Will new Netflix show With Love work to rebrand the Duchess of Sussex?

This is the picture of domestic bliss.

Duchess of Sussex picking flowers, chopping vegetables and decorating cakes in trailer for her new Netflix show.

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

Looks like Meghan has rebranded herself. Her new look has been described by PR expert Chloe Frances as similar to a “traditional wife” trending on social mediainspired by the housewives of the 1950s.

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 Megan, it turns out to be a disagreement. Frances praises him as “authentic”, while Alex Silver, a media relations expert, calls him “tone deaf”.

So what is the reason behind her new TV show With Love and will it work?

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

Since stepping down as senior royals in 2020. and moved to California, the couple pursued various ventures together, including founding a production company and a charitable foundation.

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

“They seem to have split their brands,” says Pauline McLaren, professor of marketing and consumer studies at Royal Holloway.

“I think it’s a lot more successful because I think the two of them together didn’t get any strong recognition.”

Relaunching also means moving away from royal life.

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

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

Instead, it focused on lifestyle and health – areas she had already explored before meeting Harry through her lifestyle blog The Tig.

On The Tig, Megan shares beauty, diet and fashion tips, recipes, travel advice and words of wisdom about love and life.

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

“It’s a well-trodden path for a woman in the public eye who has a lifestyle that is both ambitious and challenging,” says Frances.

Others are more skeptical.

“There are more interesting and significant world events going on that she could talk about,” Silver says. “She might have been promoting the charity or something.

“I think she’s all about herself. 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 photography book was grossly mocked on social mediafor example – with one picture of an elephant getting particularly angry.

This isn’t Meghan’s first foray into the world of business, an industry fraught with risk and reward.

The pair’s previous business ventures include a multi-million pound deal with Netflix.

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

Spotify’s big bet on Meghan also failed.

In July 2023 the streaming giant and Sussex-based Archewell Audio have announced they are mutually parting ways.

At the time, experts suggested there wasn’t a big enough audience for Meghan’s Archetypes podcast to justify its continuation.

Last March, she launched a different lifestyle brand called American Riviera Orchard. It currently has more than 600,000 Instagram followers and has featured nine posts since its launch — but no posts since then.

With this new venture, some speculate that Meghan hopes to open up additional business opportunities for herself, such as partnerships with major supermarkets and brands.

If so, she would be following in the footsteps of others such as Hollywood A-lister Gwyneth Paltrow with her wildly successful lifestyle platform Goop.

“It’s clearly related to her own commercial interests,” Silver says.

“They are aware that their income will dry up at some stage. Their lifestyle is quite posh, they mix in circles in prestigious markets and they don’t want to be the poor relatives.’

As for the new TV show, royal expert Victoria Murphy says she “(doesn’t) think there’s any doubt that people will watch it initially and it will do well”.

But she says the real test is whether it engages a consistently large following and really builds a strong global brand for Meghan outside the monarchy.

McLaren agrees, saying he thinks the show will appeal to certain groups of people, especially in the US.

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

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

But she doesn’t think the show will appeal to audiences.

“I can’t imagine it’s going to be a well-watched thing,” Silver says.

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

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

The Daily Mail, for example, dissected every single detail of every shot in the trailer, most of it unflattering.

The Duchess seems to be of endless interest – especially to the British tabloids. But she also has a major fan base on social media.

To her detractors, they’ll say it’s glossy and superficial, Hollywood at its worst.

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

In other words, it’s likely to reinforce what people already think about Meghan, on both sides of the debate.

Additional reporting by Guy Lambert and Nadine Yousif.