Jan. 23, 2026
"Complete Waste Of Money" - Few Watching Meghan Markle as Netflix Numbers Tanked
Meghan Markle’s Netflix lifestyle series With Love, Meghan has quietly flopped, pulling in roughly two million views in its second season and landing outside the streamer’s top one thousand shows, a drop of more than sixty percent from its debut.
Critics pile on, with a celebrity chef calling the show dull, uninspired and a “complete waste of money,” while reports suggest Meghan is scrambling to salvage the brand with holiday specials. At the same time, the Sussexes are said to be pivoting toward a glossy rom-com movie deal at Netflix, exposing fresh tension at home as Harry reportedly recoils from Hollywood, hates the optics and resents being turned into part of a marketing strategy. Add staff churn, social media backlash and claims Meghan is increasingly featuring the children to drive engagement, and the picture emerging is of a brand chasing attention while the audience steadily drifts away.
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Calorogus Shark Media, Hello and welcome to ballast Intrigue. Aam
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your host Mark Francis. Meghan has suffered a fresh setback
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after the second season of her Netflix lifestyle series failed
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to attract a significant audience. Viewing figures. Show with Love
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Megan drew roughly two million views between July and December,
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placing it outside Netflix's top one thousand most watched programs
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and representing a drop of more than sixty percent from
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its initial run. According to reporting by the Telegraph, the
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show ranked oney and sixteen overall, despite extensive promotion and
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celebrity appearances. The first season had also struggled, reaching just
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over five million views, a performance comparable to repeat airings
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of Downton Abbey, which premiered more than a decade ago,
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and trailing reruns of Suits, the program that originally brought
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Megan international recognition. Some reports indicate Meghan is in talks
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with Netflix to try to save the show, perhaps through
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holiday specials. Celebrity chef Jemison Stocks launched a public attack
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on Meghan's Netflix cooking series amid reports it were not
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returned for a third season. Stocks, who was previously cooked
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for King Charles works with the Prince's Trust and recently
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received a Culinary Excellence Award presented by Carol Vorderman said
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the reported acting of With Love Meghan was inevitable. The
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numbers speak for themselves. It was a disaster, not only
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for Meghan's brand, but also for Netflix. It proved to
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be a complete waste of money with absolutely no return
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on investment. The outcome was hardly surprising, given that they
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filmed the first two seasons back to back. In the
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first season was already a complete flop. It had the
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potential to last for many seasons, but unfortunately it was
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unbelievably bad. The only reason it received so much height
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was because of who she is, not because of her abilities.
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What she was teaching and showing people was honestly quite pathetic, dull,
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and up buying. I think the audiences are growing tired
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of her, not just her brands, but her moaning and
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constant self indulgent bullshit. People can see through her, and
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the people see through her. I find it really hard
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to believe that Netflix would choreograph and create such a
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bad show. Her fingerprints are all over the crime. I
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believe this is highly damaging because it demonstrates that being
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famous doesn't guarantee success or a hit. If you put
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someone with no talent in front of the audience, people
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will quickly see through it. Looking ahead, he suggested Meghan's
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focus would now shift fully to her lifestyle venture. I
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believe she will continue with her brand since she has
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vested a lot and it's too far along to change course.
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Perhaps she can con another network to pay her an
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exorbitant amount for less than mediocre content. Either way, I'm
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not losing any sleep over whether she can afford to eat.
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Harry and Meghan are reported to be developing a new
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Netflix film, moving further into mainstream Hollywood territory, with an
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adaptation of the twenty eighteen romance novel The Wedding and
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Date by a best selling author, Jasmin Guillory. The story
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centers on two strangers who meet in an elevator before
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embarking on what the book describes as a fun and flirty,
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romantic journey. The project will be produced through the couple's company,
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Archwall Productions. Following the Sussex's signing a new first look
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deal with Netflix's last August, an insider told Heat magazine
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there is so much writing on this movie being a success.
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Megan is saying this is a make or break time,
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and she wants all hands on deck. She feels like
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they've finally got a real shot at making a huge hit,
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and if this movie does as well as people are predicting,
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it could dig them out of their slump. However, the
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report suggests the project has exposed growing differences between the couple,
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particularly when it comes to Harry's appetite for Hollywood. The
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Insider said Harry is experiencing a meltdown over attaching his
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name to what the described as of Phil good Flick,
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adding that he has become increasingly disillusioned with the entertainment industry.
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It's not just that Harry wants to put his energy
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into his causes. His family situation weighs on him, and
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the heaviness of it makes him much lesser patient with
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other things, particularly things he views us shallow. The last
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thing he wants to do right now is to get
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into his suit to kiss up to a bunch of
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Hollywood types. He does it for Megan's sake, but it's
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usually with a lot of reluctance, and it's not something
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he's proud of. The source adds Harry's lack of enthusiasm
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is driving her crazy. From Meghan's point of view, it's
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going to be beyond aggravating that he's pushing back like this.
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She's working a butt off trying to create income streams
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for them, and he's turning his nose up. She's sure
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that if he were to throw himself into the Hollywood
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game the way she has, then they'd be way more successful.
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And it's true, Harry is bored stiff by Hollywood and
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the whole industry. He doesn't want to go beggingto a
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bunch of phonies. He does see that is beneath him.
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Just look at the fuss he kicked up after Chris
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Jenna shared a pick of him at a party. She
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was made to take it down the inside who explains
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they're publicist. Meredith Mainz left right after that. She's the
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eleventh one they've burned through so far, which is a
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terrible look. And people are still chattering about how they
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can't keep staff and how toxic things are. Harry hates
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that sort of talk going around. It makes him want
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to stay out of the spotlight even more. The big
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social media push Meghan's been on hasn't helped. That's a
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huge sticking point for him. The source says he's complained
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to his friends that he's losing control of the narrative
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of his own life and that he's being turned into
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this marketing strategy. People analyze the optics of everything he does.
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It drives him up the wall, he says, his sake
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of feeling like he has to perform now. The source
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says getting Harry on board with his latest project could
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be one resolution Meghan may struggle to keep. Harry isn't
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an easy character. Once he's got his back up about something,
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he can be very stubborn, and he does seem very
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set on this new anti Hollywood stance. It's not going
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to be easy for Meghan to talk him out of it.
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More palacing, just a moment. In The Express, a Licia
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Liberty writes, as someone who has spent years analyzing Meghan
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Michael's public image, her late US move on social media
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says more than any interview ever could. The Duchess's carefully
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timed post was not spontaneous or sentimental. It was strategic.
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It proves once again that attention, not privacy, remains a
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driving force behind her every decision, and the more her
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influence wanes, the more deliberate these moments appear to become.
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But what struck me most was how her children are
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now being quietly woven into her social media strategy. Earlier
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this week, Megan shared images from a family trip to
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the zoo, with Archie taking center stage as he fed
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rhinos and explored the space. While their faces were hidden
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and angles Titling controlled. The storytelling was unmistakable. Family content sells,
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and Megan knows it. For years she has insisted on
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fiercely protecting her children's privacy, yet their presence online is
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becoming increasingly frequent and prominent. You can obscure faces while
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still placing children at the heart of a narrative. In
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my view, it's only a matter of time before that
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protection loosens further and the children are brought more fully
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into the public eye. Megan would no doubt market it
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as a natural progression, pointing to her own beginnings in
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acting as proof that the path is organic rather than orchestrated.
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Harry's role has also evolved. He is now a regular
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fixture of Megan's social media peering and candid style images,
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and always referred to pointedly as my husband. All of
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this sits awkwardly alongside the Sussex's original promise of privacy. Instead,
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what we are seeing as calculated visibility, nostalgia driven posts,
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carefully framed moments in a husband reposition is part of
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the narrative. Meghan's latest move doesn't suggest a retreat from attention.
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It proves once again that she is chasing it. In
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The Royalist, Tom Sykes commented on Meghan's use of children
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in social media, observing, despite Harry's attacks on the media,
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Meghan and Harry run a significant pr operation like spending
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hundreds of thousands of dollars with the explicit aim of
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placing stories in the press that complicates principled opposition to
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media intrusion. My discomfort around Harry's case stems less from
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the merits of individual allegations and more from the contradiction.
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At its core. The very behaviors Harry condemns, the construction
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of a family brand, the management of happy family narratives,
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and the exposure of children without their consent are now
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being repeated with his own household in front of our eyes.
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Yeah there you have it to email us addresses the
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palace intrigue at a gmail dot com. Please follow us
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I Mark Francis my thanks to John McDermott. This is
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Palace Intrigue and good terms.
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00:06:24.879 --> 00:06:27.279
120
00:06:27.360 --> 00:06:30.879
121
00:06:30.920 --> 00:06:36.519
122
00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:39.759
123
00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:43.399
124
00:06:43.399 --> 00:06:48.160
125
00:06:48.160 --> 00:06:50.720
126
00:06:50.759 --> 00:06:52.720
127
00:06:52.759 --> 00:06:55.480
128
00:06:55.480 --> 00:06:58.279
129
00:06:58.279 --> 00:07:01.680
130
00:07:01.720 --> 00:07:05.279
131
00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:08.160
132
00:07:08.240 --> 00:07:11.399
133
00:07:11.439 --> 00:07:14.959
134
00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:19.360
135
00:07:19.399 --> 00:07:23.199
136
00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:26.480
137
00:07:26.519 --> 00:07:30.279
138
00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:34.680
139
00:07:34.720 --> 00:07:37.759
140
00:07:37.800 --> 00:07:41.399
141
00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:44.920
142
00:07:45.040 --> 00:07:47.560
143
00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:52.079
144
00:07:52.319 --> 00:07:56.560
145
00:07:56.560 --> 00:07:59.199
146
00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:02.959
147
00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:06.360
148
00:08:06.360 --> 00:08:09.399
149
00:08:09.480 --> 00:08:13.000
150
00:08:13.560 --> 00:08:15.839
151
00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:18.800
152
00:08:18.800 --> 00:08:22.199
153
00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:26.560
154
00:08:26.720 --> 00:08:28.839
155
00:08:28.959 --> 00:08:30.920
