Meghan Markle underestimated and overly dismissed says Netflix CEO about Duchess of Sussex, her TV show With Love, Meghan and brand As Ever

The Duchess of Sussex has copped a lot of criticism in the weeks since the launch of her new lifestyle series With Love, Meghan despite the show debuting in Netflix’s top 10 around the world.

One man who is not surprised its success is Ted Sarandos, the CEO of Netflix, who believes the duchess is ”underestimated in terms of her influence on culture”.

“She and Harry are overly dismissed,” he says.

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The eight-part show has been renewed for a second series, despite largely terrible reviews across the US and UK and elsewhere.

It depicts the duchess sharing hosting and cookery tips with guests, with the aim of elevating the mundane to something extraordinary.

A second series will air in the coming months following the same format and was filmed back to back with the first.

But a potential third series will depend on the success of the first two.

In an interview with Variety, Sarandos was asked whether the Duchess of Sussex was the “right person to bet on”.

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“I think Meghan is underestimated in terms of her influence on culture,” Sarandos told the publication.

“When we dropped the trailer for the Harry & Meghan doc series [in 2022], everything on-screen was dissected in the press for days.

“The shoes she was wearing sold out all over the world. The Hermès blanket that was on the chair behind her sold out everywhere in the world.

“People are fascinated with Meghan Markle. She and Harry are overly dismissed.”

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Netflix is a partner of As Ever, Meghan’s business venture, which was launched to coincide with the show, after a series of setbacks and a name change.

Its products, which will include fruit preserves, shortbread and flower sprinkles, will be available for purchase soon with no specific date given.

“We’re a passive partner in Meghan’s company, and it’s a big discovery model for us right now,” Sarandos added.

Variety was one of the major publications to be highly critical of Meghan’s lifestyle show, saying it existed “as a sort of celebration of all things Duchess of Sussex”, adding that, as with her previous media offerings, “no amount of praise seems enough”.

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Time magazine, which named the Duke and Duchess of Sussex among its 100 most influential people of 2021, said that Meghan came across as bland.

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It added that when they left the UK, the Sussexes had promised to show the reality behind palace walls but instead had become too focused on their own “rigid propaganda machine”.

Earlier this week actress and head of the Goop empire Gwyneth Paltrow said she does not feel threatened by the Duchess of Sussex’s “attempt” to become a lifestyle guru.

Meghan has been plagued with accusations that she is trying to copy Paltrow and the lifestyle-wellness brand she has created.

“I think there’s always more than enough to go around,” Paltrow told Vanity Fair.

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“Everybody deserves an attempt at everything that they want to try.”

The two women are neighbours in Montecito, California, but are not friends.

“I don’t know Meghan and Harry,” Paltrow said. “I mean, I’ve met Meghan, who seems really lovely, but I don’t know her at all.

“Maybe I’ll try to get through their security detail and bring them a pie.”

Paltrow acknowledged that she was the forerunner of the celebrity-turned-wellness-guru.

She said: “I’m thinking it for the first time, but it might just be that my role is to pave the way. By some instinct or curiosity or desire, I go somewhere and I hack through the path and I get the scratches of hacking through, but I make space for other people then to do it.”

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