When the first season of With Love, Meghan came out earlier this year, the Duchess of Sussex and various Netflix executives (like chief of content Bela Bajaria) spoke rhapsodically about how the show was a “love letter to California.” The first season absolutely was that, featuring some really beautiful shots of Montecito and Santa Barbara. The second season feels even bigger, like we’re getting to see even more of Meghan’s world outside of her garden and backyard. In the Tan France episode, Meghan takes Tan to the beach to eat their apple pies, and he was sort of overwhelmed by the beauty of it all. WLM really functions, if nothing else, as an advertisement for the California Board of Tourism, or even more than that, an ad campaign for Montecito and Santa Barbara. You know who’s not overwhelmed by California’s beauty? Bitter British commentators who sniff at Meghan’s gorgeous and free life.
An expert has blasted Meghan Markle for having a “sad life” if she dropped the royal family just to do a cooking show. The Duchess of Sussex, 44, had a slew of negative reviews for her first season of With Love, Meghan. She was bashed by experts and viewers alike for being unrealistic and “out of touch” while cooking out of a hired home. But she persisted with a second series, opening up about her time in the UK and her marriage to “H”.
Commentator Samara Gill told the Royal Exclusive show: “She would be fine if there wasn’t the sort of destruction that had come in the past five years towards the Royal Family, and towards a lot of other people along the way. I feel like it’s like… is this all there is? Is this what that entire fight for freedom was about? If it all amounts to this bland cooking show and her prancing through a Montecito orchard in linens? It’s sort of anticlimactic to be honest and it’s kind of a bit sad in my opinion. It should have been more genuinely. Even looking at past Tig blog reviews and things like that she had so much more spirit and so much more to offer. Now it’s just very manufactured.”
What’s hilarious is that you can watch about ten minutes of any given WLM episode and understand completely why Meghan bounced out of Salt Island. Meghan and Harry own a beautiful mansion with a bajillion bathrooms and no one is breathing down their neck about how they’re living or who’s paying for what. Meghan has a gorgeous garden, wonderful friends, family close by, and she spends her time cooking and arranging flowers. Every breath she takes is the breath of freedom. “It’s sad,” the royalists wept. “She could have been in a dilapidated shack in London, being abused 24-7 by a racist press, and instead she chose to live in a mansion and not take taxpayer money!!”
Photos courtesy of Netflix.
What’s sad is that there really are people who think that leeching off the taxpayers and abusing family members is the best way to live. And the only way to live.
Um yeah…that’s what the fight for freedom is about. The point is it’s your’s to choose and being able to cook and craft and not get actively thrown to the wolves by your in-laws.
It’s funny bc I was thinking about how it’s a beautiful love letter to California and it’s food and cooking. Which makes Kate’s 4 seasons videos even funnier. It’s like who can compete for the best tourism video. Except Meghan’s is an entertainment show with that purpose.
Ellen Coughlan was on one their morning shows and she had to calmly explain to them that of course the British Press would think it’s fake because it’s an Americanized show, it’s curated by design and no one cooks in their own kitchen on these types of shows. She said it’s industry standard.She even brought up Martha Stewart and how curated her show is. I really think that is the issue(besides that they just hate the woman because they can’t control her). It’s a cultural thing. I grew up seeing these types of shows on the food network. Everyone cooked on a set. One of the reporters was like “no one knew who she was before she started dating Harry” Ellen’ was like “well actually she was on a pretty popular show” She made a point of saying you don’t have to watch the show but the numbers don’t lie (regarding the first season)
I watched that episode last night (I skipped the Christy Tiegen one). It’s a great comfort show and I love how thoughtful she is with her gift giving.
William and Kate knew who she was. They were regular viewers of SUITS.
I heard an interesting theory yesterday that William was the one with a crush on Meghan and resented her falling for Harry, while Kate always had a crush on Harry and resented Harry falling for her. That does kind of make sense to me. They went from zero to fully unhinged about H+M at warp speed.
Chrissy episode was funny.
It was cute. Baby honsworth.
So they think that Meghan’s life looks sad and unfulfilled, and by comparison she should want to have her, Harry, Archie and Lili look the way the Wales’ did this past weekend driving to church? I know which one I would take.
Also, this is the TV show you don’t see her entire life. It’s not a documentary and you’re following her to board meetings, on charity events, while she’s doing pilates, date night with harry, watching the kids play sports. Even so, it still looks much more rewarding than what they would have had in the UK!
They just have to pretend that everything is a failure, controversy or missed opportunity, and that they are so regretful. Because leaving that gilded cage cant be seen as the better choice. I’m sorry but anyone who looks at photos of her in 2019 and photos of her now and says that she looked more fulfilled then has a clear agenda.
They’re schizophrenic at this stage. They hated the fact she was and is a royal, but that they both escaped made them even more angry.
Samara is a nut job.
I cannot imagine watching WLM and concluding that Meghan looks sad and unfulfilled in it. These people live in the most opposite-day, Bizarro universe.
Oh Lord, please give me a sad, anticlimactic life just like Meghan.
RIGHT?!?!!? I just laughed my way through this. I would love to walk through my garden and pick apples, flowers, all those fruits and veggies – its like a farmers market in her backyard. and she made a point of saying that is her backyard, not from the set house.
I live in the mid-atlantic and its pretty enough but where I live there are a lot of trees, hills, subdivisions, highways – so you can’t really see the horizon line. I find it very settling when I can see the horizon line, or when I’m somewhere with gorgeous wide open views. woods are nice and I live near a state park and grew up near a state park so I have plenty of access to nature and lakes and streams and all that. But those sweeping views from WLM are just stunning to me.
Anyway I’ve decided my dream life would be to wear gorgeous clothes, make homemade soap and bind my own books and cook elegant meals with celebrity chefs. I am not made for this 9-5 life lol.
Also I am not crafty. I think I could do the aprons thing but not the soap hahahaha.
I am an empty nester and we have a house with a garden now. I love to go out and plant and pick flowers and plants, weather permitting. The only edibles I grow are herbs because they are easy (tomatoes are too much trouble, yikes) but it’s still nice to be able to go get some mint for a Mojito or some Thyme for a stew. I can tell you it’s great! And it doesn’t have to be a huge property or on the beach to be lovely, either. Gardening is just satisfying. You can even do containers on your little balcony. There are so many things to grow out there, it’s amazing.
@maisiesmom that sounds lovely.
unfortunately….I kill plants. I keep trying not to but I always do. All four of my hanging baskets died very ugly deaths this year. My one christmas cactus is doing okay and I have a few small plants from a local shop that are hanging in there.
but besides that….its beyond me. My hydrangea hasn’t bloomed in years and I don’t know why. my plants in my aerogarden keep dying lmao.
maybe I should try herbs in real pots and not the aerogarden?
I will say that I have Becky daisies (bc of the name haha) and nothing kills those effers. they come back year after year.
But an actual cultivated garden….I feel that would be cruel to the plants, hahaha. I want a garden! But I just can’t get it right.
hence my Meghan envy hahaha.
IKR I would love to have her sad life. This is a cooking show it’s not a drama where you would want something to be climactic. They just ate so angry that she and Harry are doing so well after leaving salt isle that they can’t help themselves. I binged watched the whole thing and I enjoyed all of her guests even Chrissy. I especially like that Clare the 3 star Michelin chef came from UK to do the episode with Meg. I hope she doesn’t suffer for doing it because we all know how the haters are.
“…prancing through a Montecito orchard in linens”
Substitute random British thickets for Montecito, and this is what Kate calls “work”. Yet another thing about Meghan she’s tried and failed to copy.
I thought that was picturesque. Would love to have my own orchard and prance through them 😂
Are we supposed to be angry at Meghan for choosing such a life? It’s quite aspirational.
Diana wanted to move to California and live her own life. Meghan and Harry have created the home Diana dreamed of ..sunshine, flowers, the sea , friends and family. I am sure Diana is there in spirit. On another note this makes ghastly Kate’s summer video more drab and dumber than ever ..the contrast is between light and miserable shade.
Freedom flight was the best decision. Season 2 is great, I love it and I saw myself laughing outloud on many occasions watching. Im not done watching and i want more already. Tan was great. All her guests made very fun episodes. Give me a freedom flight, a mansion, a kitchen, a garden , a beach and a craft house like that, i’ll go right away with my kids and hubby or just make me win the next powerball, same same
I hate, hate, hate that they’ve ingrained their Opposites Day narrative, where they completely ignore how they (the British tabloids) and the BRF bullied Meghan out of the family, and instead call her the “destructive” one for simply telling her truth and then going off to earn her living. Ugh!
It’s always projection with these people. The parasitic relationship between the rats and the royal family is a form of mutually-assured destruction. Stay MAD rats!
The fact that the press have the temerity to run with that narrative, when we literally saw them saying in article after article “this is what being tied to the monarchy is, if you don’t like it, leave!” for years…
If the press don’t want people to take them at their word, maybe they shouldn’t threaten their targets, esp the ones they expect to put food on their table.
They’re still hopping mad that it was Harry that chose to dip, that he prioritized Meghan’s and his own well being over The Abusive Institution.
Next year will mark 10 years since H&M met and started dating. And still Salty Island will not let it go.
Listen to Elsa, Royal Rota!
🎶Let it goooo, let it goooo🎶
The golden geese have flown, and the UK press juggernaut was instrumental in driving them out!
Tabloids need to turn their criticism inward for once, acknowledge that they did it to themselves, utter own goal, and take the damn L. Anything less makes them look ridiculous at best, and suffering an industry wide mental health crisis at worst.
Tabs owe H&M an apology. Not a court ordered one, a sincere one. Until the press admit this to themselves and the world, they’ll continue to self injure with every nasty article… the decline and fall of the royal rota is happening in real time, and it’s wholly self inflicted. Turning attacking H&M into a UK cottage industry was a choice. UK press now gets to reap the consequences of what they’ve sown. They knew this would be the result, they knew because it happened after Diana. So they don’t get to pull Surprised Pikachu Face about it now.
Piss Morgan told Meghan to go home and return to America.
She did. Don’t know why they’re still so mad. 🤣
Thank you for putting that into words for me. I have so strongly thought that continuously, but didn’t know how to phrase it well. I think it is insane. And they are leaning into it, as though, like the Nazi’s said, you repeat a lie often enough, people begin to believe it.
What is sad for them is they could not tolerate her race so they threw all but the kitchen sink at her trying to torpedo her life there. What is sad for them now is trolling her and seeing how well she and her family live without taxpayer funding as mentioned. They hoped Meghan would be the socialite Meghan, turning up at every event in Holloywood, instead she is the mom 1st Meghan, wife 1st Meghan, activist Meghan and entrepreneur Meghan.
“What is sad for them is they could not tolerate her race so they threw all but the kitchen sink at her trying to torpedo her life there.”
The part about race is true but I really believe that being a successful American was just as big a part of the vile treatment. Lately, I watched many YouTube videos on many aspects of English life and have no problem saying that the English look down on Yanks as uncouth uncultured ruffians and verbally loud snake oil salesman.
Regardless of race, which just made Megan’s treatment by the English press that much worse, no successful American female is ever going to make it in the British Royal Family.
I watched a few episodes and found it pretty harmless. It’s not groundbreaking and it passes the time easily. If the show gets a third season I’d like to see a wider range of segments. The tourism angle is a bit cheesy but it’d be nice to get Meghan out of the house to explore the beautiful coastline and visit famous gardens.
You knew it was a cooking show, expecting it to be ground breaking, was she suppose to use wind to cook with?
Exactly. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😇
Cooking with wind. Is that a thing? I’d love to see her bake a cheesecake with a blast of zephyr air.
Isn’t the tourism angle just the beautiful views and going to wineries and olive farms and fish markets? I feel like that fits into the idea of the show.
Huh – tourism angle is such a weird concept to me. I live in the Bay Area and the places she visits and where she goes could easily be every day occurrences for me. I wouldn’t do it nearly as beautifully as she does however!
But she did visit the shoreline this season.
What is sad and anticlimactic is the BM tried best to put a stumbling block in Meghan’s way, and she stepped over it and themselves.
Poor Angela Latrine watched all 8 episodes to prove it was no good, hate watching is watching, Netflix don’t care if you criticize it, once you watch it.
That poor tabloid writer, so much jealousy over Meghan’s Linen dress, don’t she know most people in the U S wear Linen or Cotton dresses in the Summer.
What is sad and anticlimactic is that the BM have absolutely nothing else to write about that will generate views and clicks.
Don’t get me started on Angela Latrine! She watched all 8 episodes the same way she watched the Oprah interview. By watching a trailer and listening to people who claim they saw it.
As per Angela Meghan did nothing but baking bread, taught us how to gift wrap a book (book binding is apparently just the same) and gossiped about the RF. Which wasn’t mentioned at all. No way she watched. This old hag (being old myself I can say that) makes me so angry. Just say “I couldn’t make myself watch but trust my colleagues who found it not their cup of tea”. But no, she had to lie. Did she still not make enough money from hating Meghan to retire? Her last braincell did!
Harry and Meghan did not drop out. Harry had wanted out ages ago. And peggs made things unpleasant and Charles and the late queen did nothing to stop it. These writers always leave harry out and say it was all Meghan which is fake news.
So right, @Tessa. Harry stared at that escape door for years; it was Meghan who showed him how to open it.
The military was Harry’s escape route for 10 years until his location was outed by the Australian media and a desk job was not acceptable to him at all. I wonder who leaked his whereabouts?? Hmmmm…almost like someone wanted him offed by the Taliban.
LMAO These people are soooo dramatic.
“She would be fine if there wasn’t the sort of destruction that had come in the past five years towards the Royal Family, and towards a lot of other people along the way.”
What destruction? Isn’t the British Royal Family still there? Aren’t all the incompetent staff and courtiers still there? What and who was destroyed in the last 5yrs? Perhaps if they stopped thinking of Meghan as some supervillian who “destroyed the world” they wouldn’t be so surprised that she enjoys being an angel investor and philanthropic business woman in the lifestyle space.
But as Meghan said on Emily’s podcast this week certain sections of the media aren’t reporting on HER. They are just creating click bait articles based on a caricature they created to make money.
i mean…. Meghan is sharing the hobbies, habits, people, places, and relationships that bring her joy. It’s not more complicated, it’s just what she said at the start of the year. She has no agenda. I mean, I’m sure she’s building a business and making money, but that’s…. Pretty standard. I mean, the people who denigrate paid employment are picking at a weird thread. If your preference instead is “service,” of some kind, you have to reckon with the fact that Harry & Meghan still do a heck of a lot of advocacy and philanthropy and unlike WanK, they seem to use their light to illuminate organisations and activists who would not normally make the headlines. Which is political. In a good way. They lend them their cultural capital. They don’t hog the spotlight. Also? It begs for comparison with WanK’s output, which is meagre at best. I mean, I’ll take any of Meghan’s shows vs Kate’s seasonal Xanax promo reels. Jeeeeeeezy creezy, as Eddie Izzard says. Eye roll. People have a *choice* about buying Meghan’s wine, and jam. As a UK taxpayer, I do *not* have a choice about funding this circus which Marx would have identified as cheap distraction for people who have insufficient fish to fry. It’s more than what Meghan brilliantly termed the carnival of so-called experts, whose livelihoods depend on denigrating her. She has correctly called out their motive as financial. It’s…. The whole UK model. The welfare state here still rests on a concept of exalted selfless “service” which may be one motive that keeps people in jobs that are chronically underpaid, and terminally overtaxed, but another motive is…. Necessity. No one likes being taken for granted, deprived of a support system, and being told they have no alternative. Meghan’s stint working for the BRF was a certain kind of window into how they treat the labour force, in many ways, across the board. If you want to understand why the whole nation feels “betrayed,” a lot of it has to do with the fact that she palpably rejected as inadequate, a situation that many are told they have to stomach.
I don’t care about the sun and their creepy obsession – but I’ve been having a crap week, living under fascism can really feel hopeless.
I needed to watch something kind, something happy.
Episodes 1&2 of the new season were perfect.
Love that we got Daniel back for season 2.
It is refreshing to watch, I find myself laughing and smiling throughout the episodes.. I just wish there were more than eight.
Sad? So say the royalists who have been brainwashed to believe that the pinnacle of success is to be a royal waving at the peasantry.
These royalists are in a cult.
Exactly!
The,royals do their own damage. The lazy heir skips out of major events. And his lazy wife goes on about her reset. Reset from what she was lazy for years.
“It’s sort of anticlimactic to be honest and it’s kind of a bit sad in my opinion.”
Who’s this sad Samara Gill? Any relation to AA Gill? She needing therapy and instead spouts her unwanted opinion?
This is so hilariously weird. The BM are first in line to binge watch the show, first in line to purchase the new products. Meghan’s the first thing they think about the morning, the last thing at night and they’re probably dreaming about her when they’re asleep. And then a bazillion articles meticulously detailing and criticizing everything. It’s like they’re actually in love with her, but they hate themselves for it.
‘So true 😍
I enjoy watching Queer Eye and I can promise you, I have never heard Tan France squeal with delight, especially over someone else’s aesthetics since that is his professional talent. That man was over the moon hanging out with M. I also noticed that every guest was practically giddy being there. I was even feeling a little second-hand embarrassment for some of them (like get a hold of yourself!). So, obviously, it was miserable and a total mystery as to why she would ever choose this over royal life.🙄
Sorry, not sorry I didn’t actually read the Scum article or excerpt (it’s all predictable anti-Meghan, the monarchy destroyer anyway). But I def have been obsessively watching the episode with Samin Nosrat to get bookbinding clues for making my own journal. So it was awesome finding directions provided by Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/with-love-meghan-season-2-recipes-crafts. There’s also a link within there to the Season 1 recipes.
That episode with Samin was really sweet . You could just see how touched she was when Meghan gave her the fruit leather.
It took little bit of effort too. She was straining that pulp for a little of time there. Had to get some elbows into it.
@jais – she was working it 😅 – pestle with china cap on stand m/b easier.
I think Season 2 is even better. It was a light and lovely watch, even Chrissy T.’s episode was nice. I don’t know if she was a bit nervous but John was with her (he stayed in the back) and I think that was sweet and supportive of him. As usual the left behinds can’t stand that Meghan is living her best life. She’s loved and supported by the people who matter to her.
Anticlimactic? This is Superman the movie weirdos.
I’m enjoying these episodes a lot, maybe even a bit more than season 1.
Episode 3 with Tan France actually made me emotional — listening to him and Meghan sharing about their children, how they met their husbands was so lovely. And Meghan’s gift of a masala dabba (spice bin) to Tan just so thoughtful. Him saying that he will pass that down to his children made me a bit emotional. Such a lovely episode.
I enjoyed season 1. Loved to have it close with Alice Waters. She is an icon. I LOVED season 2. Each episode had multiple projects that introduced all kinds of businesses (wine, olive oil, pottery, cocktails, etc). Meghan was both expert and student. My fave eps were with Tan and Jose so much fun, with a new person (Tan) and an old friend (Jose, who simply delights in feeding people so the end of season dinner for the WLM team was perfect for him.
Enjoyed all the participants– (again some great chefs/cooks this season) and got misty over seeing Guy (RIP) with his person.
The sour takes are just that. Sour takes from sour people. No one has to watch it or love it if it is not their thing. Touch grass and take a deep cleansing breath.
I think some of them are actually starting to realize that there was nothing to hate, after all. They created something to hate, but it wasn’t who Meghan really is. That’s why all the calls about her being “inauthentic”. Because it doesn’t match what they created for the public to hate. It was a figment of their own imagination. I know this may sound silly, but when I watch Cinderella (with my grandkids now) and how she was just a sweet, kind person & hard working, surrounded by evil (stepmom & sisters), I’m often reminded of Meghan, surrounded by evil forces in the Palace. She really is a Disney princess, they were too stupid not to even realize it. And when Prince Harry was banned from the Kingdom, that’s another Disney theme, as in the Lion King. Prince William is Scar, a back stabber & layabout. I need to see the Disney treatment of the M&H story!!
They ”bet the wrong horse”. They believed what KP was feeding them and can’t admit having being gulleble. They didn’t give a change for anything different.
They call her “inauthentic”, because she’s not living the life they imagine for a Black woman.
I don’t have Netflix, and I can’t support Megan by buying her products as they don’t (yet) ship to Canada. I am however supporting her as much as possible by going to the Netflix page and checking out the recipes, many of which I want to try. I figure that Netflix must be looking at hits and page counts as a measure of success. Every little bit helps show the world is watching H&M.
I hope Meghan titles her autobiography “Prancing in Linens.”
I haven’t watch one single episode of her show, but her life in California seems pretty good. They didn’t allow her to do anything wonderful in UK! She wanted to serve the people and do something important. They were the ones demanding her to return to US and she listened. She and H had to change the plan. Her purpose for the show is not to cure cancer nor to end homelessness. Still waiting for the news from UK… She has been honest about her work. She is ”just” doing what she enjoys. Like the Wales’ do. Could they leave her alone? Like enough…
What’s interesting is they think this one show, specifically being on camera, is the entirety of Meghan’s life and what she works on. Most of the criticism of this show boils down to expecting a reality show, with a reality show script and drama, and being irrationally angry that this isn’t it. They harp on about her not filming in her house, the calmness, Harry not being there . I watch a lot of cooking shows, this is the formula, the food is the focus. Have watched 3 episodes so far and loved the episode with David Chang. A valid criticism is less crafts, more food, or maybe bring in some commentary on what’s happening in the food world. Saying you hate the show because it’s not Real Housewives kitchen is not valid. They want her to miss royal life and duties, but never admit their direct role in driving her from it and making it a traumatic experience.
The media is just mad because with Kate checked out of the picture, they could have been taking snaps and writing about what Meghan is doing. Instead they have to keep repackaging the same stories about Keen without using the word “lazy”. Anyway, one look at Kate is all you need to know to realize how this life sucks the joy out of the married-in women. And this was before the *ahem* cancer. Even Sophie has that washed out look. And then to have to worry constantly about staying on the good side of Chuck and Crocmilla too? Hell, I would run away from that life with the quickness.
Living close to the ocean is very therapeutic. I’m a 7 minute drive from Juan de Fuca Strait, can see it from my balcony, and walking the beach (it’s very rocky, not a nice sandy one), smelling the surf, hearing the waves washing on the shore, is a great stress-reliever. I’m also close to mountains which I find equally calming. They have such a mother earth energy about them.
That sounds amazing. I’ve been to the west coast twice in my life. Santa Barbara and SanDiego. but my dream would be to go further north.
Really likes season 1. Loved Alice Water……watching season 2 right now and loving it even more. I’m on the Tan episode and I just want to eat French toast and hand pies with them
I love Season 2! It’s richer and more diverse than Season 1, IMO. And Meghan looks much more at ease in these episodes. More herself.
I’ll definitely rewatch it and try to make some dishes (not the exotic ones). The problem is watching the episodes makes me hungry 😋😋😋. So many yummy dishes.
My cousin was dying. She said her favorite thing to do in all her life was to go into her garden of kale which she grew but didn’t eat and sit in her garden chair and drink champagne and watch the sunset. I am reminded of my cousin when I watch Meghan’s show.
If it is so sad, if she is so bad, if they are so mad, then why bother with her at all.
Ooooh she does apple pies in an episode? Our apples are almost ripe, I’ll have to check her that episode out soon
The only thing that was sad was seeing Guy with his little homemade neckace on.
If it were the best show in the world ever the Sun would just rubbish it, just like the Wail.
“It should have been more genuinely.“
— What??
I’m just intensely jealous because I love the Santa Barbara-area beaches and I miss them. And cold beaches are the dream (for me).
Are the rats genuinely confused why anyone would prefer this life and this work rather than be subjected to their insane whims? “Do all the work while we make you suicidal!” was never going to be a selling point. I used to think they were being disingenuous— that they knew what H&M have now is better but needed to pretend otherwise—but maybe not.