Latest news with #DuchessOfSussex
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Why Candace Owens claims Brigette Macron was born a man, her 'war against perverts who run the world'... and why that's not even the most controversial part
The Duchess of Sussex is 'despicably racist', the Covid-19 vaccine is 'pure evil' and 'secret Jewish gangs' are doing 'horrific things' in Hollywood. Followers of the firebrand Right-wing commentator Candace Owens have become accustomed to endlessly outlandish opinions.
The Sun
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Meghan & Harry's Netflix deal disaster is killing their US dream – how will they fund their incredibly lavish life now?
LIKE a slowly collapsing soufflé, the Duchess of Sussex's 'narcissistic' cookery show has been judged a ratings flop – and Netflix has decided to pull the plug. The streamer will let the five-year, $100million deal they inked with Meghan and Harry for that series and a host of other shows quietly lapse when it is due for renewal in September. 8 8 A source at Netflix said of Meghan's efforts: 'She had everything going for her — name, platform, press — and the numbers were dismal.' Lifestyle and cookery show With Love, Meghan only ranked at number 383 in Netflix's six-monthly engagement report this year, with just 5.3million viewers across the globe. Described by one critic as an 'exercise in narcissism', it was beaten by reruns of the first four seasons of legal drama Suits, which also starred the Duchess in her pre-royal days. Once judged by some as Britain's greatest soft power asset since Princess Diana, Meghan was filmed for her show making ladybird-shaped canapes from cherry tomatoes and mozzarella balls. 'Dull indulgence' Even The Guardian was moved to describe With Love, Meghan as 'the sort of gormless lifestyle filler that, had it been made by the BBC, would be used to bulk out episodes of Saturday Kitchen'. In truth, the show is a smash hit compared to her husband's vanity docuseries Polo, blasted as 'a dull indulgence about a rich person's pursuit'. In the first six months of the year the programme attracted a disastrous 500,000 views globally, ranking it at number 3,442 out of around 7,000 shows. Reruns of the nine-year-old cartoon He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe scored similar numbers. A Netflix insider has pronounced the couple's lucrative contract 'dead', adding: 'They're just waiting for the credits to roll. 'They're letting it expire without drama. There's no appetite for anything new.' The end of what many regarded as a reliable source of vast income for the former HRHs has set off a bomb under Project Sussex and its bold ambitions. And of course it is not the Sussexes' first media deal that has gone south. Their reported $20million podcasting deal with Spotify was terminated in June 2023, with senior Spotify executive Bill Simmons labelling the duo 'f***ing grifters'. Hosted by Meghan, the Archetypes podcast featured conversations with friends and celebrities including Serena Williams, Mariah Carey and Trevor Noah. Critics said that in the episode with Williams it took 11 minutes before the tennis legend got a word in edgeways. In 2023 Simmons said: 'I wish I had been involved in the 'Meghan and Harry leave Spotify' negotiation. 'The F***ing Grifters. That's the podcast we should have launched with them. 'I have got to get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea. 'It's one of my best stories. F*** them. The grifters.' The Sussexes' undoubted TV hit was docuseries Harry & Meghan, released in December 2022. It became Netflix's biggest documentary debut, with more than 28million watching in the first four days of its release. In it the couple accused the Royal Family of 'unconscious bias' and claimed Palace aides were complicit in negative media briefings against them. 8 8 Podcast boss Simmons said of Harry that year: 'You live in f***ing Montecito and you just sell documentaries and podcasts and nobody cares what you have to say about anything unless you talk about the Royal Family and you just complain about them.' While the Netflix deal will lapse, Meghan's As Ever collection of wine, jam and cookies is displaying 'sold out' signs on her website. It raises the question of whether it will be her earnings that are increasingly relied upon to fund the family's expensive Hollywood lifestyle, and if so, will it be enough? PR expert Nick Ede believes that in the future the Duchess will provide the surest revenue stream, saying: 'Meghan is the best way of making money for the two of them. 'She is the breadwinner.' However, marketing experts Camille Moore and Phillip Millar accused Meghan's As Ever brand of being 'not intelligent' and 'not well executed'. Speaking on The Art Of The Brand podcast this week, Millar accused Meghan of trying to rinse the maximum value from her 'fame that came from Suits and being a part of the Royal Family'. Millar added: 'Her brand wasn't one built on substance. It was based on using people.' Meanwhile, Harry, who has two paying jobs — with sustainable tourism firm Travalyst and coaching company BetterUp — seems most passionate when he is undertaking his charitable endeavours. During a recent trip to Angola, The Duke followed in the footsteps of Princess Diana by walking through a minefield on behalf of his charity The Halo Trust. 'Life of service' Harry said in a statement: 'As a father to young children, it breaks my heart to see innocent children still living and playing next to minefields,' Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond commented: 'I think this is precisely the sort of work that Harry should do. 'It is not only a hugely worth-while cause, but it also connects him with his mother, which is something he yearns for. 'I think he is coming to recognise that the LA celebrity world is one in which he is not especially comfortable. 'And he seems quite willing to let Meghan take the limelight over there. 'He speaks frequently about a life of service, and trips like this certainly serve a very good cause indeed.' Yet charity missions, while good for the soul, do not pay the bills. And the Sussexes' court in the Californian sunshine is not a cheap enterprise. Their home, a nine-bedroom, 16-bathroom mansion close to the Pacific in Montecito, is in America's fifth most expensive postcode. 8 8 They bought it for almost £11million after the drama of Megxit in 2020, and the following year Harry said in his tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey that his father has 'literally cut me off financially'. Without the money left to him by Diana — said to be £10million — Harry said 'we would not have been able to do this'. Harry's finances got a boost last September when he turned 40 and a fund set up by the late Queen Mother gave him access to around £8million. But while most people could live very well on that kind of cash, Harry and Meghan's lifestyle is not like most people's. They have more in common with the super-rich of California than your average couple. Indeed, they are said to have mortgage payments of around £350,000 a year, while staffing costs come to an estimated £180,000. Harry has also spent on court cases and could be in line for a £1.5million bill for his failed attempt to get the Home Office to pay for his security in the UK. Security is a very real worry for Prince Harry, who served two tours of Afghanistan. Former royal protection officer Simon Morgan estimated the Sussexes' protection costs come to at least £3million a year, adding: 'Security is not a fashion accessory, it's a need.' EYE-WATERING TAB It leaves the Sussexes with an eye-watering tab just to meet their estimated outgoings. Last month, royal financial expert Norman Baker told Channel 5 show Meghan And Harry: Where Did The Money Go? that the Sussexes' earning potential was on the wane. The former Liberal Democrat MP said: 'They've done the big hits that they could do. 'They've done the big Spotify event, they've done the big book, there is nothing else to come, nothing else to sell apart from themselves.' Harry's autobiography Spare became the fastest-selling non-fiction book ever and has gone on to sell more than six million copies worldwide. With their Netflix deal over, perhaps Meghan will feel the time is right for her to release her own blockbuster tome to get the cash registers ringing again. Both Netflix and Harry and Meghan are yet to comment. 8 8
News.com.au
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Meghan's Netflix show fails to make top 350
It's not often a spreadsheet makes news but today's story comes to you live from the depths of thousands of line items. Every six months Netflix executives take a break from brainstorming ideas like a S quid Game / Stranger Things crossover set in space and lets the world take a look under the hood by releasing their streaming figures. In the first half of this year, the Emmy-nominated Adolescence was the most watched TV show on the platform, hoovering up 145 million hours of viewing. Meanwhile, Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex's lifestyle-tainment show which saw her instruct audiences in the finer art of decanting pretzels from one plastic bag into another didn't manage to make it into the top 350. According to Netflix's latest 'What We Watched' report, With Love, Meghan was the 383rd most watched show, registering 5.3 million views, beaten by the first four seasons of Suits and Gossip Girl season one (number 376). Who knew that Blair Waldorf could better a real life duchess? With Love 's flatter-than-a-deflated-souffle-numbers have left the Hollywood entertainment bible Deadline scratching their heads, given that the world is in for a second serve. They reported that the show's ranking 'is very low for a Netflix original — and pretty unprecedented for a show that has been renewed.' ('Atypically,' they noted, With Love 's seasons one and two were filmed back-to-back.) Today, more than three months on since With Love posed the important question to audiences, 'but have you ever thought about fiddling about and colour-co-ordinating a fruit plates?' No date has been set for Meghan's sophomore series. But there is one clear date on the horizon: September 2. That day will mark five years since Meghan and her husband Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex announced their 'megawatt' five year Netflix deal. Back then, in 2020, this seemed like an all round jolly good bet, with the world pressed-up- against-the-glass and glued to the unfolding saga of the self-exiled couple. They had done the unthinkable - turned down the chance to spend their lives in a group chat with Princess Anne sending horse gifs, doing charity all the charity work they fancied and never having to pay a gas bill. When they announced the deal, it seemed a given that the streamer's subscribers would eagerly gobble up whatever they made. It all seemed pretty win-win: The duke and duchess would make content that 'that informs but also gives hope' and 'impactful content that unlocks action' and Netflix could piggyback on the global Sussex obsession. Five years on the proof is in the cold, stodgy pudding. The only 'action' they have 'unlocked' is Meghan having given an unexpected boost to the flower sprinkle industry and them managing to further estrange the royal family and to set a lot of Brits' teeth further on edge. Meanwhile, Netflix has extracted the only thing of real value the Sussexes possessed -the sorry, sad tale of their tortured royal lives. The outlier in their Netflix tale has been their six-parter, Harry & Meghan, all those hours of raw emotions, soft lighting and one infamous curtsy making for compelling viewing, translating into Netflix's biggest documentary debut ever, which has now been watched for more than 177.85 million hours in total. Huzzah and all that. However, move beyond that and we have two egregiously flaccid duds, Harry's solo Heart of Invictus and Polo proving that he's about as good at making TV as his uncle Andrew is at giving interviews, and With Love's limp showing. Heart of Invictus only got 300,000 views after its release. Since then it has not made the top 6,800 shows. Polo, a boring offering of on field testosterone, horsey braggadocio and capped toothed-men rabbiting on about winning only got 600,000 views, putting it at 2,946th spot. In the six months of this year, it has added 500,000 views and currently sits at 3,436. In return for all this output and their credibility, the Sussexes have reportedly only made tens of millions, far from the much touted figure of $USD100 ($153) million. Over the weekend, 'a source with knowledge of the Netflix deal' told the Daily Mail that the Sussexes 'probably managed to maybe keep $10million-$15million [$15.3-$23 million] or a touch more purely for themselves over the nearly five years so far.' How long can or will that sum last, with the same Mail report saying they need to bank $6 million a year after tax to pay for their living expenses? The good news for the duke and duchess is that Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos is said to be a huge fan of Meghan's and that With Love will be renewed for a third go. According to the Mail, 'It's probable that they'll pay Meghan between $3-$5million [$4.6- $7.6 million] a year for it.' Or in other words, the duchess would make just about enough to keep the lights on and their bank manager sweet. With Spotify having parted ways with the Sussexes back in 2023, the duke failing to have gotten a single podcast series off the ground, and both The Hollywood Reporter and Vanity Fair having published exposes about their allegedly poor treatment of staff, the couple's Hollywood fortunes are in the doldrums territory. The Duchess of Sussex might keep cranking out With Love and dispensing invaluable advice about how to put ice in drinks but beyond that their entertainment careers appear to be largely kaput. Should push ever come to shove, the latest Netflix spreadsheet makes one thing clear: the appetite for royal melodrama is as healthy as ever. Season one The Royals, a long since canned series in which Liz Hurley is the Queen and heads up a fictional British royal family, has been viewed 14.3 million times for a total of more than 85 million hours. As the saying goes, there's money in muck - and monarchy.
Daily Mail
18-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Truth about Harry and Meghan's money: Her ignominious downgrade revealed by ALISON BOSHOFF as friends tell how they're funding their $4million a year life... and why Harry might return to UK
When she started posting links on the ShopMy e-commerce site, some thought that this was going to prove an irresistible source of serious income for the Duchess of Sussex. It couldn't be easier, really – influencers link posts from their Instagram to the online shop, and then rake in a percentage of every item of clothing, make-up or homeware sold as a result.
Times
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Three sommeliers tried Meghan's new rosé. Here's what they thought
The Duchess of Sussex has made her first foray into winemaking with the release of her Napa Valley rosé, released under her lifestyle brand As Ever. The 43-year-old first revealed her interest in wine in the mid-2010s, when she would share her favourite robust Tuscan reds and dry white Sardinian wines with readers of her lifestyle blog The Tig. The blog's name was a nod to Tignanello, a so-called 'super-Tuscan' chianti. Meghan has said that her first sip of Tignanello taught her what it meant to appreciate a wine's body, legs and structure. Now with the release of her $30 rosé, Meghan has sampled and personally selected a blend of cabernet sauvignon, syrah, grenache and mourvèdre from the Fairwinds Estate Winery in Calistoga, in California's Napa Valley.
