The Royal Family Has “Zero Interest” in Meghan Markle’s Netflix Show, According to Sources
It is the show that Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is hoping will reinvent her, but so far With Love, Meghan has received mixed reviews.
In the UK, the critics have not held back, with the Daily Telegraph describing Meghan’s new lifestyle show as “an exercise in narcissism,” while the normally anti-royal and left-wing newspaper The Guardian described it as “pointless.” Vanity Fair contributing editor Anna Peele summed it up as, “To watch With Love is to microdose quotidian revelations.” As for the royal family? Its senior members, including Prince William and Kate Middleton, have “zero interest” in watching the TV show, according to people with knowledge, with one source saying, “The king knows more than enough about beekeeping. Besides, he’s far too busy to sit down and watch it.”
In episode one (“Hello, Honey!”), Meghan is seen harvesting honey from her beehives. Both King Charles (Buckingham Palace is home to four beehives) and the Princess of Wales are keen beekeepers, but according to one friend of the royals, “There’s very little to actually learn from Meghan’s TV show. I suspect that [the royal family] will be quite dismissive of it. I can’t imagine Kate and William will sit down and watch it. Why would they?”
The eight-episode series dropped on Netflix on Tuesday and has since received a lukewarm response. Meghan welcomes guests including The Office alum Mindy Kaling, Tatcha founder Vicky Tsai, and chef Roy Choi to the kitchen of a mansion near the Sussexes’ Montecito villa.
Editor in chief of Majesty magazine Ingrid Seward tells Vanity Fair, “I watched it wanting it to be something special, but it really wasn’t. This was meant to be the make or break show for Meghan but it didn’t feel groundbreaking in any way. Netflix might get curiosity viewings but I think this will be the death knell for their multimillion-dollar TV deal.”
