LIKE a slowly collapsing soufflé, the Duchess of Sussex’s “narcissistic” cookery show has been judged a ratings flop – and Netflix has decided to pull the plug. The streamer will let the five-year, $100million deal they inked with Meghan and Harry for that series and a host of other shows quietly lapse when it is due for renewal in September.
A source at Netflix said of Meghan’s efforts: “She had everything going for her — name, platform, press — and the numbers were dismal.” Lifestyle and cookery show With Love, Meghan only ranked at number 383 in Netflix’s six-monthly engagement report this year, with just 5.3million viewers across the globe. Described by one critic as an “exercise in narcissism”, it was beaten by reruns of the first four seasons of legal drama Suits, which also starred the Duchess in her pre-royal days.
Once judged by some as Britain’s greatest soft power asset since Princess Diana, Meghan was filmed for her show making ladybird-shaped canapes from cherry tomatoes and mozzarella balls.
‘Dull indulgence’
Even The Guardian was moved to describe With Love, Meghan as “the sort of gormless lifestyle filler that, had it been made by the BBC, would be used to bulk out episodes of Saturday Kitchen”.
In truth, the show is a smash hit compared to her husband’s vanity docuseries Polo, blasted as “a dull indulgence about a rich person’s pursuit”. In the first six months of the year the programme attracted a disastrous 500,000 views globally, ranking it at number 3,442 out of around 7,000 shows.
Reruns of the nine-year-old cartoon He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe scored similar numbers. A Netflix insider has pronounced the couple’s lucrative contract “dead”, adding: “They’re just waiting for the credits to roll. “They’re letting it expire without drama. There’s no appetite for anything new.”
The end of what many regarded as a reliable source of vast income for the former HRHs has set off a bomb under Project Sussex and its bold ambitions. And of course it is not the Sussexes’ first media deal that has gone south.
Their reported $20million podcasting deal with Spotify was terminated in June 2023, with senior Spotify executive Bill Simmons labelling the duo “f***ing grifters”. Hosted by Meghan, the Archetypes podcast featured conversations with friends and celebrities including Serena Williams, Mariah Carey and Trevor Noah.
Critics said that in the episode with Williams it took 11 minutes before the tennis legend got a word in edgeways. In 2023 Simmons said: “I wish I had been involved in the ‘Meghan and Harry leave Spotify’ negotiation.
“The F***ing Grifters. That’s the podcast we should have launched with them. I have got to get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea.
“It’s one of my best stories. F*** them. The grifters. The Sussexes’ undoubted TV hit was docuseries Harry & Meghan, released in December 2022. It became Netflix’s biggest documentary debut, with more than 28million watching in the first four days of its release.
In it the couple accused the Royal Family of “unconscious bias” and claimed Palace aides were complicit in negative media briefings against them. Podcast boss Simmons said of Harry that year: “You live in f***ing Montecito and you just sell documentaries and podcasts and nobody cares what you have to say about anything unless you talk about the Royal Family and you just complain about them.”
While the Netflix deal will lapse, Meghan’s As Ever collection of wine, jam and cookies is displaying “sold out” signs on her website.
It raises the question of whether it will be her earnings that are increasingly relied upon to fund the family’s expensive Hollywood lifestyle, and if so, will it be enough?
PR expert Nick Ede believes that in the future the Duchess will provide the surest revenue stream, saying: “Meghan is the best way of making moneyfor the two of them. She is the breadwinner. However, marketing experts Camille Moore and Phillip Millar accused Meghan’s As Ever brand of being “not intelligent” and “not well executed”.
Speaking on The Art Of The Brand podcast this week, Millar accused Meghan of trying to rinse the maximum value from her “fame that came from Suits and being a part of the Royal Family”.
Millar added: “Her brand wasn’t one built on substance. It was based on using people.”
Meanwhile, Harry, who has two paying jobs — with sustainable tourism firm Travalyst and coaching company BetterUp — seems most passionate when he is undertaking his charitable endeavours.
During a recent trip to Angola, The Duke followed in the footsteps of Princess Diana by walking through a minefield on behalf of his charity The Halo Trust.
‘Life of service’
Harry said in a statement: “As a father to young children, it breaks my heart to see innocent children still living and playing next to minefields,”
Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond commented: “I think this is precisely the sort of work that Harry should do.
“It is not only a hugely worth-while cause, but it also connects him with his mother, which is something he yearns for. I think he is coming to recognise that the LA celebrity world is one in which he is not especially comfortable. And he seems quite willing to let Meghan take the limelight over there. He speaks frequently about a life of service, and trips like this certainly serve a very good cause indeed.”
Yet charity missions, while good for the soul, do not pay the bills. And the Sussexes’ court in the Californian sunshine is not a cheap enterprise. Their home, a nine-bedroom, 16-bathroom mansion close to the Pacific in Montecito, is in America’s fifth most expensive postcode.
They bought it for almost £11million after the drama of Megxit in 2020, and the following year Harry said in his tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey that his father has “literally cut me off financially”. Without the money left to him by Diana — said to be £10million — Harry said “we would not have been able to do this”.
Harry’s finances got a boost last September when he turned 40 and a fund set up by the late Queen Mother gave him access to around £8million. But while most people could live very well on that kind of cash, Harry and Meghan’s lifestyle is not like most people’s.
They have more in common with the super-rich of California than your average couple. Indeed, they are said to have mortgage payments of around £350,000 a year, while staffing costs come to an estimated £180,000.
Harry has also spent on court cases and could be in line for a £1.5million bill for his failed attempt to get the Home Office to pay for his security in the UK. Security is a very real worry for Prince Harry, who served two tours of Afghanistan.
Former royal protection officer Simon Morgan estimated the Sussexes’ protection costs come to at least £3million a year, adding: “Security is not a fashion accessory, it’s a need.”
EYE-WATERING TAB
It leaves the Sussexes with an eye-watering tab just to meet their estimated outgoings. Last month, royal financial expert Norman Baker told Channel 5 show Meghan And Harry: Where Did The Money Go? that the Sussexes’ earning potential was on the wane. The former Liberal Democrat MP said: “They’ve done the big hits that they could do.
“They’ve done the big Spotify event, they’ve done the big book, there is nothing else to come, nothing else to sell apart from themselves.”
Harry’s autobiography Spare became the fastest-selling non-fiction book ever and has gone on to sell more than six million copies worldwide. With their Netflix deal over, perhaps Meghan will feel the time is right for her to release her own blockbuster tome to get the cash registers ringing again. Both Netflix and Harry and Meghan are yet to comment.
