Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have embarked on numerous business ventures since stepping back from their royal responsibilities in March 2020. Yet while the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have enjoyed some notable successes since going it alone without the royal family, they have also endured their fair share of failures.
Now, with a reported return to the UK on the cards, it could present yet another chance to reinvent themselves or offer something fresh. A PR expert weighed in and suggested that they need to do three things - support British charities, do less as a couple and have less media-trained moments.
Meghan's Book 'The Bench'
One of Meghan's earliest business missteps following their departure as senior royals was her children's book, "The Bench," published in June 2021. The picture book, which explored the "special relationship between father and son as seen through a mother's eyes," originated as a poem Meghan penned for Harry on Father's Day following the arrival of their son, Archie, in May 2019.
"The Bench," however, failed to crack the UK Official Top 50 chart during its debut week. While the book eventually climbed to No. 100 on the Amazon US bestsellers chart after a sluggish start, it reportedly lost momentum over time – despite Meghan allegedly receiving a nearly $700,000 advance for the story.
'With Love, Meghan' on Netflix
While the first series of Meghan's lifestyle Netflix programme, With Love, Meghan, performed strongly upon its debut in March 2025, the second series reportedly attracted 500,000 fewer viewers and failed to feature in the streamer's Top 10 list when it launched on August 26, 2025.
However, not only did the second series of With Love, Meghan underperform, it also received scathing reviews from critics. Lucy Mangan of the Guardian branded the programme "boring," "painfully contrived" and "so effortfully whimsical" that it "does become almost fascinating." The Times portrayed Meghan as "a woman in need of some cash" following the second series.
With Love, Meghan formed part of the $100 million Netflix agreement that the Sussexes secured with the platform in 2020. However, it was reported in January 2026 that the lifestyle programme was "not returning as a series." A source said: "There have been conversations about holiday specials, but there's nothing in the works yet."
Lifestyle Brand As Ever
Meghan decided to launch her own lifestyle, but even from its inception there were problems. The Duchess was compelled to rebrand her original lifestyle venture, American Riviera Orchard, to As Ever in February 2025 following a series of trademark complications.
Despite having secured the As Ever name in 2022, the Suits star didn't reveal the change until a fortnight before her With Love, Meghan Netflix programme launched that March. Yet Meghan continued to encounter obstacles even after announcing the name change, as she allegedly neglected to sign the trademark application documents prior to submitting them to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Further documents obtained by The Post at the time also revealed that the Trademark Office returned certain paperwork because Meghan had failed to clarify what she meant by "various items" such as "spoons, serving jams and fruit preserves." The Trademark Office additionally rejected Meghan's attempt to sell clothing items such as aprons under the newly-named company, owing to an existing Chinese clothing firm already trading under the name ASEVER.
A Spanish politician spoke out in February 2025, claiming Meghan's As Ever logo bore too close a resemblance to the coat of arms belonging to a small Mallorcan village called Porreres. Despite eventually resolving her various trademark difficulties, Meghan's As Ever product range — which encompasses a curated selection of home, kitchen and gourmet food items — continued to attract criticism.
Jam expert Donna Collins savaged Meghan's "runny" apricot spread following its release in June 2025. "It's a real disappointment that Meghan is selling a fruit spread, which is what you make when your jam fails," Collins fumed at the time. "In the jam industry a spread is what we call something that didn't work. It can have the best ingredients, but if I had a jam that was too runny, I'd slap a label on it and call it a spread. There's no excuse for this. It should be perfect."
Netflix Flop
Just days before Netflix's split from Meghan's As Ever brand was confirmed in early 2026, reports emerged that virtually all of the Sussexes' Netflix ventures had ground to a halt. Harry and Meghan revealed in August 2023 that their Archewell Productions company intended to produce a film adaptation of Carley Fortune's novel Meet Me at the Lake, with Netflix reportedly paying around $3 million to secure the rights to the book. Yet three years on, the project remained stuck in development, with neither a director nor a cast in place.
Harry and Meghan's documentary Cookie Queen, which made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2026, also failed to attract interest from either a distributor or streaming platform, despite the couple having offered it to Netflix.
