harry’s immigration records public with some redactions.
The DHS this week said it had agreed to release three parts of the royal’s records, according to the document filed in federal court as part of an ongoing battle by the conservative Heritage Foundation to uncover whether Harry’s visa application divulged he’d used drugs.
President Trump said he had no plans to throw Harry out of the country, while also making a jibe at Markle. “I’ll leave him alone. He’s got enough problems with his wife. She’s terrible,” Trump told The Post.
Despite the constant headlines they find themselves in, the Sussexes are said to be very happy in California, a friend said, adding that Markle’s comments on Instagram — “I haven’t been able to share [my love of cooking and crafting] with you in the same way for the past few years” — were in no way at jab at the royal family.
‘Meghan is back in her element,” the friend said, “and this is her coming out of her shell.”
