Lucy Clarke-Billings
BBC News
The Duchess of Sussex has announced that With Love, Meghan will be back for a second series.
The eight-part Netflix show, which sees Meghan share cooking, gardening and hosting tips with friends and famous guests at a California estate, launched on the streaming platform on Tuesday.
A few hours later, the former Suits actress officially launched her new brand As Ever, with an updated website revealing raspberry spread and flower sprinkes will be among the first products to be sold.
Tudum, the official companion site to Netflix, confirmed that filming had completed on the second season of the show and it will be streamed in the autumn.
The announcement came after the first series attracted critical reviews in both the UK and the US.
Since its launch on Tuesday, one review in The Guardian described it as a “gormless lifestyle filler” and “so pointless it might be the Sussexes’ last TV show”, while The Telegraph gave it two stars and branded it “insane” and an “exercise in narcissism”.
The series has a rating of 33% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
However, the BBC’s royal correspondent Sean Coughlan wrote that “the new Netflix series…is about escapism and aspiration, it’s a glass of something sparkling on a grey day”.
The show centres around Meghan preparing treats, foods and gifts at a beautiful property, although not her own home, in Montecito.
She makes pasta, crudités, focaccia, frittata and baked fish, and along with advice on how to make guests feel extra special, she shows viewers how to arrange flowers and make DIY bath salts.
Guests in the first series include American actress and producer Mindy Kaling, celebrity chef Roy Choi, designer Tracy Robbins and cosmetics entrepreneur Victoria Jackson.
On Friday, Meghan posted a video to Instagram which showed her wearing a hat with the writing “lettuce romaine calm” stitched across the front of it.
The caption read: “Lettuce romaine calm… or not (!) because I’m thrilled to share that Season 2 of ‘With Love, Meghan’ is coming!”
In a second post, she wrote: “If you’re loving Season 1, just wait until you see the fun we cooked up on Season 2!
“Thanks for joining the party, and an endless thanks to the amazing team and crew who helped bring it all to life!”
The first series was originally due to air in January but was postponed until March due to the Los Angeles wildfires.
In a statement at the time, Netflix described the upcoming programme as a “heartfelt tribute to the beauty of southern California”, adding that it was delaying its launch due to “ongoing devastation” in the US state.
