I enjoyed all of With Love, Meghan – two “seasons” and a holiday special, seemingly all of which was filmed in 2024. The big tell that the WLM holiday special was filmed in 2024 was the brief sighting of Guy Markle, who crossed the rainbow bridge in January of this year, but was seemingly around for the entirety of WLM’s production. WLM reminded me of Meghan’s first podcast, Archetypes – there was a lot of good stuff, but there were little things that needed to be worked out, the kind of production details which would have easily been fixed in a second Archetypes season. Alas, it never happened. In WLM’s case, if they filmed anything this year, having gotten constructive criticism of the first and second seasons, I’m sure everything would have been smoother. Like, the sound mixing was not great and the music cues were horrible. The editing could have been better too.
In any case, I seriously doubt that Meghan will film season 3 of WLM any time soon. For months now, she’s been letting her fans down gently, dropping hints that As Ever is her priority now and people are going to have to wait for new WLM episodes. She’s made it sound like her decision, like she simply doesn’t have time to commit to WLM at this moment. Well, trust an outlet like NewsNation to put the worst possible spin on all of this:
Meghan didn’t really have to do much work for her Christmas special this year, as it was actually filmed last year. A Netflix source showed me a small clip of the show, “With Love, Meghan,” the “Holiday Episode,” which has the Duchess of Sussex making quiche cups in red pajamas with her beloved beagle, Guy, at her feet… Guy, who died in January of this year.
“They filmed everything in one go,” my spy said. “The two ‘episodes’ and this special. It wasn’t about doing a seasonal special because ‘With Love’ rated so well or because people loved it so much. This was the plan. Film everything at once and see how it goes.”
Sadly, for Meghan, it’s not going well. While the first episodes of “With Love, Meghan” dropped this spring hit the Netflix top ten list, the second set (which dropped in August) didn’t make the top 100. Soon after, it was announced Meghan and Harry’s $100 million deal would not be renewed — instead, they would get a paltry “first look” deal with the streamer. Meaning: No upfront money and no guarantee of any sales.
Meghan’s As Ever products also didn’t get the network’s seal of approval. As I reported last week, her jams, honeys, crepes and dried flowers have been left off the shelves of the Netflix holiday pop-up stores that are “popping up” around the country.
Reps for Meghan didn’t return emails.
“WHY ISN’T NETFLIX SELLING AS EVER PRODUCTS IN THEIR STORES? They must hate her!!” Ted Sarandos has said, several times, that Netflix is a silent partner in As Ever, and Meghan is steering the ship. Meghan is making As Ever into a genuine brand, she’s not selling Bridgerton tchotchkes. As Ever is a stand-alone thing. Now, do I think some of the general negativity about WLM is fair? Eh. As I said, I really like the show and I absolutely want to see more of it. I wish Meghan had the time to do both, and maybe she will next year at some point. I don’t believe that Netflix is suddenly “over” Meghan in particular – if anything, Sarandos seems to think Meghan walks on water. Meaning, it’s her call about WLM and As Ever. This is what she wants.
Incidentally, all of the “woe is As Ever” conversation this week is funny considering that Meghan’s chocolate drop went really well. All of her chocolate sold out in minutes!
Photos courtesy of Netflix, As Ever’s IG.
