Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Chrissy Teigen (Photo: Jake Rosenberg / Netflix)
This should have been a fabulous day for Meghan – the second season of her lifestyle show, With Love, Meghan, debuting on Netflix, plus the launch of new As Ever products. It turned into a bit of a mess as the new episodes were overshadowed by so much other news.
Don’t step on your own toes. Even if they are in Hermès sandals.
If you’re putting out season two of a lifestyle show that was criticized for being bland and boring and only reached No. 383 for its first season, you want to maximize viewer attention on those new episodes.
So what does Meghan, Duchess of Sussex do to promote With Love, Meghan? She takes part in a slick Bloomberg interview that airs the same morning as the newest eight episodes of her lifestyle series air on Netflix. And she’s not really talking about the series. No, instead, she talks about her family, fashions, and future. It’s no surprise that most of the stories are focusing on the news in that interview, rather than the packaged artificiality of the series (more on that later).
It’s one of the best interviews of Meghan in recent years. While Meghan’s series presents her as an idealized California duchess, she’s far more down-to-earth in the Bloomberg interview, especially as she reminisces about her life as a royal while downing a messy burger and drinking an IPA on a restaurant patio.
The interview style of Emily Chang is both effortlessly polite and relentless as she repeatedly knocks Meghan off balance by not allowing the duchess to only repeat her talking points. Instead, Chang repeatedly asks probing questions about her business, the current political situation in the United States, and even making money off her fashion choices.
It’s an “interesting time for the whole world,” is how Meghan reacts when asked about the direction of her country under the administration of President Donald Trump. When Chang asks why she isn’t talking about Trump the way she did ahead of the 2016 election when she criticized his misogyny, Meghan responds, “It’s a different time,” adding it’s “not where I’m at right now.” Unsatisfied, Chang then asks about her reaction to Trump moving the National Guard into Los Angeles. By now, Meghan has the slightest look of being irritated when she says that such interventions are “not new,” adding “It’s a different version of what we’ve experienced [before].”
Then there are her pantyhose comments, referencing her life as a working royal in Britain: “It was different a few years ago, where I couldn’t be as vocal. I had to wear nude pantyhose all the time. Let’s be honest, that was not very ‘myself’. I hadn’t seen pantyhose since movies in the 1980s. … That felt a little bit inauthentic.” But that’s simply wrong. Yes, royal women wore pantyhose at events where the late Queen Elizabeth II was present. That’s because she liked them and wanted other royal women to wear them, just like they wore skirts, not pants. But at other events, royal women could leave their legs as bare as they’d like – and often did and do.
She also clears up the confusion sparked in the first series when she sharply corrected guest Mindy Kaling, who called her “Meghan Markle” by saying her last name is Sussex. She confirms that Sussex is actually a more informal last name: “My legal name is Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, but Sussex for us works as our family name. And it’s a name we share with our children.”
As I wrote in March, “Taking the name of a peerage (Sussex) as a surname is an informal practice used by royals and titled folk in Britain. For instance, when in school, Prince George was George Cambridge when his parents were the Duke and Duchess of of Cambridge…he’s George Wales now that they are Prince and Princess of of Wales.”
Still, she gets her own title wrong, as I explained after seeing her name on the first season’s credits: “She is the Duchess of Sussex, period. Only ex-wives of peers use their first names à la Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (which is how I and many others refer to her for readers not familiar with the intricacies of British titles — it’s so elaborate that the government has a 46-page explainer for passport titles).”
I’m holding on the 6.5/10 rating that I gave the first season. As I wrote on March 4, it’s fine but forgettable. So, if you liked season one, then you’ll like this one.
The basic problems are still there, largely because the two seasons were filmed back-to-back in 2024. Meghan is so self-conscious that viewers really notice when she relaxes and enjoys herself, such as devouring a delicious curry with naan out of bowls in the kitchen. Again, she’s better as the sous chef than the leader, and much more animated when with chefs than her friends.
One moment I enjoyed was when she and Chrissy Teigen talked about their time as “suitcase girls” on the Deal or No Deal game show. It’s obvious that Chrissy Teigen is more comfortable with her hard scrabble up the professional ladder than Meghan.
That’s also the oddest of episodes, as they only make some biscuits and pressed flower jewellery. Teigen is there for such a short time that it feels like her husband John Legend dropped her off, filled up his car with gas, then picked her back up. She wasn’t there long enough for a meal.
There’s one funny snap aimed at Meghan herself in the seventh episode, when she’s at a bar to learn from a mixologist who used to be a lawyer in New York. When Meghan asks if he’d watched Suits, he gives the ultimate deadpan reply, “Nope, I don’t watch basic cable.” Ouch!
There’s also no sight of Prince Harry. He made a last minute appearance at the end of season one but is completely absent from this season. What’s also noticeable is how many guests were British. The best is again Episode 3, this time featuring Tan France from Queer Eye. They really have a good chemistry, as highlighted by this clip, one of the few put on Meghan’s Instagram account.
The runner-up for best episode is Episode 3 featuring a laughing, relaxed Samin Nosrat. At the same time, it shows the dichotomy of Meghan cooking while wearing ultra-expensive clothes. At one point, she cracks open a ripe passionfruit while wearing a white floral Carolina Herrera sundress that cost US$2,500.
As for the food itself, while Season one repeatedly featured pasta and roasted tomatoes, this season’s repeat is tartines (what she calls toasted bread with ricotta). And yes, the flower sprinkles are back.
The day before the series launched, Meghan announced a new fruit spread was coming for the premiere day, along with what sounded like details of the next product line. “And just to add to the music to your ears, we are excited to share so many more new offerings as we transition into fall,” the email stated.
They didn’t time those sales to the launch of the show, but rather made the decision to wait another nine hours. That’s baffling as fans who want to buy the newest offering are going to be up early watching the eight new episodes (Netflix loaded them on their site at midnight, West Coast time). Surely, this is the one time you make sure someone is up very, very early to take advantage of the interest.
Also, where is the information about the “many more new offerings”? Sure, the site offered a new marmalade, including a version in keepsake packaging, but that was the only new product.
Today, I noticed that Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has removed the Shop My link from her Instagram account. She hadn’t updated it with new wardrobe options since late spring.
Her page is also empty on the Shop My site. That’s noteworthy because she talked at length in that Bloomberg interview about using her Shop My page to direct interested buyers to the creators of her wardrobe. She complained that fan fashion blogs sometimes got the attributions wrong meaning that small labels didn’t get the appropriate sales. Now, no one is getting links.
My latest Royal Roundup for Global TV’s The Morning Show (August 26, 2025)