With Love, Meghan

With Love, Meghan is a new lifestyle series on Netflix, starring the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle. Every episode features a celebrity guest or an old friend of hers, and they bond over cooking and doing a variety of arts and crafts activities while discussing random topics. They talk about the importance of hosting, motherhood and growing up in LA. It’s a nondescript show that indulges in DIY projects and unabashedly displays Markle’s vast wealth and privileges. Overly preppy, the show tries to shoehorn vague life lessons into every episode, and even at times broaches some difficult topics like racism. But there’s no depth to any of its discussions; most of her dialogue with her guests consists of unimportant and bland subject matters. She tries to liven things up with cringe-inducing puns, but overall, With Love, Meghan remains pointless and surface-level.

The series’s most frustrating aspect is perhaps its lack of interest in highlighting her guests. While Markle is genuinely warm and inviting, and she shares some fascinating recipes, she doesn’t offer enough variety that can elevate her show. The guests, on the other hand, have a wide range of experience and expertise between them that can be expanded on or explored in great depth. But With Love, Meghan doesn’t do that; the show doesn’t provide context or even a brief montage to introduce who these people are. So much of the focus is on Markle, the guests become accessories, following her around and reacting to her, rather than providing any meaningful addition to the conversation or insight into who they are and their work.

The one exception is the third episode, which features American-Korean chef Roy Choi. He’s fun and energetic, and the way he talks about cooking is very intricate. He and Markle bond over their experiences growing up in LA and the parallels in their passion for cooking and gardening. He is arguably the most interactive guest on her series. But his shine is dulled by Markle’s lacklustre interactions with him. In this specific episode, he talks and she reacts, and there’s a dismal disconnect in the passionate way he monologues over cooking and her short and monotone responses. This contrast in With Love, Meghan, where she constantly talks about celebrating her guests, showering them with good food and parting gifts, while simultaneously never letting them properly claim the spotlight for the episode, is where the show falls apart.

The contentious nature of the series doesn’t stop there. In the first episode, the affirming life lesson is the idea of substance over beauty. It’s a lesson that she and her guest make-up artist Daniel Martin airily discuss as they design a cake that Markle made. Yet, she constantly makes it a point to mention that the nice views, beautiful gardens and the immaculate workspaces – everything the audience is seeing – are not shot in her real home. Even from the first installement, the audience can feel this air of superficiality, especially in the idea of Markle sharing lifestyle and homemaking tips and tricks from a location that doesn’t even represent her real life.

Uninspiring, not even its upbeat and feel-good soundtrack can save With Love, Meghan from the traps of unrealistic representation of building a home. The editing is typical of most lifestyle content readily available for free on YouTube. Markle has a charismatic spark, some recipes are genuinely mouth-watering in their presentation, and the arts and crafts sections are fascinating to follow. However, the show overall is lacking in excitement, interesting discussions, and most importantly, in authenticity and heart.

Mae Trumata

With Love, Meghan is released on Netflix on 4^th March 2025.

Watch the trailer for With Love, Meghan here: