Will the Duchess of Sussex’s Netflix show With Love work?

It is a picture of domestic bliss.

The Duchess of Sussex picking flowers, cutting vegetables and decorating cakes in a trailer for her new series on Netflix.

There is also a scene where she picks honey and hugs her husband, Prince Harry.

Meghan seems to have rebranded herself. Her new look is described by PR expert Chloe Franses as similar to a “trad wife” social media trendinspired by 1950s housewives.

In that sense, it’s a departure for Meghan, who is known as a feminist and Hollywood actress.

But Frances says it’s actually a return to Meghan’s roots, as the Duchess was a lifestyle blogger before marrying Harry.

And as always with Meghan, it’s divisive. Franses praises him as “authentic”, while Alex Silver, a media relations specialist, calls him “tone deaf”.

So what is the reason for her new TV show, With Love, and will it succeed?

One of the most striking things about the trailer is that Meghan is alone, not with Harry.

Since stepping down as senior royals and moving to California in 2020, the couple have embarked on various ventures together, including starting a production company and a charity.

But with this new series, it seems the couple are increasingly looking to do their own thing professionally — and create two separate streams of income.

“They seem to have separated their brands,” says Pauline Maclaran, professor of marketing and consumer research at Royal Holloway.

“I think they’re probably going to be a lot more successful, because I don’t think the two of them together really got a lot of recognition.”

The reboot also marks a departure from royal life.

Since stepping down as senior royals, Harry and Meghan have continued to discuss the monarchy – including in their interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021 and Harry’s spare book.

But in this new TV show, Meghan is “no longer relying on her royal connections,” says Maclaren.

Instead, she focuses on lifestyle and wellness – areas she was already exploring before meeting Harry through her lifestyle blog, The Tig.

Meghan shared beauty, nutrition and fashion tips, recipes, travel tips and words of wisdom on love and life on The Tig.

Tig closed in 2017, but PR experts say a return to the lifestyle could be a smart move.

“This is a well-trodden path for a woman in the public eye who has a lifestyle of desire and challenge,” says Frances.

Others are more skeptical.

There are other interesting and significant world events that she could talk about, says Silver. “She could have been doing charity work or something.

“I think she’s on her own. As a publicist, I can’t understand how she can’t read a room.”

Experimentation in the lifestyle world has also backfired for some others in the public eye.

Brooklyn Beckham’s debut photo book was harshly ridiculed on social networksfor example – with one picture of an elephant getting a special rage.

This is not Meghan’s first foray into the business world – an industry full of risk and reward.

The couple’s previous business ventures include a multi-million dollar deal with Netflix.

They appeared in another Netflix show, called Harry & Meghan, about their relationship. Both were also named as executive producers of the recent documentary Polo, but it received poor reviews from critics including The Guardian and The Telegraph.

Spotify’s big bet on Meghan also failed.

In July 2023, the streaming giant and Sussex-based Archewell Audio announced they were parting ways by mutual decision.

At that time there experts suggested wasn’t a big enough audience for Megan’s Archetypes podcast in order to justify the continuation.

Last March, she launched a different lifestyle brand called American Riviera Orchard. It currently has more than 600,000 followers on Instagram and has nine posts since it launched – but there haven’t been any posts since.

Some have speculated that with this new venture, Meghan hopes to open up new business opportunities for herself, such as partnerships with major supermarkets and brands.

If so, she would follow the path of others such as Hollywood A-lister Gwyneth Paltrow, with her extremely successful lifestyle platform Goop.

“This is clearly about her own commercial interests,” says Silver.

“They are aware that their income is going to dry up at some stage. Their lifestyle is quite lavish, they mix in the circles of luxury buyers and they don’t want to be poor relatives.”

When it comes to the new TV show, royal expert Victoria Murphy says that “[doesn’t] I think there’s no doubt that people are going to watch him initially and he’s going to be good.”

But she says the real test is whether she consistently attracts a large following and really builds a strong global brand for her beyond the monarchy.

McLaren agrees, saying he thinks the show will resonate with certain groups of people, particularly in the US.

“A lot of the public won’t be interested in this, but I don’t think that’s her goal – I think she’s going to try to get other mothers like her.”

Silver, for her part, claims that Meghan may be hoping to “detoxify” her brand with the new show.

However, he believes that the show will not resonate with the public.

“I can’t imagine this is going to be well-received,” says Silver.

Perhaps the reaction to the trailer tells us all we need to know about how this latest venture is likely to fail.

After it went down on Thursday, thousands of column inches were devoted to it.

The Daily Mail, for example, picked out every detail of every shot in the trailer, most of it unsympathetic.

The Duchess seems to be of constant interest – especially from the British tabloids. But she also has a core social media fan base.

To her detractors, they will say this is glossy and superficial, Hollywood at its worst.

But her fans will say it’s great to see her back, and that it shows exactly what the royal family is missing.

In other words, this is likely to reinforce what people think of Meghan on both sides.

Additional reporting by Guy Lambert and Nadine Yousif.