British-American journalist Tina Brown has joined a growing list of media figures who have shared less-than-favorable takes on Meghan Markle’s new lifestyle series, “With Love, Meghan.”
In Monday’s edition of her Substack newsletter “Fresh Hell,” Brown describes the series ― which premiered on Netflix last week ― as “a testament to how far the beleaguered Duchess of Sussex has rowed herself backward in time since she first burst into the public consciousness more than eight years ago.”
“With her unerring instinct for getting it wrong, Meghan has come out with a show about fake perfection just when the zeitgeist has turned raucously against it,” wrote Brown, a former editor-in-chief at Vanity Fair and The New Yorker.
Noting that Markle “has never figured out a convincing persona,” she added: “Masquerading as an influencer, she’s the ultimate follower, which inevitably means she is behind the curve.”
Billed as “a heartfelt tribute to the beauty of Southern California” by Netflix, “With Love, Meghan” is filmed in Montecito, where Markle lives with husband Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and their two children.
In it, Markle shares her personal gardening and cooking tips while also consulting with guests ― including actor Mindy Kaling and restauranteur Alice Waters ― on honing new skills.
Reviews of the series have been mixed to negative. “A Montecito ego trip not worth taking,” Variety wrote, while The Guardian called it “toe-curlingly unlovable TV.”
In her review, Brown said “With Love, Meghan” felt out of step with the current sociopolitical climate under President Donald Trump, noting: “Trump’s America is a foulmouthed and disheveled cultural place where podcasters in sweaty T-shirts, crotch-rot jeans, and headphones achieve world domination on YouTube.”
She also suggested that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would’ve been better served by waiting until Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, died to retreat from their royal duties. The pair announced they were stepping back as senior members of the British royal family in January 2020, two years before Queen Elizabeth’s death on Sept. 8, 2022.
“It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that, at age 94, the monarch clearly had only a few years more to live, at which point the family chess pieces would start to move around the royal power board,” Brown wrote on Substack. “All Meghan had to do was shut up and wait.”
Brown, who was also the founding editor-in-chief of the Daily Beast, is a frequent critic of Markle.
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“All of her ideas are total crap, unfortunately,” she said while appearing on “The Ankler” podcast last October.
Still, whether Brown’s remarks ― or those of any other entertainment critic ― will impact “With Love, Meghan” is questionable. As of Wednesday, the series was ranked in the streaming platform’s Top 10 shows. Last weekend, it was confirmed that a second season was already in the works.