Meghan Markle drops new Netflix series ‘With Love, Meghan’ and As Ever brand on the same day as first interview in years
Meghan Markle discusses how she developed her brand amid the release of a Netflix series and a range of lifestyle products.
After much anticipation, a return to Instagram, a postponement, and a somewhat unfavorable expose in Vanity Fair, Meghan Markle’s new series has finally dropped on Netflix.
On Tuesday, after being pushed back due to the wildfires that spread throughout Los Angeles in January, “With Love, Meghan,” a new reality lifestyle series starring the Duchess of Sussex, debuted on the streamer.
The eight-episode series features Meghan as she gives lifestyle tips, cooks with star-studded guests, gardens, and crafts all from a picturesque farmhouse. Despite how it sounds, she told People magazine (in her first interview in years) that this is not a “stand and stir” type of show.
Her longtime makeup artist and friend, Daniel Martin, appears in the first episode to help her make skillet pasta and a dainty cake. Later in the show, Mindy Kaling arrives to gush about the lifestyle guru’s jam. Both guests also delve into how they know the Duchess and note how this whole lifestyle brand began with her lifestyle website, The Tig.
“With Love, Meghan” is a return to Meghan’s wheelhouse. She’s putting her lifestyle guru hat back on and doing it in her own style. Hours after the series landed, her new lifestyle product range, As Ever, went live online, though nothing is available for purchase yet.
“There are tons of twists and turns — even with the name,” Meghan told People magazine about the process of launching her lifestyle brand, initially called American Riviera Orchard.
“I appreciate everyone who gave me the grace to make mistakes and figure it out and also to be forgiving with myself through that. It’s a learning curve,” she added.
“With Love, Meghan” and its roll-out might address some continued curiosity about who this iteration of Meghan is. In both the series and with As Ever, Meghan is not-so-subtly asserting this is who she’s always been: the gal in the gorgeous kitchen with a creative idea for a last-minute guest. Or at least she’s trying.
Early reviews have been mixed. The usual detractors and critics, alike, have implied the same thing: The show has an authenticity problem. Meghan, in all her domestic bliss and cashmere, feels to some like her turn at the tradwife or “traditional wife” trend.
Meghan responded to those claims by telling People, “I see myself as an entrepreneur and a female founder.”
Given that she’s on Instagram and blazing her path in the lifestyle space—much like an influencer—she added, “If the brand ends up influential, then that’s great.”
Whether there’s merit to the argument that this lacks authenticity or not, after a polo documentary and the splashy “Harry & Meghan” docuseries that she and Harry’s Archewell Productions released on Netflix in 2022, she is attempting to reintroduce herself to us. And as she indicated to People, she’s been figuring it out as she goes.
Within the first few episodes we get f-bombs (not from her, though she doesn’t flinch), mentions of Beyoncé, and even a reveal that she’s wearing pants from Zara. While Prince Harry makes an appearance (in the final episode), there’s no mention of the royal aspect of their life. Intimate details are peppered throughout, like the flavor of her wedding cake, a meal she cooks with her children, and a dish her mom loves.
“The series is about doing what you can do,” she told People, adding, “and doing it with love.”
As the kids say, “let her cook!”
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