Meghan Markle failed to land a star like Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama or a Kardashian for season two of her show so was left with a ‘very underwhelming’ cast including her make up artist and pilates instructor, it was claimed today.
Netflix has bailed out the Duchess of Sussex by packing the With Love, Meghan with people who have shows with the streamer, most of them TV chefs, a source has said.
The majority of Meghan’s guests have links to WME, the talent agency that also represents the Duchess of Sussex, the Daily Mail understands.
A British Hollywood insider said: ‘It’s very underwhelming. It’s really down to Meghan to get the stars. Where is Oprah, Michelle Obama or a Kardashian, even? It is just a bunch of random people she knows’.
The trailer for the next eight episodes of With Love, Meghan has been viewed 380,000 times on YouTube but has 32,000 dislikes compared to 2,900 likes.
And fans have not been wowed by the guests in a rented house near her Montecito mansion used for privacy reasons.
Meghan crafts with Chrissy Teigen whose trolling past has made her a controversial guest
Tan France, British star of Queer Eye, greets Meghan in the new trailer. He has been a vocal supporter of the Sussexes, claiming they were badly treated in the UK
Meghan enjoys some wine with Clare Smyth. The chef was in charge of the menu at the royal wedding reception when she married Harry in 2018
Model and TV star Chrissy Teigen is arguably the biggest name but there has been controversy because of the Sussexes’ campaigning on online safety and Chrissy’s ‘mean girl’ past that led to her apologising for bullying several people on Twitter.
Queer Eye star Tan France, a vocal supporter of the Sussexes, also appears alongside the less well known Jay Shetty and his wife Radhi Devlukia.
Meghan’s make-up artist friend Daniel Martin is back and her pilates instructor Heather Dorak. There are a number of chefs including Samin Nosrat, Christina Tosi, Jose Andres, David Chang and Clare Smyth – who cooked at the Sussexes’ 2018 wedding.
‘Chrissy Teigen isn’t popular anymore. Guests like Jay Shetty and his wife, or Jamie Kern Lima, they are well known, but not superstars. The others are quite niche really’, ‘s insider said.
‘She’s not had any real celebrities on the show apart from Mindy Kalling.
‘The closest she has to one on this season is Tan France. But it feels like Netflix stepped in to help her there.
‘They have used Tan as Queer Eye is finished and they want to keep him as a Netflix face as he’s very popular’.
David Chang with Meghan. He is the star of the Netflix show Dinner Time Live
Jose Andres on With Love, Meghan. He starred on Chef’s Table legends on Netflix
Samin Nosrat with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. She is star of Netflix’s Salt Fat Acid Heat
The Netflix trailer for season two of Meghan Markle’s critically challenged show With Love, Meghan dropped on Tuesday – hours after she and Harry signed a ‘downgraded’ new deal with the streamer.
The Duchess of Sussex’s lifestyle show, where she hosts guests in a rented house near her Montecito mansion for privacy reasons, will return on August 26 – just as Netflix loosened its ties with the Sussexes.
With Love, Meghan was renewed for a second season just as season one was released in March. All the episodes were filmed at the same time, it is understood.
In the one-minute, 27-second teaser, Meghan is seen eating cheese, prepping snacks and drinks with friends and even reveals the food her husband Prince Harry doesn’t like.
‘Do you know who doesn’t like lobster? My husband,’ she says as she prepares the seafood.
As the trailer comes to an end, Meghan reveals: ‘I love these moments of discovery and beauty. So let’s be curious together.’
Meghan’s lifestyle show failed to break into Netflix’s top 300 programmes for the first half of 2025 and was even thrashed by multiple seasons of Suits. The numbers watching were ‘dismal’, an insider at the streamer reportedly said.
The Netflix trailer for season two of Meghan Markle’s critically challenged show With Love, Meghan has dropped today
In the one-minute, 27-second teaser, Meghan is seen eating cheese, prepping food and drink with friends and even reveals the food her husband Prince Harry doesn’t like: lobster
Guests also include Jamie Kern Lima (right), who Meghan recently interviewed with
Meghan has also filmed a Christmas special for broadcast in December, in a potential clash with the Princess of Wales’ annual carol concert at Westminster Abbey.
The first series showed the former Suits star, 44, inviting friends and famous guests to a California estate, where she shared cooking, gardening and hosting tips.
But it was panned by many reviewers who called it ‘sensationally absurd and trite’ with the Duchess of Sussex called ‘tone-deaf’ and punting a show that ‘vibrates with vacuous joylessness’.
It has an IMDB rating of 3.2 out of 10 and a 38% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, indicates that the TV show is considered ‘rotten’.
Meghan was also lampooned for putting pretzels from the packet into a plastic bag, chiding one guest for using Markle as her surname instead of Sussex and one viewer threatened to sue claiming her recipe for homemade bath salts burned her skin.
It came as experts claimed that the Sussexes’ new Netflix deal is a ‘downgrade’ on their previous $100million five-year tie-up and more ‘we’ll call you’ than ‘here’s the chequebook’.
The couple signed a new ‘multi-year, first look deal for film and television projects’ with the streaming giant – understood to be worth less for the pair than their previous contract.
The ‘first-look’ arrangement means Netflix can say yes or no to new film or television projects before anyone else – allowing them to pick and choose what they invest in.
PR expert Mark Borkowski described the new deal as a ‘downgrade’, claiming it falls a long way from the jackpot figure of Harry and Meghan’s original contract in 2020.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘I think Netflix has done a very neat job of pivoting away from two very expensive people who didn’t deliver, and they’ve taken that deal off the table, and they’ve given them a modest one.
With Love, Meghan was renewed for a second season just as season one was released in March
Meghan in the new trailer for the second season of her lifestyle and cooking show
As the food-filled trailer comes to an end, Meghan reveals: ‘I love these moments of discovery and beauty. So let’s be curious together’
Prince Harry and Meghan at the ESPY Awards at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood in July 2024
The Duchess of Sussex in her Netflix series With Love, Meghan which came out in March
‘It’s not like they’re gradually uncoupling – it’s a downgrade. Netflix are not going to expose themselves to those budgets again. It’s Netflix saying, ‘Let’s have a look at your content, but we’ll pick and choose, mate’.’
He believes the pair will be paid for each production selected by Netflix rather than receiving an overall fee, such as the reported $100million of their first deal.
‘I would be surprised if it’s not pay-as-you-go and it’s well, well below that first mark,’ he added.
The couple’s new output will include a second season of the Duchess’s ‘With Love, Meghan’ lifestyle show later this month, as well as a Christmas special in December.