Meghan Markle's hotly-awaited, self-fronted Netflix offering dropped on the streaming service last week after she pushed it back in the wake of the Los Angeles fires in January.
And while she was no doubt hopeful that her wholesome lifestyle series, With Love, Meghan, would charm viewers, unfortunately the show received an onslaught of criticism and widespread mockery.
And now, insiders say the former Suits actress – who insisted in her eight-part series that she was rebranding herself as Meghan Sussex and dropping ‘Markle’ – is hugely disappointed and hurt by the reaction.
Our source says, ‘Meghan’s gone from being on a complete high to feeling crushed and humiliated. She was adamant that this would be a pivotal moment for her and truly believed it could turn her into the next Martha Stewart – an opportunity to re-launch her career and boost her image.
‘Of course, she was anticipating some negative reaction, but that doesn’t mean the backlash she’s received has hurt any less. She’s devastated. She has tried to plaster on a smile and cling on to the fact that the show reached the top 10 for a couple of days. But deep down, she knows those ratings would have been from all the intrigue surrounding her, and possibly not a genuine interest in the programme itself.’
Described as a ‘reimagining of lifestyle programming’, With Love, Meghan follows the Duchess of Sussex as she invites an array of friends and famous guests to a beautiful £6.3m farmhouse – located two miles from her and Prince Harry’s Montecito home – and offers them cooking, gardening and hosting advice. Among Meghan’s visitors was award-winning actress Mindy Kaling, who was corrected by the duchess when she referred to her as Meghan Markle.
Meghan, 43, said to Mindy, ‘It’s so funny you keep saying Meghan Markle. You know, I’m Sussex now. You have kids and you go, “No, I share my name with my children.” I didn’t know how meaningful it would be to me but it just means so much to go, “This is our family name. Our little family name.”’
Elsewhere, Meghan – who shares Archie, five, and Lilibet, three, with Harry, 40 – confessed to The Office star Mindy in another scene that people ‘took it very personally’ when she sent out 50 jars of strawberry jam as part of her American Riviera Orchard brand inauguration last year, a brand which she hassince renamed As Ever.
Weighing in on the series – which has widely received poor reviews – royal editor Rebecca English said that she ‘lost the will to live after the episode about making ice cubes’ and ‘couldn’t really work out what [Meghan] was trying to say’. Then, during a rare interview on The Drew Barrymore Show to promote her show, brand and products – including her famous strawberry jam – Meghan’s body language was picked apart by experts, who claimed that she portrayed herself as ‘wary’.
However, there was some high praise among the backlash. One X user wrote, ‘The Duchess has successfully transitioned into her signature identity as a wife, mother, and domestic queen of details’. And fans rushed to support her in their droves, with one writing, ‘Ignore the haters, Meghan – they’re jealous. We love and support you.’
But with the Sussexes’ $100 million deal with Netflix to consider – which also includes the recent release of unsung docuseries Polo – insiders say that Meghan is worried about their small-screen careers.
A source says, ‘Meghan now feels unsure about any sort of future in TV and with Netflix – for not only her, but Harry too. This was her attempt to make the public see the real her – the her she wanted them to see for so long. But all the negativity has left her feeling very hurt and, frankly, a bit annoyed. She’s still hoping that the brand launch and her products are successful.’
The launch of With Love, Meghan comes after Kate Middleton – who the duchess is said to have clashed with in the past – reportedly promised a group of young gardeners that she would send them her jam recipe during a visit to Wales last month. It led to royal commentator Charles Rae claiming that there is a ‘jam war’ brewing between Kate, 43, and Meghan.
And the insider adds that despite Meghan’s heartache over her show’s backlash, she isn’t concerned about the royals – who she has famously fallen out with since her departure from royal life in 2020 – and their reaction to her show.
The insider says, ‘Meghan doesn’t know if any of the royals have watched the series or not – and she’s all too aware of the comparisons with Kate. But she insists she doesn’t care what she thinks, or for that matter how she’s perceived by any of the royals. She knows she’ll be constantly pitted against Kate, but she’s determined not to rise to it.’
