Few enterprises boast as heartwarming a beginning as Meghan’s lifestyle brand, As ever. During the pandemic, the former actress embraced a new pastime—making jam.
When a basket containing her homemade jam found its way to Netflix executive Bela Bajaria, an intriguing question arose: “Could this be a show?” Reflecting on the moment at the Time100 Summit last spring, Meghan confessed, “Initially, I hadn’t considered sharing it in such a public way.”
However, she was soon convinced. Filming two seasons of With Love, Meghan, along with a Christmas special, took place in the spring of 2024, with releases in March, August, and December of last year.
Following the show’s success, the lifestyle brand blossomed. As ever officially launched in April 2025, showcasing its signature jams alongside flower sprinkles and cookie mixes. By July, the range expanded to include wine, sparkling wine, tea, candles, bookmarks, and even more jam. This week, news broke of a collaboration with a high-end floral delivery service.
Last year, it was revealed that Netflix had joined forces with Meghan as a commercial partner for the As ever brand.
But that partnership is no more.
Essentially, the streaming giant put money in but the brand struggled, and the plug was officially pulled on Friday, March 6.
As one source said: ‘There was just all this jam. We had thought that there would be more to it.’
In a statement released on the same day, a spokesperson for As ever offered the spin that Meghan and her sprinkles just didn’t need the streamer and its billions.
Two series of With Love, Meghan, and the Christmas special were filmed in the spring of 2024 and came out in March, August and December last year
As one source said: ‘There was just all this jam. We had thought that there would be more to it’
‘We have experienced meaningful and rapid growth and As ever is now ready to stand on its own,’ said the spokesperson.
At Netflix’s massive headquarters in Los Gatos, California, they were somewhat surprised to read those distinctly snarky words.
For its part, Netflix had released a statement, from an anonymous spokesperson which was carefully supportive. It ran: ‘Meghan’s passion for elevating everyday moments in beautiful yet simple ways inspired the creation of the As ever brand, and we are glad to have played a role in bringing that vision to life.
‘As it was always intended, Meghan will continue growing the brand and take it into its next chapter independently.’
In fact, the partnership had broken down far earlier – at the first available opportunity, exactly one year after coming into being.
When Netflix started out, the idea was for the streamer to partner with the brand at least until it was profitable.
But that’s not what happened. I am told this week that relations have been in serious difficulty since the autumn of 2025.
A source says that the streamer will never badmouth Meghan: ‘No one is willing to be other than supportive in public’, and yet, as was asserted in an explosive account published in Variety magazine this week, Netflix is ‘done’ with the Sussexes – at least when it comes to As ever.
It’s not out of the question that there will be a further ‘seasonal special’ of With Love, Meghan, but I’m told: ‘I don’t think anyone is going to be killing themselves with an effort to work with them at this point.’
That’s very bad news for Meghan and Harry, who have a first-look deal with Netflix. If it doesn’t greenlight projects from the couple’s company Archewell Productions, then their money hose will run dry.
Indeed, Meghan and As ever seem to have been expunged with Stalinist thoroughness by the top brass, which casts doubt on the feasibility of all their media ambitions going forward, and seems to indicate a proper behind-the-scenes falling out.
Netflix boss Ted Sarandos has unfollowed both Meghan and As ever on Instagram. So has his creative chief Bela Bajaria. Both have been extremely positive about Meghan previously, with Sarandos calling her ‘the rock star’ as recently as last spring.
He was in awe of her ability to capture attention, and was impressed by the way every item shown in their 2022 blockbuster, score-settling, documentary Harry & Meghan sold out – even the Hermes blanket which was seen artfully folded over the back of a chair. However, the mood music has changed. Both Sarandos and Bajaria have been heard saying things in private about the pair which were ‘not complimentary’, although my sources declined to share exactly what.
And those turbo sales didn’t arrive at As ever, which has acres of unsold stock – up to $10 million (£7.5 million) worth according to the entertainment bible Variety.
So much for ‘meaningful and rapid growth’.
Meghan and As Ever seem to have been expunged with Stalinist thoroughness by the top brass, after Netflix boss Ted Sarandos unfollowed her and the brand on Instagram
It’s not out of the question that there will be a further ‘seasonal special’ of With Love, Meghan, but I’m told: ‘I don’t think anyone is going to be killing themselves with an effort to work with them at this point’
Some unsold stock was put out on tables at the Netflix offices earlier this year for staff to take if they wanted. Of course, this is standard in some establishments, but it certainly gave the impression there was more As ever product than anyone knew what to do with.
It’s quite a falling off, as I’m told Sarandos was so ‘all in’ with the couple that he even allowed Harry, Meghan and her family to stay in his $34 million (£26 million) home in Santa Barbara when they bought their own huge place in Montecitom. ‘Ted let them stay over at his while their place was being renovated. They were very close,’ says a Californian source.
He was part of the team which agreed to sign them to that $100 million deal in September 2020, after their ‘Freedom flight’ to the US following Megxit. The deal was crucial to their financial independence. Meghan was close to Sarandos’ wife, Nicole Avant, a powerhouse who was the US ambassador to the Bahamas and whose father was the chairman of Motown Records. But Avant has also unfollowed Meghan and As ever on Instagram, too.
The same is true for the coterie of Netflix executives who used to work with Meghan and the brand.
Meghan has effectively been purged.
As to what went wrong, fundamentally there were differences over the direction of the brand. It can be revealed that Netflix had a vision, which would have started with rose wine, and gone on through five phases including the introduction of china and glassware, then food, followed by an expansion into physical retail spaces, and finally a cookbook.
All of it was to be sold on the back of Meghan’s sophistication and elegance.
I hear that Netflix simply wasn’t able to interest Meghan in any of that. Her enthusiasm for business was genuine enough – she and Harry are well aware they need to make money – but she didn’t care to take the advice offered by the Netflix head of consumer products, Josh Simon.
After he left Netflix last year, to take a new role elsewhere, the writing was on the wall. Meghan, it seems, was never going to write a cookbook and she didn’t want to lend her name to napkins and teacups, even though that does great business for Netflix hit Bridgerton via the London store Liberty.
A source says: ‘The issue was sales in the end. The product was not taken up in the way that people had hoped. The jam thing became totemic. There was just all this jam. We had thought there would be more to it.
‘The failure was more to do with the product and the business model, which didn’t work, than a people thing about Meghan being difficult. Although I hear there was an element of both.’
The source added: ‘What we have with Bridgerton, for instance, is a commercial brand partnership with an existing outlet, but that’s not what we had here. It didn’t work, and so it came to an end.’
After Josh Simon left, Meghan hired her own independent brand consultant and ‘creative director’ Devin Pedzwater, who had worked with Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle brand Goop. It was a clear signal that Meghan was no longer looking to Netflix for input.
Variety says that as the deal soured, so did her relationships with key executives. According to the entertainment industry bible, three insiders say Sarandos is ‘fed up with the pair – who, say two sources, have been known to text directly with the co-CEO about their projects, as do many A-listers who work with the streamer.’
The magazine says that two sources insist Sarandos recently said he would not sit for a call with the Duchess unless a lawyer was present on the line, which, of course, could have been a joke. A Netflix spokesperson said it was ‘absolutely inaccurate’ that Sarandos made the comment.
Litigator Michael J Kump, in a letter to the publication, raged: ‘This is blatantly false. In fact, Meghan texts and speaks with Mr Sarandos regularly, and has been to his home, sans lawyers.’
If Netflix doesn’t greenlight projects from the couple’s company Archewell Productions, then Harry and Meghan’s money hose will run dry, writes Alison Boshoff
As to what went wrong, fundamentally there were differences over the direction of the brand
The magazine adds that Sarandos and his wife socialise frequently with Meghan and Harry and are neighbours.
The article adds: ‘Similarly, chief content officer Bela Bajaria is said to have grown weary of the Sussex pact.’
A Netflix spokesperson denied this, saying it was ‘absolutely inaccurate’ that Sarandos and Bajaria have lost faith in the couple. Bajaria was even prevailed upon to give a warm statement (but not Sarandos, which appears to speaks volumes).
She said: ‘Archewell has been a thoughtful and collaborative partner and we’ve really enjoyed working with Harry and Meghan. They are deeply engaged in the storytelling process and bring a unique, global perspective that aligns with the kinds of impactful projects our members respond to.’
Note the use of the past tense.
Beyond debate is the performance of With Love, Meghan. The ratings for series one were respectable if not stellar. It was viewed 5.3 million times, the 383rd most popular show of the six-month period. That put it on a par with other lifestyle offerings.
Series two, which was critically panned as ‘gormless’ and ‘absurd’, showed a serious case of diminishing returns, drawing only two million viewers and being ranked 1,217 for the period.
It didn’t give a meaningful boost to the brand, because the crafting and cooking on display – making fruit platters and so on – were totally divorced from the offerings of As ever. The only product in common was wine.
As the ‘experimental’ pact between Netflix and As ever continued, some eyebrows were raised over the way Ted’s ‘rock star’ did business.
Variety writes: ‘In virtual and in-person meetings with partners, she tends to talk over or recast Prince Harry’s thoughts, sometimes while he is mid-sentence, sources say (usually preceded by a touch to the arm or thigh).’
Prince Harry tells Variety this is ‘categorically false’, and their lawyer accused the magazine of playing into a ‘misogynistic characterization of her bossing her husband around’.
Even more curiously, it is reported that Meghan disappears during Zoom calls, with Netflix employees being told that she had been offended by something that was said. Her lawyer denies this and says that any absences would be down to their children entering the room unexpectedly during a meeting.
Those complaints appear trivial, and yet the impression given is damaging because it all rather sounds as if Meghan and Harry don’t know what they are doing, at least where Hollywood is concerned. If they can’t attract viewers – aside from incendiary interviews about the Royal Family – or sell merchandise, then what is the point of them?
And, with the chilliest winds blowing through the entertainment industry, nobody needs to be reminded that it is called showbusiness for a reason.
