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"With love, Meghan" on Netflix

(207 Posts)
Retread Tue 04-Mar-25 12:52:17

I'll go first 😀

I've watched Episode 1 of the Duchess of Sussex's lifestyle show on Netflix (a relaxed half hour over an early lunch) I enjoyed it! It's very beautiful in Montecito where they live, the camera loves her, she's a working wife and mother ... what's not to like?

I'll run for cover now... 😁

Oreo Wed 05-Mar-25 15:53:31

ayse

There’s something in the back of my mind that Meghan said she had to wear beige with the royals yet she seems to wear beige/white quite frequently. Am I mistaken?

No, your memory is good. She said she had to in order not to clash with other women in the family.
Actually she loves white cream and all shades of beige and brown and wears them regularly.

ayse Wed 05-Mar-25 15:31:03

There’s something in the back of my mind that Meghan said she had to wear beige with the royals yet she seems to wear beige/white quite frequently. Am I mistaken?

Oreo Wed 05-Mar-25 15:27:26

Skodadoda

There’s a piece about it in today’s i newspaper. Amongst other things that I found off putting was this gem. ‘She, (Meghan) lives on the edge by occasionally carrying chopped veg by hand to add it to a pan rather than taking the chopping board over to the hob.’
This and the idea of sprinkling children’s sandwiches with dried flowers. Such pretentious claptrap.

On the edge!😂
Of course M isn’t the ‘devil incarnate’ she’s far too bland a personality to be that.
What she is tho, is an entitled thin skinned needy and pretentious woman who’s lived a privileged life but wants to ruin the lives of others.Her own family and now the RF and Harry’s, cutting him off and encouraging him to denigrate those who loved him.
I will use my Netflix for better things.

Dempie55 Wed 05-Mar-25 15:24:58

I have only seen Episode 1, but it was extremely boring! Very beautifully filmed, though - looked like an M&S food advert! What annoyed me the most was Meg’s insistence on wearing white or cream outfits for all her “cookery”! The message I got was, “Look at me! I’m so darn wealthy I can wear white clothing all day every day, because I have wardrobes full of the stuff!” The visitor Daniel was very sycophantic- I assume all the “house guests” were paid to take part?

escaped Wed 05-Mar-25 15:23:40

Now, I am not a fan, but can you show me where she or Harry asked for ‘privacy’, because I don’t think they did?
You're quite right, Daddima, Meghan and Harry did not ask for privacy, nor did they put out a special request to that effect. What they have done, though, is to whinge about how they are portrayed by the media, in a bad light. And how they wish not to be hounded, for example with all that nonsense about the cross city car chase.
It is the constant need for validation that drives Meghan, but in order to achieve that, she has to throw herself open to the public.
I think her desire to keep the children private is admirable. I don't see anything wrong with mentioning them on occasions, yet not showing them to the world.

Boz Wed 05-Mar-25 15:18:52

The American review. Hits the nail on the head;

I watched Meghan Markle’s new cringey Netflix lifestyle show, so you don’t have to. Okay, I admit, I actually gave up after a few episodes because it was too unbearable even to hate-watch for long.

To be honest, Meghan kind of reminds me of the female robot at the beginning of that creepy new movie “Companion,” with the saccharine sweetness bar all dialed up. By that I mean, programmed and fake. Does she speak 10 languages? Maybe not, but she puts FLOWERS in crudites (and knows how to pronounce it).

Meghan markle netflix show review
The female robot in companion.
Ick.

Correction – Meghan Sussex, or whatever she calls herself now. In case you missed it, Meghan snapped at “friend” Mindy Kaling in one sugary episode when Mindy referred to her as “Meghan Markle” because she’s supposedly changed her last name. Don’t the royals go by Mountbatten-Windsor or Wales? Isn’t her real name Rachel? I thought she didn’t want to be royalty because they’re a bunch of racists (a claim that crumbled upon scrutiny). Has she even been to Sussex more than a couple times? Oh, never mind.

Here’s the problem with Meghan’s “trad wife from Montecito” metamorphosis (I thought she was a liberal feminist? Who is she, today?) It’s inauthentic. Real trad wives are actually living the life, and they don’t preach insufferable wokeness at us every chance they get (as she’s done in the past). They’re connected to their extended families, and they don’t live to merch.

Meghan’s not really a trained cook, she’s never made bee’s wax candles before, she’s estranged from both sides of her family, people have told other publications that she’s not actually very nice to people, it’s not even her real house, and the “friends” are B List celebrities she hasn’t known for that long (like her wedding, attended by George Clooney, Oprah and a single family member).

In short, she symbolizes everything wrong with modern, influencer, merching, look-at-me culture.

We don’t get to see Lili or Archie in this make-believe candyland, and Harry, insufferably referred to as “H,” only speaks 17 words across eight episodes.

Instead, we get to see Meghan grating lemon zest on a cake, dumping packaged spaghetti “noodles” into a pan with “blistered” tomatoes, making rainbows out of fruit (how innovative!), and prancing around someone else’s kitchen that none of us can afford (especially now with inflation), when she’s not teaching us how to fill jars with homemade bath salts to make our houseguests feel so cared for. Just like her.

At one point, she actually said, “Let’s get some honey, honey.”

I’m a Midwestern mom with multiple jobs. I don’t have time to make jars of lavender-tinged bath salts for houseguests or bake a three-layer raspberry studded lemon cake with homemade preserves carefully piped between each layer out of a plastic sandwich bag. Wish I did.

I also don’t have time (or the money, frankly) to harvest honey with a borrowed beekeeper and turn it into carefully crafted homemade candles. I just buy them for $5.99 at the Piggly Wiggly. Don’t get me wrong. I admire people who have time for those things, and maybe we should all find a way to slow down. Everyone loves a clever DIY hack. I enjoy cooking homemade meals for loved ones, and maybe I should put Trader Joe’s peanut butter pretzels into neatly wrapped plastic bags with a bow for house guests like Meghan says she does. My mom and friends come over for movie nights, but they don’t usually stay for a bath.

My grandpa used to tap trees in the woods to make his own homemade maple syrup here in Wisconsin, and it was the best syrup I ever tasted, so I am all for things like that. We need to move away as a culture from a processed, mass-produced society to something more real and healthy. Just ask RFK Jr.

The problem is that Meghan’s show feels like the former even as it pushes the latter.

Don’t get me wrong. I like watching Pioneer Woman, Ina Garten, and even Giada, if I can get past her faux-Italian accent. Cooking shows are a good way to clear one’s mind from the negativity in the news. I might even check out Pamela Anderson’s new lifestyle show (which eerily resembles Meghan’s, apparently) because I like how Pamela’s evolved. I find her transformation interesting. I like how she’s embracing aging and dares to go to awards shows without makeup, and I want her to succeed because she seems authentic and nice. That’s the key word here. Authentic.

There are two big problems with Meghan’s version of this.

She’s not likable. And she doesn’t seem genuine. She seems like she’s playing the kind of person she wants us all to believe she really is – a role. So she can profit off it. Maybe it’s her head-spinning list of reincarnations that’s confusing. What happened to the podcast?

We’ve moved into the Age of Authenticity, where candid conversations on three-hour podcasts help people win elections, you need actual talent (not just a title or mother wound), and people appreciate those who acknowledge their imperfections (like Pamela without makeup). We’ve moved out of the age of scripted and edited TV, air-brushed celebrity, and careful curation, and into the rambunctious world of TikTok and Facebook reels. Meghan’s latest venture feels very 2019 – or earlier, frozen in the Time of the Tig.

Her show is basically a Pinterest Board. If you’re going to do a Pinterest show, at least make the hacks interesting. I don’t need Meghan Markle to tell me that I can form blueberries and strawberries into a rainbow or put sliced cucumbers on a plate. And, sorry, but I’m not going to sprinkle little flowers on the plate. My daughter would probably say, “Mom, why are there little flowers in my carrots?”

I can’t figure out who Meghan Markle really is, and therein lies the true problem. If you’re going to cry racism on Oprah, please have facts to back it up. Don’t lecture us about climate change while jetting around in private planes. And leave Kate alone.

There might be an audience for the real Meghan, with all her obvious imperfections. Who among us is perfect? I certainly am not. We loved Princess Diana because she was like us; she had traumas, and we related to her pain and loneliness. She didn’t copy others; she led from the heart (such as when she clutched the hand of an AIDS victim). Diana was real. I’m still not over the sadness of her death. I got up at 4 a.m. as a kid to watch her wedding.

It might be interesting to see a glimpse into Meghan’s actual life behind-the-scenes with Prince Harry and the kids. I’d be curious to see her actual house and Lili, not just from behind. I’d be curious to learn what she is REALLY like. But then you have to deliver that. This doesn’t.

Meghan’s new show is about how great her life is, how perfect, how wonderful she is, and what a great Stepford Wife
 er hostess she is. It’s a lesson in narcissism. “Don’t you want to be like me?” is the message. “You can be like me!” But the rest of us are just trying to pay the bills.

She’s been dubbed “meagain” and this show is basically “Me, me, me, again!” Look, she makes honey from real bees! She turns them into candles! She puts little leaves on lemon cake! She has tea parties in a flower-festooned gazebo in a floral dress and makes balloon arches! She cooks in white shirts but never gets a stain on them! When she’s not uttering banal cliches or drawing them on a chalkboard with perfect calligraphy, she’s gasping in awe for the cameras and informing us (again and again) how great she is, how wonderful her life is, how family-focused she is
 except.

Except she didn’t film the show in her actual house; we don’t see it. It’s someone else’s rented mansion.

We all know the real story. She is estranged from her dad, and her half sister, and her half brother, and the rest of her mom’s family, and her best friend from high school, and her father in law (the King of England), and her stepmother-in-law, and her brother-in-law, and her sister-in-law, and her previous best friend Jessica Mulroney and the entire country of England and
 you get the point. She ghosted Piers Morgan, supposedly.

Who is Meghan Markle, really? It appears that she is whatever she thinks she can merch, at the moment.

In that way, she is a symbol of everything that is wrong with culture. The late Queen, who didn’t deserve the stress the Sussexes heaped on her at the tail end of her life, embodied values worth emulating. Duty, honor, country. In short, service. She didn’t give interviews, didn’t complain, didn’t politicize, and didn’t commercialize. In so doing, she became a truly unifying figure.

True royals don’t merch.

Maybe the Netflix series IS the real Meghan Markle.


.

Nanny27 Wed 05-Mar-25 15:15:14

skodadoda
"Such pretentious claptrap"
Brilliant! Sums it all up perfectly.

Skodadoda Wed 05-Mar-25 15:06:14

There’s a piece about it in today’s i newspaper. Amongst other things that I found off putting was this gem. ‘She, (Meghan) lives on the edge by occasionally carrying chopped veg by hand to add it to a pan rather than taking the chopping board over to the hob.’
This and the idea of sprinkling children’s sandwiches with dried flowers. Such pretentious claptrap.

Rosie51 Wed 05-Mar-25 15:06:07

vegansrock

St Kate is always cooking, making jam and filming her children unlike the satanic Meghan. And who’s to say Meghan doesn’t cook? Why shouldn’t she correct someone for getting her name wrong? No I haven’t seen Oprah or read Harry’s book and can’t understand why those who paint her as the devil incarnate would bother to do so.

Why shouldn’t she correct someone for getting her name wrong? Her married name is not Meghan Sussex, I wonder why she'd think it was. Why do you deride Catherine so much? Could you not at least have the decency to use her name (which she has stated she prefers) and not the tabloid abbreviation given you're very careful to spell Meghan the way Meghan chooses?
You obviously watch all the media coverage of Catherine to know so much about her activities, which given your obvious dislike is quite surprising.

Sleepyhead52 Wed 05-Mar-25 14:58:44

Or think like lasagne sauce ... you have to make it a bit "wet' to cook the sheets 😀

mabon1 Wed 05-Mar-25 14:53:04

That woman says her surname is Sussex but it's Mountbatten-Windsor. Sussex is the title bestowed upon her. For all her disparaging remarks about the Royal Family she's only too pleased to be a royal when it suits her.

Boz Wed 05-Mar-25 14:51:48

I may live long enough to see her on QVC flogging some lifestyle merch.. Next step down.

SherrieB Wed 05-Mar-25 14:48:33

The Galloping Gourmet! Now you're talking! I used to love that. Was always jealous of whoever he picked from the audience to share his food.

Paperbackwriter Wed 05-Mar-25 14:38:54

merlotgran

I’ve just watched the first episode. The only bit that interested me was the amazing view at the end.

No wonder she didn’t want to live in Windsor under the Heathrow flight path. 😂😂

It isn't her house though.

Anniebach Wed 05-Mar-25 14:33:07

We can be thankful she doesn’t seem to have heard
‘Tell It To The Bess’ , bees do not like lies they spoil harmony.

Come to think of it , ! .

ayse Wed 05-Mar-25 14:32:38

I don’t have Netflix but if I did I probably would only watch a bit. I couldn’t stand Nigella and celebrity stuff of most sorts isn’t my bag.

It would be interesting to see Meghan in something like Traitors UK with ordinary people. That would give people a much better idea of what she is really about.

I’m very sceptical about her motives but I could be wrong.

Galton Wed 05-Mar-25 14:23:29

The best thing for insomnia that I have ever known. Started to watch it and woke up and the first episode had finished and I was on the second. Typical of all these so called lifestyle programmes, you recall Nigella, that was not her home or kitchen ever. This is no different. If you want escapism this is your man.

Ilovedogs22 Wed 05-Mar-25 14:21:16

Rula, please don't believe all that you read or hear via the media!
It may not be exactly truthful or even fairly presented in an unbiased or ethical way. 😏

Rula Wed 05-Mar-25 14:15:22

vegansrock

St Kate is always cooking, making jam and filming her children unlike the satanic Meghan. And who’s to say Meghan doesn’t cook? Why shouldn’t she correct someone for getting her name wrong? No I haven’t seen Oprah or read Harry’s book and can’t understand why those who paint her as the devil incarnate would bother to do so.

Great! I'm chronically ill and unable to get out. Housebound. I watch and read anything and everything. Which is why I am aware of things that they've said.

If you have no knowledge of them and what they've said probably best not to comment about what you don't know. Your accusation that this stems from gossip magazines and twisted clips is wrong.

Ilovedogs22 Wed 05-Mar-25 14:14:49

Yes vegansrock, as I mentioned earlier, it's one rule for as you say
'St Kate' and another for the 'Interloper- upstart' Megan'.
The worst thing is that 'Some people '
believe anything & everything they read or hear without bothering to question its validity or its source.
I'm not a royalist but Harry's mother would be turning in her grave at the appalling treatment of her beloved son & his little family by certain factions of the media! 😔

Etoile2701 Wed 05-Mar-25 13:54:36

Sarnia

I am not into lifestyle programmes and the world of celebrity leaves me cold, so I won't be watching it. However, I wish her well. I don't see any value in berating her over and over again for the way things have turned out. Live and let live.

I totally agree. I detest all the negatively towards Harry and Meghan. Good luck to them both .

vegansrock Wed 05-Mar-25 13:45:56

St Kate is always cooking, making jam and filming her children unlike the satanic Meghan. And who’s to say Meghan doesn’t cook? Why shouldn’t she correct someone for getting her name wrong? No I haven’t seen Oprah or read Harry’s book and can’t understand why those who paint her as the devil incarnate would bother to do so.

cc Wed 05-Mar-25 13:31:55

Ilovedogs22

Ohhh I think that if Kate was cooking with her hair all over the place it would be perfectly acceptable for a lot of Gransnetters?!?
I really don't understand why poster's are only having a dig because it's Megan?
I think Harry's mother would turning in her Grave at all the negativity & malice directed at her younger son's little family. Very sad, leave them alone.đŸ€”

I think that the difference is that Kate does apparently cook day-to-day.

cc Wed 05-Mar-25 13:30:07

Not much point in watching someone who probably doesn't cook day to day anyway, it sounds pretty basic - though maybe that's what they've worked out the US viewers want. I know that Italians were always impressed by sponge cake (either as cake or some sort of pudding) as they didn't make it at home.
The idea of cooking pasta in a sauce and then gradually adding veggies sounds pretty time consuming to me, though I do have a bolognaise recipe for a pressure cooker where everything is cooked at once!

Anniebach Wed 05-Mar-25 11:28:37

Why does she have the need to overdo everything? Her speeches, the video of her talking of curtsying to the late Queen, touching everyone within arm’s reach