The Big Picture
Netflix expands reality TV projects, including lifestyle series.
Meghan Markle enters California lifestyle guru space with Netflix series.
Meghan’s new lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard, launches soon.
Netflix has bolstered their number of reality TV projects in recent years. While the streaming giant has turned to competition and dating series that are relatively easy to produce and lead to untold hours of binging, they have also expanded their lifestyle-style reality programs as well. Series like Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, Cooking with Paris, and Interior Design Masters have proven they have what it takes to keep the audience in their seats, and if the streaming giant is known for anything, it’s excessively investing in a good thing.
Meghan Markle and her husband, Prince Harry, originally signed a $100 million deal with Netflix back in 2020. The documentary series Harry & Meghan was the initial outcome of that deal, followed by Prince Harry’s sports documentary, Heart of Invictus. In March 2024, Meghan took to Instagram to announce the launch of her new lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard. The Duchess has a history in the world of lifestyle and wellness, after running her popular blog The Tig for many years before formally shuttering the project once she became a royal. Now, back in California with her happy family and initiating her new brand launch, Meghan has just recently wrapped another project of her own with Netflix.
Meghan Markle Is California’s New Lifestyle Guru
Move over Gwyneth Paltrow and Kourtney Kardashian, because Goop and Poosh will soon have even more competition in the Southern-California guru space. Meghan is stepping into the arena with what seems to be an elevated concept to bring to lifestyle reality TV, to compliment her elegant new brand that will sell food items such as jams and preserves, as well as household items such as recipe books and tableware, according to a trademark application filed in February 2024. Speaking to Page Six, PR consultant Mark Borkowski opined that the new lifestyle and cooking series “could be a relaunch to something new and interesting” for the Duchess.
Filming for the first season of the series recently wrapped, so Netflix should be releasing it shortly after editing is complete. Not that California is lacking in lifestyle gurus already, but the now ex-royal couple have always garnered major attention in the media, and if the success of the documentary about their love-story is any indication, viewers will be interested in seeing what the actress-turned-royal-turned-guru is cooking up next.
Harry and Meghan is available to stream on Netflix.
Watch on Netflix