"With Authenticity, Meghan"

WHAT DID I JUST WATCH? Where we talk TV.

Before we jump into this apparently fraught topic, it’s important that you do not count me among the Meghan Markle haters.

For one, I reserve true hatred for very few people. Criminals, abusers, dictators, and enablers of the aforementioned, generally speaking. Celebrities, no matter how insufferable, rarely meet the mark. And from some of the media I’ve caught of her, she seems perfectly pleasant.

For another, I’m not, nor have I ever been, interested in The Royals™. We fought a whole war for the privilege of not having to care about the British Monarchy, and I don’t plan to begin caring 250 years later. Whatever she’s accused of doing to them or because of them is excruciatingly boring to me, and, frankly, none of my business.

That said, I did come to Meghan’s defense when she publicly spoke about her mental health back in 2021 with Oprah Winfrey. Struggling with one’s mental health is hard enough – talking publicly about it is enormously courageous and hugely helpful in ending the stigma. When she was met with criticism – she was called a liar, “self-serving,” “petty,” “privileged,” and was accused of “wallowing” in victimhood – I wrote several columns defending her and others whose stories of anxiety, suicidal thoughts and depression were dismissed and mocked by well-platformed trolls. (I also opened up about my own mental health struggles.)

But mostly I can not hate Rachel Meghan Markle Mountbatten-Windsor Sussex because I don’t know her. At all. And therein lies the problem, especially with the latest iteration of her public persona.

Meghan’s been on the scene since the early 2000s as an actress, landing her biggest role on Suits in 2011. She started dating Prince Harry in 2016, and became one of the most famous people on the planet. That’s nearly 10 years ago – ten years that included a heavily watched wedding, more tabloid press than most Americans can even imagine, mainstream press, giant sitdown interviews, and the kind of scrutiny usually reserved for elected officials.

The efforts to capitalize on her newfound fame were considerable. There was the first Netflix deal in 2020. Then a multiyear deal with Spotify. There was Meghan’s short lived podcast Archetypes, which was cancelled after 12 episodes.

There was her children’s book, The Bench, which was met with mixed reviews, we’ll say.

Then there was the announcement in 2021 that she would executive produce a Netflix animated series called Pearl, which was canceled in 2022.

There was the four-book publishing deal with Random House, which included Harry’s tell-all memoir Spare.

Then there was a docuseries, Harry and Meghan, produced by Netflix and aired in 2022 to more mixed reviews.

She launched a lifestyle brand in March 2024 called American Riviera Orchard, and then renamed it As Ever in early 2025. The couple has invested in, partnered with, and created upwards of a dozen companies.

Finally, her new show, With Love, Meghan, premiered on Netflix in March.

For someone with a mixed record of delivering, that is a TON of opportunity and exposure. From linear TV to streaming to podcasting to publishing, Meghan’s literally been on every kind of platform available, and she’s been paid handsomely to do it.

My point in recounting all of this is, we should know Meghan Markle by now. We should have a very clear idea of who she is, especially considering she produced most of the content designed to help brand her herself. Someone this exposed should not be a mystery.

And yet, I still don’t have any idea who she really is. And the latest venture really doesn’t help.

In case you haven’t seen the litany of criticisms, there are tons and they are (mostly) fair.

In this overly-wrought and artificially constructed setting, Meghan cooks, makes snacks and sun tea, and chats with friends all in an attempt – I assume? – to show us who she is.

But her “friends” all seem like paid actors who don’t actually know her very well. Her cooking skills are questionable. Her snacks seem better suited for well-heeled moms at a wellness retreat instead of her two young children. The house it’s shot in isn’t hers. Her supposed bee-keeping hobby seems uncomfortably new to her. And her overly precious offerings do not seem to meet the moment most of us are currently living in. While we’re worrying about the cost of eggs and gas, she’s selling her dried flower sprinkles in a $1,325 Loro Piana top.

This carefully curated display of endless wealth, privilege, and free time would all be fine if she just leaned into it. “I married a prince and now my life is a fairy tale.” Instead, though, she seems to want us to believe she’s just a down-to-earth girl from SoCal.

But she is so obviously unclear on the persona she wants us to see that even she forgets who she’s supposed to be. In one scene, in anticipation of her “friend” arriving, she’s seen transferring his favorite peanut butter pretzels from one bag to another. For no reason. In another much-discussed scene, her “friend” Mindy Kaling calls her “Meghan Markle” and she is swiftly corrected. “It’s so funny, you keep calling me Meghan Markle, but you know it’s Sussex now,” to which a confused Kaling just stares back dead-eyed, unsure of how to respond.

The worst part of that particular exchange is that Kaling was actually handing her a gift – a chance to look real for a moment.

Kaling had prompted Meghan to talk about some of her favorite fast food – another effort to help get to know this hopelessly unknowable woman. After she runs down the list, Kaling then says, “I don’t think anyone in the world knows that Meghan Markle has eaten Jack in the Box.”

Now this statement is absurd on its face – Markle grew up in Los Angeles, of course she’s had Jack in the Box. Nonetheless, Kaling was clearly trying to humanize her friend.

It was the perfect opportunity for Meghan to lean in and embrace the realness of her upbringing. Instead, Kaling was told to call her by her royal title, putting up yet another wall for the viewers – and her friend! Eventually Kaling responded, “Well, now I know. And I love it.” Have you guys actually met before?

Adding insult to considerable injury, the producers – including presumably Meghan herself – decided to leave this halting and awkward interaction in the final cut, for all of us to see, despite how insufferable and unrelatable it makes her look. The decisions in this series are truly mind-boggling.

The whole thing feels so contrived, so produced, so self-conscious, and Meghan seems unable to get out of her own way – or what Tina Brown called “fake perfection” and her “unerring instinct for getting it wrong.”

While it’s true some of the criticism can be dismissed as Meghan haters who just want her to go away already, the bulk of it is actually an indictment of her inability to finally reveal who she actually is, for the presumably many fans who actually want to know her better.

This all reminds me of a lesson I learned many years ago coming into politics and media. And it’s one I’ve put up on my wall for a daily reminder.

Sharp-eyed viewers will recognize this photo from my home studio background:

It’s giant – six feet wide by four feet tall, and it hangs over my desk.

There are two parts to the story of this photo, which I’ve only selectively told before.

The first is that this is an award-winning photo published in the New York Times in November of 2000. Former Vice President Al Gore and George Bush had been locked in a contentious and tight election and we didn’t know who won after election day. It would eventually lead to a famous recount, but before that, Gore’s campaign decided he should go play touch football with his kids on his front lawn – to project confidence in the outcome of the election.

The orchestrated moment only got attention for how staged it clearly was – contributing to the enduring criticism of his campaign, which was that he was inauthentic.

The second part of the story is that I worked at the New York Times in the 2000s. When we were moving buildings, our managers told us each we could take a photo from off the walls. I took this one, because of the lesson it taught – authenticity matters. I’ve carried that through my career, knowing that even if viewers and readers don’t like what I say or write, they’ll at least always know that I mean it.

It’s a lesson Markle – I mean Sussex? – still hasn’t mastered. But I for one would like to see her get there. When she finally decides to just be herself, I bet she’ll find an audience who loves her for it.

We’ll talk more about the TV everyone’s talking about – just look for the WHAT DID I JUST WATCH? moniker at the top.