Critics slam Meghan Markle’s new show: ‘I lost the will to live’

“I feel like you’re watching me fall in love,” says Meghan Markle, seemingly addressing the viewer in one of the eight episodes of With Love, Meghan. But nothing could be further from the truth. The Netflix series, which premiered on March 4, has not received the warm reception the Duchess of Sussex had hoped for. At one point, she even suggests to her friend Mindy Kaling that she should use the family name instead of Markle.

Designed as a lifestyle-focused return to the screen, the show was meant to mark the beginning of a big year for Markle. Instead, she has once again found herself at the center of criticism — particularly from the British media, who continue to treat her as an endless source of headlines.

“Meghan shares personal tips and tricks, embracing playfulness over perfection, and highlights how easy it can be to create beauty, even in the unexpected. She and her guests roll up their sleeves in the kitchen, the garden, and beyond, and invite you to do the same,” reads the press release published by Tudum, the official Netflix blog.

But, for many, the show falls short of expectations, presenting a carefully curated and superficial product that emanates joy from the most mundane aspects of everyday life. Those who haven’t watched a single minute of With Love, Meghan — Markle’s return to the essence of The Tig, the blog she shut down in 2017 after her relationship with Prince Harry became public — may lose any inclination to do so after reading the reviews.

Markle positions herself as a box of surprises, offering lifestyle tips to viewers — but are they truly useful or even novel? That’s precisely the question raised by the Daily Mail, which assembled royal experts to critique the series. “I lost the will to live after the episode about making ice cubes,” quipped journalist Rebecca English.

In the final moments of the show, Markle expresses gratitude for the support of her loved ones and for the opportunity to reconnect with “that creativity that I’ve missed so much.” But some critics find the underlying narrative grating. “It’s that victim myth basically that she’s the victim and now she’s free. It’s really quite offensive,” one expert told the Daily Mail. Another columnist argued: “Tt is so awful it is almost compelling.”

“Kiss the Netflix deal goodbye! With Love, Meghan is so pointless it might be the Sussexes’ last TV show.” That’s the scathing headline of The Guardian’s review — a striking shift from a publication that, due to its anti-monarchy stance, had traditionally supported the couple. “The problem is that nobody wants to see Meghan making decorative ladybird crostini with Mindy Kalin,” says the review, calling the shower “gormless lifestyle filler.”

Of the four projects the Sussexes have launched with Netflix, only one — Harry & Meghan (2022), the documentary detailing their departure from the British royal family — has delivered the expected success. And with the five-year anniversary of their royal exit this March, The Guardian argues that this is precisely the kind of content the public craves. “They want to see the furious, righteous Meghan from Harry & Meghan. In other words, what they want is a proper Meghan reality show.”

The Telegraph has been even more cutting in its critique: “Welcome to With Love, Meghan, the new Netflix series in which our heroine ‘elevates the everyday.’ You will never look at a turnip in the same way again."

The review describes the show’s format in biting terms: “The format is this: Meghan invites people to her pretend house – the show is filmed in an $8 million farmhouse down the road from her $14 million home – and they tell her how amazing she is. This happens for eight episodes. It is all about ‘the joy of hostessing’ because Meghan is extremely welcoming to everyone."

But the review also takes issue with her interactions with guests, highlighting an episode featuring her makeup artist, Daniel Martin. “When he arrives, the poor man doesn’t get a hug or a chance to sit down before she’s roped him into chopping tomatoes, making candles using beeswax from her own hives, and decorating the three-tier lemon and honey cake she made earlier.”

The review also questions her enthusiasm: “One of the oddest things about With Love, Meghan is that parts of it are a cooking show [...] but she doesn’t appear to be very good at cooking, or particularly to enjoy it, other than arranging vegetables and fruit on platters."

The Time is also blunt: “If you thought With Love, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex’s new lifestyle show, would be a smug, syrupy endurance watch, and that you would rather fry your eyeballs than sit through it, I have news for you. It is so much worse than that."

The paper argues that the Duchess of Sussex “seems to be auditioning to be the new Martha Stewart,” pointing out that she wears “a pricey beige cashmere sweater draped over her shoulders while cooking like no one ever does and a beautiful white blouse with lantern sleeves that nearly droop into her crudité platter.”

But what strikes The Times most is her unrelenting happiness: “It is all the relentless smiling, the desperate upbeatness of this high-spec, lavish production, that jars. At least I suspect it will with a more cynical British audience. Americans may feel differently. Meghan must have had face-ache with all that grinning."

Film and television industry outlet Variety describes With Love, Meghan as “an ego trip not worth taking.” “[It] exists as a sort of celebration of all things Duchess of Sussex — and, as with past of her media outings, no amount of praise seems enough," the review states.

The article also critiques the show’s dynamic: “Meghan’s guests must, as the price of getting to share an afternoon in a made-for-TV kitchen with her, praise her first. [...] With Love, Meghan is made with a great deal of love — in the sense that the greatest love of all is the one that a person has for herself."

Variety also argues that eight episodes are excessive for a concept that quickly becomes repetitive: “Meghan’s quirks come to seem like affectations, from the multiple times she remarks on the beauty of an egg yolk to her dedication to placing ‘edible flowers’ on just about any comestible.”

The Economist echoes this sentiment: “Welcome to With Love, Meghan, Meghan Markle’s new cookery and lifestyle show in which she smiles at things in Montecito. In episode one she smiles at raspberries on a cake. In another episode she smiles at hydrangeas. She also smiles at bees."

The review goes further, comparing her to Marie Antoinette — “she had a great time on her toy farm [...] until she didn’t anymore”— and criticizing the show’s cheerful tone, given the circumstances surrounding its filming. At the time, both King Charles III and Kate Middleton were undergoing cancer treatments, a contrast the publication finds jarring.

“Its overall air of wellness feels uncomfortable when two of the royals have been so very — and so quietly—ill. Kate’s two videos about her cancer lasted, in total, under five and a half minutes. Here, Meghan takes almost as long to decorate a cake," says the review, which describes the show as “out of touch with the times.”

Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter highlights the series’ failure to create an emotional connection with viewers: “To an already leery viewer, Meghan lacking the openness and vulnerability that would allow a naysayer to connect with and change their opinion of her doesn’t help.”

It continues: “There’s no honest conversation about the difficulties of motherhood with fellow mom guests — an element that would better ground the series for viewers than the overuse of edible flower sprinkles [...] Without the ingredient of relatability, which audiences crave more than anything, the series doesn’t serve up much more than fancy recipes that, according to the latest data on the price of eggs, most viewers can’t afford to make anyway."

But there are also a few (albeit rare) positive and more sympathetic reviews. Harper’s Bazaar, for example, takes a notably different stance: “If Netflix’s newest lifestyle offering, With Love, Meghan, proves anything, it’s that Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, is right where she belongs."

The article even contradicts The Hollywood Reporter‘s criticism of the show’s lack of accessibility. “All the recipes look beautiful, but they still feel accessible for the regular person at home — and now all I can think about is attempting to make my first salt-baked whole branzino or a fluffy honey lemon naked layered cake later this spring,” writes culture journalist Bianca Betancourt. “Every featured meal has a tie to either Meghan’s life or the lives of her friends and featured guests, driving home the fact that the series is really about the simplest pleasures more than over-the-top entertaining.”

Meanwhile, New York Magazine offers a nuanced take, recognizing two defining aspects of Meghan Markle’s public persona: “[She] is a perfectly regular human woman who stumbled into a romance with a prince and then found herself at the center of a tornado of bullshit fueled by predatory British tabloids. [...] The other truth is that With Love, Meghan is an utterly deranged bizarro world voyage into the center of nothing."

For now, Meghan appears unfazed by the wave of criticism and remains focused on promoting the show as planned. “For more recipes, fun and reasons to ‘Mmmm,’ check out the show — which in just 24 hours is already in the Top 10!” she posted on Instagram on March 5, where she has 2.2 million followers.

This new project has undeniably thrust her back into the spotlight, as evidenced by an exclusive interview with People — her first in four years — and an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show on March 6. Whether the backlash against With Love, Meghan will overshadow her upcoming As Ever product line launch remains to be seen. The brand, announced a year ago, is set to release its first items in the coming weeks — including, fittingly, the signature jams that repeatedly appear in the show.

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