'There are easy ways to show up lovingly,' Meghan Markle says in a trailer for the next instalment of her Netflix lifestyle series, With Love, Meghan. The second season, which was filmed concurrently with the first, arrived on 26 August with a 'fresh host of chefs, artists and friends' joining the Duchess of Sussex in Montecito.
Best-selling author and life coach Jay Shetty, fashion designer Tan France and TV host Chrissy Teigen will appear on the show, which was of course not filmed in the Sussex's actual home, whipping up culinary delights and crafting everything from jewellery to slate serving boards.
It comes after months of speculation that Netflix had severed ties with the Sussexes because of 'weak' content, only to announce a new multi-year partnership – a 'first look' deal that gives Netflix dibs on film and TV projects from the Sussexes' Archewell Productions. This includes a holiday celebration episode of With Love, Meghan in December, as well as a documentary series from Harry about an orphanage in Uganda and a film adaptation of best-selling novel Meet Me At The Lake by Carley Fortune.
'Some have called this a "downgrade" from their original megabucks £75m deal, and while that's fair in that there's no more "free" money for them, the media landscape has totally changed,' says royal correspondent Emily Andrews. 'No one is getting those sorts of deals any more. Even A-listers are being jettisoned by streaming giants. While there's no money up front, this deal shows the Sussexes' staying power and that executives still believe they can deliver eyeballs.'
Most streaming platforms have seen subscriber rates slow in the past few years thanks to cost of living pressures, and in turn have had to cull any underperforming projects. To Andrews, the Sussexes securing any form of renewal 'stands as a victory lap to the haters who predicted their Netflix era was over'.
Of course, public vindication is not the only benefit for team Sussex. With Love, Meghan also allows the Duchess to 'reclaim her narrative' by addressing viral stories about her personal life on her own terms, as well as offering new insights. In the third episode of the new season, for example, she reveals she makes her family a cooked breakfast most mornings. 'Fried eggs and pancakes,' she told her guest _Queer Eye'_s Tan France, 'but I like to do surprise pancakes for the kids, so I always put some ground flax seeds, pour some chia seeds in. And Lili will ask me, "Can I have chia seeds? I want it to have some freckles."' She also told France she's already dreading empty nest syndrome, despite her kids being six and three years old. 'I’ll miss them so much,' she mused. 'You want to be the parent who’s like yes, go do it. Go do your thing. Go live that life. But I’m going to miss you so much.'
Elsewhere in the series, Markle reveals that Harry said 'I love you first' and that he 'doesn't like lobster', that they eat a lot of roast chicken as a family and what she misses most about the UK is (Bauer's very own) Magic Radio. 'I'll be that grandma,' she joked.
While these aren't exactly daring comments – nor do they reveal anything in particular about the couple's current relationship with the royal family – they aid Markle's cosy, trad-wife adjacent public image and are evidently enough to keep audiences coming back for more.
The first season might have scored a disappointing 32% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (based on more than 2,500 votes), but it was also Netflix's tenth most watched programme globally in its first week – a glaring dichotomy Markle is well used to by now.
Teflon Meg strikes again then, forever proving doubters wrong. But what of the somewhat controversial decision to include Teigen? In 2021, the once beloved TV personality came under fire for tweets and direct messages she sent in 2011, attacking a ten 16-year-old beauty pageant queen Courtney Stodden, urging her to kill herself after rising to fame thanks to her underage marriage to actor Doug Hutchison, 35 years her senior. Teigen apologised, but the stink of the scandal has followed her ever since.
'Chrissy has posted lots of videos in support of Meghan's jam and has spoken out publicly on her behalf,' Andrews explains. 'I'm sure they have bonded over the hideous trolling they've both received – this is an authentic friendship.'
What's more interesting, Andrews says, is the absence of other friends. 'Meghan's former best friend Jessica Mulroney was also cancelled in 2021 in similar circumstances to Chrissy, yet Meghan seems to have cut her off. But the drama with Jessica created a problem for Meghan's brand, while her friendship with Chrissy seems to have come after her own social media battles.'
So, what does that Netflix rescue plan mean for the Sussexes? 'I think it's clear that Meghan is going to be the breadwinner here,' Andrews says. 'She has very sensibly stoped criticising the royal family and I'm sure is telling Harry to do the same. She's very much looking forward and is the living embodiment of what she's selling – a honeyed, high-sheen evocation of Californian life. It has the potential to do well, but with a new fandom entirely unconnected to the royal world.'
For those who enjoyed watching With Love, Meghan as gentle escapism, it's a 'guilty pleasure', as Andrews puts it. 'Her brand is very female-centric and, after a bit of a rocky start with the name change and branding issues, it feels like it's finally finding its feet.'