The Mail’s Royal experts reveal why they ‘lost the will to live’ during Meghan Markle’s Netflix series
Meghan Markle has a new Netflix show and The Mail’s royal experts got up early to watch every minute of ‘With Love, Meghan’ to bring you their immediate reactions.
Throughout the eight-part series, Meghan, 43, welcomes guests including The Office star Mindy Kaling, her millionaire neighbour Vicky Tsai and gourmet chef Roy Choi to the kitchen of a £5million mansion near the Sussexes’ Montecito villa.
There, they prepare a variety of food items – heart-shaped sandwiches and a fruit plate that looks like a rainbow – as they have personal conversations on camera.
When asked for his ‘first impression’ of the series in an ’emergency’ episode of Palace Confidential released on Tuesday, the Daily Mail’s Diary Editor Richard Eden said: ‘It was just very, very boring.’
Laughing, host Jo Elvin said: ‘That is probably not the reaction [Meghan] will be hoping for.’
‘I’m probably not the target market,’ Richard admits. ‘I did plough on. I watched it for hours and hours this morning but I’m afraid it didn’t get much better,’ he added.
Turning to the Daily Mail’s Royal Editor Rebecca English, Jo said: ‘You looked when I greeted you earlier today like you had been through some sort of an ordeal after watching. Is that fair?’
‘Yeah, I’ll be honest,’ Rebecca said. ‘I lost the will to live after the episode about making ice cubes.’
In an ’emergency’ episode of Palace Confidential, Rebecca English (centre) and Richard Eden (left) share their first impressions of Meghan Markle’s Netflix show with host Jo Elvin (right)
Rebecca English said she lost the will to live’ after watching Meghan make ice cubes
In episode five, Meghan offers tips on how to make floral ice cubes. She warns against using tap water as they turn out cloudy and you can’t see the petals
Rebecca made it clear that she started watching the programme at 8am with ‘an open mind’ and ‘a high bar’ due to Meghan’s previous success with her lifestyle blog The Tig.
It featured recipes, travel guides, beauty tips and fascinating interviews with figures such as Ivanka Trump and Priyanka Chopra.
But in the ultimate act of love, the Duchess gave up her blog and deleted her Instagram account when she got engaged to Prince Harry in 2017.
‘I loved The Tig, but I certainly love my husband more,’ the Duchess recently told People Magazine. ‘So that was a choice I made at the time, and I wouldn’t change that for a second.’
In Meghan’s own words, she has ‘always loved cooking and crafting and gardening’ and her Netflix show is a return to her lifestyle blogging roots.
But royal expert Rebecca said she ‘couldn’t really work out what [Meghan] was trying to say’ and ‘who she was trying to appeal to’.
Agreeing with her sentiment, Richard said he found the toast made by Meghan in the final episode of the show to be ‘highly offensive’.
With both her mother Doria Ragland and loving husband Harry watching on, the Duchess wore a pale blue sun dress and thanked those in attendance at her brunch for ‘loving her so much and celebrating with her’.
Richard Eden said Meghan’s toast in the final episode was ‘highly offensive’ to the Royal Family
‘With Love, Meghan’ aired on Netflix on Tuesday, March 4
In the final episode of the series, Meghan prepares a brunch for friends and family
The Duke and Duchess pack on the PDA as they admire the spread with drinks in hand
Wearing a pale blue sundress, Meghan thanks her friends and family for attending her brunch
‘This feels like a new chapter that I’m so excited that I get to share,’ she continued. ‘When I’ve been able to learn from all of you.
‘Thank you for the love and support. And here we go, it’s a business. All of that is that creativity that I’ve missed so much.’
‘To you!’ Harry can be heard toasting as Redbone’s Come And Get Your Love plays in the background.
In the latest episode of Palace Confidential, Richard said: ‘The strong implication of that was, “While I was in the Royal Family, I couldn’t sort of show my creativity.”
‘That is highly offensive because just think of what you can do as a member of the Royal Family.’
Listing numerous examples, Richard said that Prince Phillip helped to establish the World Wide Fund for Nature, and Charles, as the Prince of Wales, set up the Prince’s Trust while Prince William founded The Earthshot Prize.
‘Let’s be clear, what she actually meant was money,’ Richard said. ‘It meant she couldn’t make money.’
To support his claims, the expert mentioned the time makeup artist Daniel Martin, who features in episode one of the Netflix series, visited Meghan when she was still a member of the royal family.
Meghan’s new eight-part show features her showing how to host small events for friends
Meghan will be joined be some of her celebrity pals in the new show. Here she is seen with Suits co-star, Abigail Spencer
In one clip of ‘With Love, Meghan’, the Duchess of Sussex is shown prepping vegetables with the chef Roy Choi before the pair high-five one another
Meghan, pictured, using edible plants while adding the finishing touches to one of her puddings
‘I remember him putting on Instagram an image of the lovely avocado toast on toast which she had made for him so she was perfectly entitled to entertain and make what she likes.
‘It’s that victim myth basically that she’s the victim and now she’s free. It’s really quite offensive.’
The Duchess of Sussex has also faced criticism over authenticity for hosting With Love, Meghan from a Californian farmhouse, rather than her own Montecito home – and she acknowledges this in episode one.
‘This isn’t my house. Daniel’s gonna be staying at my house, but I’m gonna prep everything here as I would at home and then bring it back to my house so I can have it there for him,’ the Duchess said.
Describing the kitchen set as ‘the stumbling block’, Palace Confidential host Jo said: ‘It’s a lifestyle show that portrays for her fans and people who are interested Meghan’s lifestyle and how she lives her life but it’s not even filmed at her house.’
Nodding in agreement, Rebecca said: ‘She was making a point of saying, “Look, this is not just people who have got grand estates in California, you can do this in your little flat in London. You can grow edible flowers and vegetables.”
‘She was saying that at the same time as she was harvesting vegetables and fruit that had been grown for her by somebody else at somebody else’s house.’
At this point, Richard, who declared himself a fan of cookery programmes, clarifies that many TV chefs use studios as a way to avoid ‘vast numbers of crew in your own house’.
Pictured is a beaming Meghan, in the kitchen set for her new Netflix show
The Duchess has faced criticism over authenticity for hosting With Love, Meghan from a Californian farmhouse, rather than her own Montecito home
Meghan holds a chicken during an episode of her new Netflix show which came out on Tuesday
Another clip from the show features Meghan in a full beekeepers’ outfit as she gathers honey
But the royal expert said ‘With Love, Meghan’ felt ‘phony’ in comparison as the Duchess was seen ‘harvesting blackberries in the garden and talking about how she likes to do that in the morning’ even though viewers knew is was not her house.
Moving the conversation forward, Richard said that one of the few ‘genuinely interesting’ parts of the series was when writer and comedian Mindy Kaling referred to the Duchess as ‘Meghan Markle’ in episode two.
An awkward interaction between the pair ensues as Meghan explains she has taken the name ‘Sussex’ instead.
‘That was news to all of us because we didn’t realise that they were using those titles,’ Richard said.
‘Archie and Lilibet on their birth certificates it says Mountbatten-Windsor which is the royal family surname but since they became the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the family can also use the Sussex title.
‘They have obviously chosen to use the Sussex name in the same way that Harry used to be known as Harry Wales when he was in the Armed Forces.’
Referring to the early reviews of the show, Rebecca said: ‘They have been pretty brutal.’
‘With Love, Meghan’ has an audience score of 12 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing.
After Mindy Kaling referred to Meghan as ‘Markle’, the Duchess corrected her friend
As Mindy looked confused, Meghan, who has only visited Sussex once, continued: ‘You have kids and you go “No, I share my name with my children”‘
After being corrected, Mindy awkwardly responded: ‘Well, now I know and I love it’
Even The Guardian, which Rebecca describes as ‘very anti-establishment’ and ‘anti-Royal Family’, said the series was ‘pointless’.
Although the left-wing newspaper has largely supported Harry and Meghan, Rebecca said: ‘Their review today roasts them and basically says, “Say goodbye to your Netflix deal because this is not going to have secured it”.
‘Pretty much all of the UK reviews have been universal.’
But pointing to a more glowing review in US publication Harper’s Bazaar, the royal expert said: ‘The trouble is, as we’ve often said, she is such a divisive figure. You will either like her or warm to it or you don’t and you won’t.’
Although Rebecca claimed that the royal family are largely ‘disinterested’ and will likely not be tuning in to watch the new series, ‘With Love, Meghan’ is available to stream on Netflix.
And to hear all the insights from the Mail’s team of unrivalled royal experts, watch the special episode in full on YouTube now.
