Topline
Meghan Markle is set to make her return to the small screen later this month with a new lifestyle show called “With Love, Meghan,” a Netflix original lifestyle series born out of her and Prince Harry’s Archewell Productions’ $100 million deal with the streamer.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, in “With Love, Meghan.”
Key Facts
A nearly two-minute-long trailer released by Netflix on Thursday shows Markle wandering the rows of a meticulously kept garden, choosing fresh flowers, harvesting honey, kneading homemade bread and working in the kitchen with a lineup of famous friends.
Netflix says the eight-episode show, which will release in full Jan. 15, “reimagines the genre of lifestyle programming, blending practical how-to’s and candid conversation with friends, new and old.”
Actress Mindy Kaling, chefs Alice Walters and Roy Choi, Godmothers Bookstore co-founder Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, “Suits” star Abigail Spencer, Prince Harry and other stars all make appearances in the trailer, with Kaling declaring her time in the duchess’ kitchen “one of the most glamorous moments of my life.”
The show is directed by Michael Steed, the man behind the “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” series, and showrunner Leah Hariton, who also made the Daytime Emmy-nominated “Selena + Chef” show with Selena Gomez.
An upcoming lifestyle series from Markle was first announced by Netflix last April, shortly after Markle launched a lifestyle brand called American Riviera Orchard in March of 2024 that has yet to produce any content or products.
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Meghan Markle, left, and Mindy Kaling in “With Love, Meghan.”
Crucial Quote
“We’re not in the pursuit of perfection, we’re in the pursuit of joy,” Markle says in the trailer for “With Love, Meghan.” “Love is in the details.”
Surprising Fact
Before she became engaged to and later married Prince Harry, Markle ran a lifestyle blog called The Tig on which she interviewed celebrities, talked fashion and revealed personal details of her early life and career as an actress. She closed the site in 2017.
Big Number
5. “With Love, Meghan” is the fifth project to come out of the reported $100 million deal with Netflix Harry and Meghan made after announcing their departure from the British royal family. “Polo,” a five-part series on the sport of professional polo, debuted in December but didn’t crack the streamers’ top 10. Their first project, a tell-all 2022 documentary called “Harry & Meghan” was watched for 81.55 million hours in its first week and became the platform’s most-watched documentary premiere. The couple’s production company also created “Heart of Invictus,” a documentary following athletes participating in the Prince Harry-founded sporting event for wounded veterans, and “Live to Lead,” a docuseries on impactful world leaders.
Key Background
In January 2020, 18 months after they were married and less than a year after welcoming their first child, Harry and Meghan announced they would be stepping down as senior royals, citing bullying from the British media, racism within the family and general mistreatment. The couple moved to California, where they had one more child, and have since launched several business ventures to varying degrees of success. The couple created a charity organization and an audio and video production company using the name Archewell and signed deals with Netflix and Spotify worth $100 million and $20 million, respectively. In 2023, the couple’s Spotify partnership ended after they reportedly failed to meet “productivity benchmarks.” Last March, Markel announced American Riviera Orchard as a lifestyle brand that, in an LLC filing in Delaware, said it would create an online retail store selling tableware, cutlery, cookbooks, servingware, coffee and tea services, kitchen textiles, jams and jellies, oils and other foods. The brand has hit several road bumps, including the rejection of a trademark request and reports no CEO has been found to lead the business, and has gone nowhere since the announcement. No posts have been made on the brand’s Instagram since last March and the company’s website has been empty.