{"id":501414,"date":"2025-10-15T12:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T12:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/501414\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T12:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T12:08:10","slug":"no-meghan-your-netflix-deal-isnt-a-sign-of-strength","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/501414\/","title":{"rendered":"No, Meghan: your Netflix deal isn’t a sign of ‘strength’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Duchess of Sussex has been largely absent from the public eye since the release of the second series of With Love, Meghan, which came and went without anyone \u2013 save sarcastic journalists<\/a> \u2013 bothering to pay it much attention. However, Meghan Markle is nothing if not indomitable. And so, shortly after she and her husband were honoured as the Humanitarians of the Year in New York last week, Meghan has argued that her new, reduced deal with Netflix is not a reflection of her waning commercial appeal, but instead represented a sign of strength. Really?<\/p>\n

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Meghan argued that her new, reduced deal with Netflix is not a reflection of her waning appeal, but a sign of strength<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Demonstrating that the award she should have won in New York last week was for Brass Neck of the Year, La Markle commented that: \u2018My husband and I were in an overall deal with Netflix then, not dissimilar to\u00a0Higher Ground\u00a0and the Obamas\u2019 deal, once that had come to its term, the extension of it \u2013 which was such an incredible sign of the strength of our partnership \u2013 was now being in a first-look deal.\u2019<\/p>\n

Such is the robustness of this deal \u2013 which, in practice, means that Netflix are only given first refusal on any of the projects that the pair come up with, rather than being obliged to commission any of them \u2013 that Meghan went on to say in the interview at Fortune magazine\u2019s Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington DC that: \u2018[It] is also exciting because it gives us flexibility to go to our partners first, then at the same time, shop content that might not be the right fit for Netflix but has a home somewhere else.\u2019 <\/p>\n

For ordinary mortals, this is the equivalent of saying that you have not been fired from your job, but instead being given an A1, absolutely peerless opportunity to pursue other and even more lucrative opportunities: a degree of optimistic chutzpah that makes the song \u2018Tomorrow\u2019 look like a downbeat, miserabilist dirge.<\/p>\n

Still, nobody has ever come to expect introspection or self-awareness from Meghan, or her husband. It recently came to light that, after she attended the Balenciaga fashion show in Paris, her spokesman claimed that her presence there was vital because the two \u2018have worked closely together collaborating on design for key moments on the world stage\u2019. \u2018This evening,\u2019 her spokesman said, \u2018reflects the culmination of many years of artistry and friendship, reflected in her support for his new creative chapter at Balenciaga\u2019.<\/p>\n

Is this not just a very grandiose way of saying that she texted Balenciaga\u2019s designer Pierpaolo Piccioli, whom she had met years before, and asked if she could attend his show? If so, it\u2019s oddly reminiscent of the central character from Amandaland and her penchant for \u2018collabs\u2019.<\/p>\n

It was the late Queen \u2013 in words supposedly suggested by the Princess of Wales \u2013 who damningly rubbished Meghan\u2019s various claims of ill treatment with the simple words: \u2018Recollections may vary\u2019. And so it has proved ever since, repeatedly. Simply to denigrate the duchess as a fantasist is inaccurate \u2013 she almost certainly believes what she\u2019s saying, whether it has any basis in the truth \u2013 but the suspicion remains that, as Brand Sussex becomes increasingly tarnished, the peddling to stay afloat has become ever more frantic.<\/p>\n

Hence the flogging of the As Ever brand \u2013 \u2018it\u2019s amazing to sit and watch a show for 30 minutes, but how can I give you a recipe in two minutes? And where can I share that with you? And how that continues to grow As Ever\u2019 \u2013 and the promise, or threat, that there will be a \u2018holiday special\u2019 episode of With Love, Meghan next month, as well as further \u2018bespoke retail collaborations\u2019 down the path.<\/p>\n

Admirers of the duchess and her attempts to remain relevant will rejoice at this. The rest of us might note that the public profile she so zealously guards is beginning to show signs of fraying, and may wonder if \u2013 when \u2013 the whole circus will finally draw to a not-so-strong close, after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Duchess of Sussex has been largely absent from the public eye since the release of the second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,7721,7719,7718,7720,1281,447,7710,519,7711],"class_list":{"0":"post-501414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-duchess-of-sussex","10":"tag-duke-of-sussex","11":"tag-harry","12":"tag-meghan","13":"tag-meghan-markle","14":"tag-prince-harry","15":"tag-royal-families","16":"tag-royal-family","17":"tag-uk-royal-family"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115378107487871563","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}