Meghan Markle is trying to “monetise her life” when she should be getting outside her “comfort zone”, a royal commentator has said. Jack Royston, Chief Royal Correspondent at Newsweek, suggested the Duchess of Sussex’s millionaire lifestyle wasn’t interesting enough for people.
He told The Sun‘s Royal Exclusive show Meghan has to go through a phase where her media ventures “don’t quite land” with the public in order to “summon from within herself” the motivation to leave the house instead of just monetising her own life. The Duchess’s ‘With Love, Meghan’ lifestyle series was released by Netflix in March. In it, Meghan shares tips on cooking, gardening and playing host from a California estate. Critics have described the show as “toe-curlingly unlovable TV” and “an exercise in narcissism”.
Imagining how Meghan came up with the idea, Mr Royston said: “She’s got a little home farm which she’s using to cook, to make crudité boards for the kids and someone’s turned around and said, ‘Oh, this is so wonderful, you make the best crudité boards’. So she’s like, ‘I’m going to make it into a TV show’.”
He added: “You can’t do that – your millionaire lifestyle is not interesting enough to people who are struggling for you to just monetise your own life. You have to push it. You have to leave the house. You have to push yourself out of your comfort zone.”
The commentator suggested Meghan should focus next on meeting people who disagree with her and stop having “love-ins” with pals. He said the Duchess can do better and just needs to aim higher.
While some critics have slammed Meghan’s latest Netflix offer, others have praised the Duchess for “doing what she loves”. Bianca Betancourt wrote in Harper’s Bazaar: “If Netflix’s newest lifestyle offering, With Love, Meghan, proves anything, it’s that Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, is right where she belongs.”
Vogue praised the Duchess for whipping up a “pop cultural frenzy” with the show, saying it felt “up close” but “impersonal”. The magazine hailed moments where Meghan showed vulnerability, such as her describing herself as a “latch-key child” who ate a lot of fast food when growing up. The characterisation has since been thrown into doubt by Meghan’s brother.
With Love, Meghan was followed up by the Duchess’s latest podcast series, Confessions of a Female Founder, which was released on April 8.
In the first episode, Meghan was joined by her pal Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder of the Bumble dating app.
Confessions of a Female Founder sees Meghan receiving tips and insights from businesswomen in “fly-on-the-wall” chats which the podcast makers say will “inspire anyone who’s interested in turning their own entrepreneurial dreams into a reality”.
The Daily Mail described Meghan’s interview style as “far from a gladiatorial grilling” while The Times said there is “lots of guff” about how to love yourself, but nothing said about real business issues.
Meghan’s own business venture, meanwhile, launched recently. As Ever is the name given to a line of products which includes jams, pancake mix and herbal tea.