Netflix spent years betting that famous people are inherently watchable. With Love, Meghan is the clearest test of that theory — and according to Netflix's own listings, it has now been marked as ended after two seasons.
Here's what the show actually was, what reportedly went wrong, and what it says about Netflix's celebrity strategy.
What With Love, Meghan Was
The format was straightforward lifestyle programming. Meghan, Duchess of Sussex invites friends and famous guests to a beautiful California estate, where she shares cooking, gardening and hosting tips.
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It premiered in 2025 and ran for two seasons on Netflix. The template was familiar — closer to a streaming-era Martha Stewart or Ina Garten than anything royal — and that was clearly the intent. This was Meghan positioning herself as a lifestyle brand, not a royal.
The production values were high. The estate looked immaculate. The guests were genuine names. On paper it had everything Netflix's data would suggest works.
Why the Format Struggled
The critical response was rough, and the audience scores were worse. TMDB currently lists the show at a 1.6 rating — an unusually low figure that suggests review-bombing as much as genuine reception, given how politically charged anything involving the Sussexes becomes.
That's worth separating out honestly. Some of the negative response was about the show. A significant amount was about Meghan, and would have arrived regardless of what she made.
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But the structural problem was real, and it's the same one that sinks most celebrity lifestyle shows:
Lifestyle content requires expertise, not fame. Viewers watch cooking shows to learn cooking. Celebrity is a reason to click once, not to return.
Aspiration needs to feel reachable. A California estate most viewers could never access makes the tips decorative rather than useful.
Netflix's algorithm punishes low completion. Curiosity clicks that don't convert into finished episodes are a bad signal, and lifestyle shows live or die on repeat viewing.
The Sussexes' broader Netflix deal was reportedly one of the largest signed with a non-industry couple. That raises the bar enormously — a show that would be quietly renewed at a normal budget gets scrutinised very differently at that price.
Netflix's Wider Celebrity Bet
With Love, Meghan isn't an isolated case. Netflix has invested heavily in celebrity-fronted unscripted content — documentaries, lifestyle series, behind-the-scenes access shows — on the logic that a famous name reduces marketing cost.
The results have been genuinely mixed. Celebrity documentaries with a real story to tell tend to perform. Celebrity lifestyle content without one tends not to.
The distinction seems to be whether the famous person is the subject or the host. Audiences will watch a documentary about someone's life. They are much less willing to watch that same person teach them to arrange flowers.
The Sussexes' most-discussed Netflix output remains their documentary work, not the lifestyle programming — which supports exactly that pattern.
What This Means for Meghan
A two-season run is not a catastrophe. Plenty of Netflix originals don't get a second season at all, and the show delivered on its core commercial purpose: establishing Meghan as a lifestyle brand independent of the Royal Family.
Reportedly, her business interests have extended well beyond the show itself into consumer products — where the show functions as marketing rather than the main event. Judged that way, its value isn't really in the viewing figures.
If you came for the celebrity-lifestyle format, the streaming shows currently doing it well tend to be led by people with genuine professional credentials rather than fame alone — chefs who cook, designers who design.
