Oh, Meghan – we expected more from you than ‘trad wife’

The Duchess of Sussex understandably has a desire to return to her lifestyle-blogging roots, writes Olivia Petter. But going by the trailer, this new Netflix show is mawkish and, worse still, disappointing

It was only a matter of time until the modern-day trad wife phenomenon became the premise for a horror film. Think about it: all the key elements are there.

The portentous setting of suburbia: quiet streets, palatial mansions, moneyed families with perfect hair. A life defined by domestic servitude: cooking, cleaning, doing everything for everyone except yourself. And a modus operandi steeped in archaic values that oppresses women, entrapping them within the home and stripping them of their autonomy, identity, and financial independence, one homemade marshmallow at a time.

Thank goodness, then, that someone has finally taken all this and put it in its rightful home of horror. I just didn’t expect that someone to be Meghan Markle. And yet, when I watched the trailer for the Duchess of Sussex’s new Netflix show, With Love, Meghan, all I could think was: I didn’t realise there was a sequel to Get Out.

Before I continue, let me preface this by saying that I don’t have anything against Meghan. Not even a little bit. In fact, I think she has been a great advocate for women’s rights.

I also respect her for speaking out about how she was allegedly treated by the royal family and taking steps to separate herself from them in order to preserve her mental wellbeing. And I wholeheartedly believe she was subject to an inordinate amount of racism and misogynoir in the UK, so I don’t blame her for heading stateside to sunny California.

But since then, Meghan’s output has been somewhat disappointing.

There was the nauseatingly saccharine Netflix docuseries with Prince Harry that came out in 2022; the Archetypes podcast that I found unbearably sanctimonious; and now this: an eight-part so-called “lifestyle” programme that seems to be little more than an exercise in showing us how lovely Meghan’s kitchen looks on camera with her famous friends inside it.

According to Netflix, With Love, Meghan (don’t get me started on the title), blends “practical how-tos and candid conversation with friends, new and old”, and will see Meghan sharing “personal tips and tricks, embracing playfulness over perfection and highlighting how easy it can be to create beauty, even in the unexpected”. If it wasn’t for the press release I received explaining all this, I’d think the whole thing was satire.

In the trailer, which Meghan shared on Instagram on Thursday, we are greeted with a sequence that sees the mother-of-two prancing around her garden gathering fresh fruit and veg, cutting into a few cakes, and making yummy noises after eating her own food. It’s not so much the content itself that rattles me – I love a good cooking show as much as anyone. It’s the tone, which is so jarringly earnest it feels sinister.

Everything Meghan says in the trailer is a twee platitude that could’ve been ripped off an Ikea poster: “We’re not in the pursuit of perfection, we’re in the pursuit of joy.”

Clearly, this is an attempt for Meghan to separate herself from The Firm – even Harry features in a single, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot in the trailer – and move on from the trauma of it all by returning to her lifestyle-blogging roots.

Look, I get it. And maybe it is time for Meghan to dip her toe back into this space now that a few years have passed since Megxit. But did it really have to be so mawkish? So traditional? So utterly cringe that I almost can’t bear to watch?

Who knows what the episodes of With Love, Meghan will bring. But, if they’re even slightly similar to the trailer, I will probably do my best to avoid them.

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