Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have had a challenging month. Amid rumours about their marriage following several solo appearances, they re-emerged in the limelight with their latest Netflix show, Polo, in early December.
However, it didn't make the headlines as they would have wished. Even The Cut, a magazine previously favoured by Meghan, criticised the duchess in an article titled 'Harry and Meghan's Projects Can't Stop Flopping'.
Danielle Cohen, the writer, discussed the couple's "tortured attempts to launch a successful Stateside endeavour" which, she noted, "continued this week" with Polo's release.
She penned: "Seems like this one is bound for the same fate as Markle's beleaguered jam company".
The negative response to the couple's recent ventures has sparked questions about their future plans and roles. When Harry and Meghan first moved to Montecito after leaving their royal duties in 2020, they were warmly received.
But the sentiment appears to have shifted. As Maureen Callohan pointed out in the Daily Mail: "America has moved into a new phase of this relationship. We no longer even rubberneck with these two. We have become utterly uninterested. And that's the death knell for Brand Sussex.
"Was it fun to hate-watch their first Netflix series, Meghan mocking her curtsy to the Queen, Harry looking on mortified, both of them bitching endlessly? Of course! Was dissecting 'Spare', with its humiliating revelations about Harry's frozen 'todger' and his mother's face cream as the ultimate salve, a guilty pleasure? You bet.
"However, just as the opposite of love isn't hate, but indifference, America has grown bored."
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Adding that their 'humiliating' future together is an 'open secret' across the pond, she continued: "We've heard and seen it all. We've become that guest at the party cornered by the griping dullard that nobody wants to talk to, looking haplessly about for a more sparkling conversationalist. Or at least a top-up on the Champagne."
US-based Royal commentator Lee Cohen also previously spoke about the Sussexes' plummeting popularity in the States. He said Harry and Meghan had once "epitomised a modern fairy-tale", but that America's love affair with the pair has "significantly cooled".
He wrote in The US Sun: "Harry and Meghan just love to complain. And in America's largely optimistic society, that is a bad look. While some view the couple's openness as a brave stance against institutional rigidity, many others perceive it as ungrateful and divisive.
"A segment of Americans, particularly those of us who respect and admire the monarchy, find these repeated criticisms disrespectful and unbecoming. So the Sussexes' endless narrative of grievance has alienated many who once admired their candour."
Adding insult to injury, Richard Mineards, a neighbour of Harry and Meghan in Montecito, voiced his disapproval on the German documentary 'Harry - The Lost Prince', saying: "I personally don't think that Meghan is an asset to our community."
He added: "She doesn't really go out or get involved with the community. Harry has to a certain extent, because he's quite jolly... but Meghan doesn't seem to get seen anywhere... And you don't see him either."
Reports suggest Meghan is under pressure to 'salvage' the situation as Polo fails to make waves, and her much-anticipated lifestyle show is deemed the couple's "last chance" to maintain their Netflix deal.
Rumours have circulated for nearly a year about Meghan's own programme, which celebrates 'the joys of cooking, gardening, entertaining, and friendship', yet no release date has been announced for the series intended to complement her lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard.
Aside from a few product releases, including jam and dog biscuits, updates have been scarce, leading one Californian insider to tell the Mail's Alison Boshoff: "It's make or break. People say Netflix are exhausted."
In 2020, Harry and Meghan inked a five-year deal with Netflix, estimated to be worth around $100million (£80million), set to conclude in autumn next year.
To date, they've launched just four projects via the streaming behemoth, all docuseries: 'Harry and Meghan', charting their romance, 'Heart of Invictus', focusing on Prince Harry's Invictus Games, 'Polo', and 'Live to Lead', spotlighting inspiring global leaders.
If Meghan's series gets the green light, it's likely to premiere - along with her brand - in the first quarter of the year. It hasn't been listed in Netflix's January schedules, so it could potentially debut in late February – post Harry's Invictus Games in Whistler, Canada – or in March.
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