Mindy Kaling awkwardly leaves out Meghan Markle as she celebrates huge milestone

Mindy Kaling is celebrating her Netflix show’s success as the most-streamed show of the week – but notably her pal Meghan Markle didn’t make the cut. 

The Office star and writer, 45, proudly posted to her Instagram account on Thursday to announce that her comedy Running Point is the most-streamed show of the week, with more than 1.9 billion minutes watched. 

Also making the top five was 1923 on Paramount+, starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, political thriller Zero Day, Love Is Blind, and Reacher. 

However, another of Mindy’s recent and high-profile projects – her guest role in With Love, Meghan – awkwardly didn’t feature. 

Writing on her Instagram story, Mindy gushed: ‘Wow. We are so completely floored and grateful to everyone who is tuning in THANK YOU.’ 

The Duchess of Sussex’s cooking and lifestyle show has been savaged by critics since its release, despite being renewed for a second season. 

Nearly all major publications say the Duchess’s cooking series fell flat, with Time magazine dubbing it ‘bland’, while The Guardian said it writhed with ‘joylessness’. Rotten Tomatoes was just as unforgiving – ranking it a meagre 35 per cent across the board. 

MailOnline’s Netflix insider admitted it wasn’t a ‘runaway success’, while viewers appear to prefer when she’s on screen with her husband Prince Harry, rather than solo.  

Mindy Kaling (pictured last week) is celebrating her Netflix show’s success as the most-streamed show of the week – but notably her pal Meghan’s didn’t make the cut

The eight-part series was watched by 526,000 households in the first five days it was available on Netflix since its release on March 4, according to data gathered by Samba TV.

But by comparison Harry & Meghan drew in 2.1 million households in approximately the same number of days – making it four times more successful.

Meanwhile Mindy Kaling’s Running Point has received 12,200,200 views this week alone, adding to last week’s 9,000,000. 

First premiering on February 27, the new sports comedy is inspired by Lakes owner Jeanie Buss and stars Kate Hudson as Isla Gordon and her attempts to run a pro basketball team – and a second season has already been renewed. 

Mindy guest starred in Meghan’s new Netflix series, and promoted it via multiple interviews previously. 

She then went viral for a clip after it aired, in which Meghan insisted her surname is Sussex, after Mindy referred to her as ‘Meghan Markle’. 

In episode two of the show, the former royal, 43, was joined by Mindy as she showed her fellow mother how to host a children’s party.

As Meghan carefully demonstrated how to assemble a cucumber sandwich, the pair spoke about their favorite fast food growing up.

Mindy’s other recent project, guest starring in With Love, Meghan, awkwardly didn’t make the cut

The Office star and writer, 45, proudly posted to her Instagram account on Thursday to announce that her comedy Running Point is the most-streamed show of the week

The Duchess of Sussex called herself a ‘latchkey kid’ who ‘grew up with a lot of fast food and TV tray dinners’, listing off US chains Pollo Loco, Taco Bell and Jack In The Box.

But Mindy seemed to get under Meghan’s skin with her response, as she said: ‘I don’t think anyone in the world knows that Meghan Markle has eaten Jack In The Box and loves it.’

Trying to hide her frown with a smile, she replied: ‘It’s so funny you keep saying Meghan Markle, you know I’m Sussex now.’

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”.

‘I didn’t know how meaningful it would be to me but it just means so much to go “This is OUR family name. Our little family name”.

After being corrected, Mindy awkwardly responded: ‘Well, now I know and I love it.’

Mindy and Meghan, who first met after The Office star appeared on Markle’s now-defunct Spotify podcast, Archetypes, reunited in Meghan’s kitchen to film the second episode.

The Duchess was teaching Kaling all of her tips and tricks for hosting a children’s birthday party, which included making a rainbow fruit salad and ladybug crostinis with tomatoes.

During their awkward viral moment, Meghan was seen telling Mindy, ‘It’s so funny you keep saying Meghan Markle, you know I’m Sussex now’

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”‘

And, while the episode seemingly went off without a hitch as they successfully threw an adorable garden party in Markle’s backyard, there were some seemingly high-tension moments captured.

‘Mindy is greeted in the hallway, but the body language looks awkward,’ body language expert Judi James told DailyMail.com exclusively about Kaling’s entrance on the show.

‘There is an air kiss but it is overly-formal and Mindy bends her knees and pushes her pelvis back to avoid torso-touch,’ she continued.

However, the name incident wasn’t the only correction that the mom-of-two offered Kaling during their time together.

Markle also corrected the comedian’s pronunciation of expensive kitchenware brand Le Creuset.

‘When Mindy refers to Meghan’s bowls as “heavy-a** Le Creu-say” Meghan is quick to correct her pronunciation with no trace of humor in her tone,’ James observed.

She even noted that when Kaling humorously tries to lift the lid of her Le Creuset like they were weights, Markle ‘turns away to her fritatta,’ which she was plating up.

‘The correction of her accent seems to lead to some lingering trace of resentment from Mindy who jokes to camera that, “Some of us have been to Europe,”‘ James told DailyMail.com.

Viewers were left baffled by Meghan’s very unusual attempt to cook pasta

But no matter the awkward moments, it seems like Kaling really enjoyed being on the show, as she spoke about the experience during an interview late last month.

‘I was on maternity leave with my daughter in March and April, and Meghan texted me that she was doing a show where she was going to cook for her friends,’ Kaling, who has three children, told TIME Magazine.

‘Would I want to come to Montecito and have her cook for me? I wanted to get taken care of in that moment of my life. That was a fun maternity leave field trip,’ she continued.

‘And I left with a basket of fresh produce and homemade jam and hot sauce because she knew I loved hot sauce. She’s a very generous woman who knew I needed a break.’

Meghan’s series was slammed by reviewers as ‘gormless lifestyle filler’ with a ‘tangible desperation’ following its release.

Others said it shows the Duchess is ‘attempting to cling to fame by any means possible’, while another described how she was ‘joylessly filling kids’ party bags with seeds’.

Guardian TV writer Stuart Heritage said the series was ‘so pointless it might be the Sussexes’ last TV show’ and ‘might also be the final thing she makes for Netflix’.

The Telegraph gave the show just two stars. In a review, they said the series was an ‘exercise in narcissism, filled with extravagant brunches, celebrity pals and business plugs’. 

Viewers poked fun at Meghan Markle’s Netflix series, With Love, Meghan, by ‘elevating’ ordinary food flowers in a social media post.

In one episode the duchess added flowers to filtered water to make pretty ice cubes

Pasta disaster? Meghan explains her ‘skillet spaghetti ‘to her best friend and celebrity make-up artist Daniel Martin early on in the first episode of new Netflix series With Love, Meghan 

The episodes feature Meghan inviting famous friends to a California estate where she shares cooking, gardening and hosting tips. 

Despite the criticism, With Love, Meghan has been renewed for season two and is set to air in the autumn, with filming already having been completed.  

The Duchess confirmed the news on Instagram, when she uploaded a story with the caption ‘I’m thrilled to share that season 2 of With Love, Meghan is coming!’ 

During each of the eight 33-minute episodes, which dropped on Tuesday, Meghan was joined by guests as she offered lifestyle tips from inside a rented $8million (£5million) mansion near the Sussexes’ Montecito home. 

‘This may raise a few eyebrows but one thing which Netflix love is controversy – and this show certainly created alot of debate,’ one TV insider told the Sun after the renewal was announced.

They added: ‘Many were so scathing about the eight-part series that they thought there was no way it would get another season.

‘But it seems the streamer is delighted with the chatter its created on both sides of the Atlantic this week.’ 

Meghan shared a number of recipes throughout the series, including for spaghetti, a honey and lemon cake and a cooked breakfast. She said her new show had helped her to ‘find herself’ again.

But despite her huge two-million-strong following on social media, she insisted she instead saw as a ‘female founder’ and ‘entrepreneur’ rather than an influencer.

Since Harry and Meghan signed their $80million mega deal with Netflix in 2020, there has been one smash hit and three relative duds.

Meghan Markle has had her new Netflix show ‘renewed for a second season’ just days after the first episodes were panned by critics and fans

The show renewal came after the first season was widely panned by critics

With Love, Meghan launched on the Netflix at 8am UK time last week

The biographical ‘Harry & Meghan’ was the streaming service’s biggest documentary debut, viewed in almost 29 million households in its first four days, and proved a global sensation.

But Polo, a sports docuseries, Live to Lead – which focused on ‘global justice activists’ – and Heart of Invictus, about Harry’s games for wounded soldiers, proved lacklustre additions that failed to set the streaming service’s viewing figures ablaze.

‘With Love, Meghan’ sees the duchess trying to promote herself in a new way as a ‘domestic goddess’, baking cakes, arranging flowers and slipping into a beekeeper’s suit to collect honey.

However, in Los Angeles where Meghan and Harry live with their two children, Archie, five, and Lilibet, three, sources have said the Sussexes relationship with Netflix is on borrowed time, amid claims they have proven hard to work with.

‘The word bandied around internally is ‘nightmare’,’ one insider told the Sunday Times, with others claiming the chances of a deal being renewed would rest squarely on whether or not ‘With Love, Meghan’ proved a hit.

The eight episode series shows Meghan inviting famous friends to her house and features brief appearances from husband Harry

The first products from Meghan Markle’s As Ever brand with Netflix were revealed

Meghan, hand in hand with her daughter Lilibet, in the cover photo for her new brand’s website 

Speaking to People magazine ahead of the release of her series the 43-year-old royal said filming her new show had helped her to rediscover her creativity – and that it had reignited ‘a spark’ in Harry’s eye.

‘It’s almost like a honeymoon period again because it’s exactly how it was in the beginning when he’d watch me scribbling away, writing newsletters, fine-tuning edits and just really being in the details of it,’ she told People magazine.

‘I think he loves watching as much as I love doing that creative process. It’s just been fun. This is who I’ve always been.’

Previously, the duchess had a significant setback when her $20 million Spotify podcast series was cancelled with Spotify executive Bill Simmons describing Meghan and husband Prince Harry as ‘grifters.’

But yesterday she announced her brand-new podcast with Lemonada Media, Confessions Of A Female Founder, which is to be released this spring.