Next week, Meghan Markle will launch the second season of her Netflix lifestyle series With Love, Meghan.
There is already a glaring similarity between both seasons of the show – the subpar calibre of guest stars the Duchess of Sussex managed to recruit.
In the first season the most famous celebrity Meghan managed to sign up was US Office actress, writer and producer, Mindy Kaling.
The only major celebrity Meghan has bagged this time round is TV personality and wife to musician John Legend, Chrissy Teigen.
The Daily Mail reported last week that the majority of Meghan’s guests have links to WME (the talent agency that also represents the Duchess of Sussex) and that a Hollywood insider went as far as to describe the guest stars as ‘underwhelming’ and ‘just a bunch of random people she knows’.
However, the array of A-list guests on show at Prince Harry and Meghan’s 2018 wedding in St George’s Chapel would have suggested she was the next big thing in Hollywood.
George and Amal Clooney, the cast of Suits and Oprah Winfrey were just some of the famous faces attending the wedding as friends of the bride.
Fast forward to today and these friendships appear to have either failed to come into fruition or fizzled out.
Prince Harry and Meghan kiss outside St George’s Chapel on their wedding day in 2018
Chrissy Teigan appears on the Duchess’s With Love, Meghan as one of her guest stars
Oprah Winfrey outside St George’s Chapel at Harry and Meghan’s wedding
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams looked back at Harry and Meghan’s wedding and attempted to explain why Meghan has struggled so much to coax the likes of Oprah to appear on her series.
Mr Fitzwilliams said: ‘The ambition is clearly there. The list of Meghan’s “friends” at her wedding to Prince Harry was amazing.
‘Since the Royal Family is the world’s most high profile institution, up there with the American presidency, this was an important occasion and it was undoubtedly an event to be seen at. George and Amal Clooney cheerfully admitted they did not know the bride.
‘Meghan had only met Oprah once before the wedding and the infamous interview she conducted with the couple is not considered the highlight of Oprah’s career.’
He also highlighted that other guests – such as Idris Elba and James Corden – have also not been seen with the couple often since attending their big day.
It would appear many A-listers have lost interest in the Sussexes in recent years, which poses its own problems for Meghan’s media career.
‘If you are clearly struggling, as Meghan is, to attract A-listers and you appear to have nothing further to offer save notoriety and, perhaps, Prince Harry in the background, you certainly won’t thrive and will be extremely lucky to survive in Hollywood,’ Richard said.
‘The total absence of A-listers from Meghan’s second cookery series as well as the first can only mean one thing, a lack of pulling power, which is embarrassing.’
Meghan with actress Mindy Kaling on her Netflix series
George and Amal Clooney arrive at Harry and Meghan’s wedding ceremony
Indeed, Meghan has even failed to secure appearances from the likes of Serena Williams – who by all accounts is still a close friend of the Duchess.
Mr Fitzwilliams said: ‘Netflix would have been impressed by the appearance of an international star like Serena on With Love, Meghan.
‘Instead the cast list of the second series is as pathetically weak as the first was. Meghan has a chance to redeem herself in the Christmas special as the other episodes were filmed back to back.
‘However, if it too is devoid of A-listers the chances are that they will be “downgraded” further, with Netflix not taking up options on a couple who, if they are not attacking the Royal Family and if they cannot attract A-listers, are worth progressively less.’
He added: ‘With Harry out of Sentebale, the couple out of Spotify and no books that we know of lined up, there is a question mark over what they actually earn from Netflix.
‘Although it is a partner in Meghan’s lifestyle brand As Ever, the couple’s best future with the streaming giant may well be behind them if they, and particularly Meghan, are seen to have inadequate pulling power.’
Writing in her bestseller, The Palace Papers, journalist Tina Brown explained: ‘The celebrity guests were a portrait not of Meghan’s intimate circle but of the friends she most wanted to recruit.’
But that mission to recruit stars failed and instead Meghan has been forced to rely upon her friends rather than major guests stars.
Tan France, British star of Queer Eye, greets Meghan in the trailer for her upcoming season
In the first season Meghan could only muster up the likes of Suits co-star Abigail Spencer, Delfina Figueras – socialite wife of Harry’s polo-playing chum Nacho.
For the upcoming season, Meghan will be joined by fashion designer and presenter Tan France – who has been a vocal supporter of the Sussexes since ‘Megxit’ – Clare Smyth, the chef at her wedding reception and her Pilates instructor, Heather
The first season was criticised by many reviewers who called it ‘sensationally absurd and trite’, with the Duchess of Sussex branded ‘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 per cent 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 the Sussexes’s 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.
The Duchess of Sussex in her Netflix series With Love, Meghan, which came out in March
Meghan enjoys some wine with Clare Smyth – the chef in charge of the menu at the royal wedding reception when she married Harry in 2018
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.
‘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 also include a Christmas special in December.
