I enjoyed all of With Love, Meghan – two “seasons” and a holiday special, seemingly all of which was filmed in 2024. The big tell that the WLM holiday special was filmed in 2024 was the brief sighting of Guy Markle, who crossed the rainbow bridge in January of this year, but was seemingly around for the entirety of WLM’s production. WLM reminded me of Meghan’s first podcast, Archetypes – there was a lot of good stuff, but there were little things that needed to be worked out, the kind of production details which would have easily been fixed in a second Archetypes season. Alas, it never happened. In WLM’s case, if they filmed anything this year, having gotten constructive criticism of the first and second seasons, I’m sure everything would have been smoother. Like, the sound mixing was not great and the music cues were horrible. The editing could have been better too.
In any case, I seriously doubt that Meghan will film season 3 of WLM any time soon. For months now, she’s been letting her fans down gently, dropping hints that As Ever is her priority now and people are going to have to wait for new WLM episodes. She’s made it sound like her decision, like she simply doesn’t have time to commit to WLM at this moment. Well, trust an outlet like NewsNation to put the worst possible spin on all of this:
Meghan didn’t really have to do much work for her Christmas special this year, as it was actually filmed last year. A Netflix source showed me a small clip of the show, “With Love, Meghan,” the “Holiday Episode,” which has the Duchess of Sussex making quiche cups in red pajamas with her beloved beagle, Guy, at her feet… Guy, who died in January of this year.
“They filmed everything in one go,” my spy said. “The two ‘episodes’ and this special. It wasn’t about doing a seasonal special because ‘With Love’ rated so well or because people loved it so much. This was the plan. Film everything at once and see how it goes.”
Sadly, for Meghan, it’s not going well. While the first episodes of “With Love, Meghan” dropped this spring hit the Netflix top ten list, the second set (which dropped in August) didn’t make the top 100. Soon after, it was announced Meghan and Harry’s $100 million deal would not be renewed — instead, they would get a paltry “first look” deal with the streamer. Meaning: No upfront money and no guarantee of any sales.
Meghan’s As Ever products also didn’t get the network’s seal of approval. As I reported last week, her jams, honeys, crepes and dried flowers have been left off the shelves of the Netflix holiday pop-up stores that are “popping up” around the country.
Reps for Meghan didn’t return emails.
“WHY ISN’T NETFLIX SELLING AS EVER PRODUCTS IN THEIR STORES? They must hate her!!” Ted Sarandos has said, several times, that Netflix is a silent partner in As Ever, and Meghan is steering the ship. Meghan is making As Ever into a genuine brand, she’s not selling Bridgerton tchotchkes. As Ever is a stand-alone thing. Now, do I think some of the general negativity about WLM is fair? Eh. As I said, I really like the show and I absolutely want to see more of it. I wish Meghan had the time to do both, and maybe she will next year at some point. I don’t believe that Netflix is suddenly “over” Meghan in particular – if anything, Sarandos seems to think Meghan walks on water. Meaning, it’s her call about WLM and As Ever. This is what she wants.
Incidentally, all of the “woe is As Ever” conversation this week is funny considering that Meghan’s chocolate drop went really well. All of her chocolate sold out in minutes!
Photos courtesy of Netflix, As Ever’s IG.
I agree that she is putting everything into her As ever brand and that’s taking her time because she wants it done right. Maybe when she gets it to where she wants it she will maybe do some more WLM or maybe even a new podcast. Of course the haters want to put a negative spin on it because that’s what they do but it doesn’t stop Meg from doing what she wants when she wants and good for her!!
And of course the Holiday Special was filmed in the run up to last Christmas, not back to back with Seasons 1 & 2. Christmas trees available from mid November and first guest commented that this was one of the first celebrations he’d been to. I’ve heard filming took place well into December, pretty close to Christmas. So able to drop this year on 3rd December in the run up.
Maybe this is something else we should stop repeating, their attempts to pain them as failures when they are OBVIOUSLY succeeding. I figured out that it was filmed last year because she went Christmas tree shopping! So WHAT????!!!
It would make sense to film everything in one batch. Especially with one extra episode. I don’t know why they act like this is something new or that isn’t done for everyone.
Especially when they don’t apply those same criticisms to the leftbehinds – the Wales get praise for repurposing a “never before seen” photo from a previous year’s vacation for their Christmas card. Kate’s “Together at Christmas” special isn’t live, either (gasp).
I thought the series & the holiday special were joyful. great guests & friends, tips, Meghan teaching but also learning would love to see mote series!
Here I was thinking it was filmed this fall but yeah little Guy was there. I would agree that getting feedback and then filming again afterwards wouldn’t hurt but that’s not how it went down. I’d love to see WLM or a variation of it again sometime. As of now, I want all ya’ll who got chocolate to post some detailed reviews of all those flavors.
The truth is that Meghan is a successful businesswoman and they hate that. 😂😂😂
Hating Meghan is an industry now, whether she’s a success or not. Just think about how many people get paid to hate her – all the writers and photographers and social media accounts, everyone who sells a story to the tabloids. It’s really hard to dismantle something like that.
I’m disappointed to have missed out on the dark chocolate bars.
Yeah it was a mistake because nobody wants stake content but again the royal rota is acting like it’s a war crime.
How can they call As Ever a flop when it’s selling out everywhere?
Whatever, I’m sorry I missed getting the chocolate bars.
I’m saving watching the special for when I’m wrapping my Christmas presents when everyone else is out! I find the episodes relaxing – so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that at some point she does some more…
As someone said in a previous thread all I am hearing is blah, blah, blah, Netflix, blah, blah, blah, As Ever, blah, blah.
Netflix is obviously supporting the brand because so many new products have dropped and you need several financial backing to do that. Anyway I’m glad I got my chocolate before it sold out. I wonder who reads these boring Newsnation articles, that don’t say anything?
A TV show wasn’t aired in the same year it was filmed? Say it ain’t so! Lol these people are so delusional. They want her to be a failure but can’t stop talking about her.
I’m confused by this that they think that the show was filmed live? They must have never watched Kitchen Nightmares then. Some of those restaurants are already closed by the time the shows came out.
And yeah their stuff that they could have improved on, just like it is for any other TV show before they get into the groove of things. There’s literally a trope about it it’s called early installment weirdness.
Her focus seems to be on the business though, because that’s what’s making her active money. I’m sure she gets paid a fee for the shows but it’s a set fee, unless she is one of the only people in existence that have managed to tie in how much she makes for the show based on the ratings.
It’s funny that these articles come out, and then are pretty much immediately refuted. It didn’t do well but the holiday special was top 10 in a bunch of countries, and just like the early releases something that she dropped sold out in hours. Yeah it really sucks that as ever jam isn’t on the shelf next to of Vecna Christmas ornament at Netflix’s stores. And they always conveniently forget to mention that her products are into stores, and will probably be in more pop-ups as well.
She went christmas tree shopping show so obviously it was filmed last year, not in the spring or anything. I wonder how the filming worked – if she filmed all the episodes for the first two seasons at once and then split them up into two seasons, or if it was more spread out. I also wonder if the delayed release of the first season impacted the release of the second? Like if it was supposed to be January, July and December or something. (this is just me wondering, it doesnt really make a difference.)
I really enjoyed the holiday special. I said yesterday I wish it had been longer – maybe 90 minutes or 2 hours – but thats bc I really liked it, lol. There are things I feel i can justify doing at the holidays that I won’t justify doing for a random get together (which is on me.)
anyway the special is in the top 10 across the world so I think its going alright.
To paraphrase Sarandos, love her or hate her, you’re watching her.
I always assumed it was filmed all at once. Getting that big crew back together for the holiday special would make no sense. Still hoping for more even if they are shorter specials but I get that As ever is probably taking all of her time.
Is this not common among cooking series to film in advance and release the next year? Especially a show that promotes seasonal joys – if you want to buy a Christmas tree in California, it makes sense to me that you don’t do that in July. Considering the extreme pocket watching from the Meghan haters you would think they would be happy that she saved Netflix money by filming everything all at once 🙄. Newsflash, movies that are released in 2025 were likely filmed at least a year ago, too! Sometimes 2-3 years ago. And also they don’t film at the actor’s real life houses, lol. Either these poor derangers are supremely gullible or they think their readers are.
It’s actually Guy Sussex.
I hope Meghan is sitting back, sipping her As Ever tea with As Ever honey, and contentedly counting her money from her chocolate, wine and jam sales.