The much-hyped launch of With Love, Meghan on Netflix was quickly followed by confusion over which friends, exactly, the Duchess was inviting over to share the love.
The biggest ‘name’ in the first series was actress Mindy Kaling; but many of the others, such as ‘bestie’ make-up artist Daniel Martin, were far from famous.
But I can reveal she’s landed someone much better-known for the next instalment of the show: model, TV personality and cookbook author Chrissy Teigen.
The ‘second series’ was actually filmed back to back with the first, in the spring of last year, before Meghan had settled on a brand name – or even which products she would be selling. It’s due to stream on Netflix from this autumn.
I’m told: ‘Chrissy is the big name in series two, and they have been friends for a long time.’ On the downside: ‘There is no sign of Harry at all in this one, and nothing of the children either.’
Prince Harry made the briefest of appearances at the end of the first series – at a ‘celebration brunch’ to mark the launch of his wife’s new venture. ‘Well done, you did a really great job, and I love it,’ he says, before raising a glass of champagne: ‘To you!’
Meghan Markle (pictured) has landed a model guest to spice up the second season of her Netflix love-in
TV personality and cookbook author Chrissy Teigen (pictured) is set to be ‘the big name’ in the next installment of Meghan’s With Love series
But Harry, who made the briefest of appearances at the end of the first series (pictured), will not appear in the second series
Meghan and Chrissy have much in common. Both appeared as ‘Briefcase Girls’ on game show Deal Or No Deal in the US – Chrissy from the first season in 2005 and Meghan in 2006 and 2007. (Teigen was briefcase #12; and Meghan briefcase #24.)
In an interview in 2018, Chrissy said: ‘I am especially a fan of Meghan. I was on Deal Or No Deal with her and she was lovely.’
They bonded further after Meghan wrote to Chrissy when she lost her unborn baby, Jack, at 20 weeks, in September of 2020. A few months earlier, Meghan had suffered a miscarriage – something she’d reveal later that year.
Chrissy, who’s married to singer John Legend, with whom she has four other children, said: ‘She’s been so kind to me ever since we connected, she had written to me about baby Jack, and loss.’
Both women also know what it’s like to be at the eye of a media storm, with Meghan having been accused of bullying staff (denied by friends) and Teigen having been ‘cancelled’ in 2021, after old Tweets of hers resurfaced.
Courtney Stodden, a US TV personality, said in an interview that ten years previously, when she became famous as the 16-year-old bride of acting coach Doug Hutchinson, Teigen had mocked her on Twitter and sent her a private message telling her to kill herself. Teigen later apologised and described herself in that period as ‘an insecure, attention-seeking troll’.
Chrissy is a bigger name in food than Meghan, with three hit cookbooks, including her 2016 New York Times bestseller Cravings: Recipes For All Of The Food You Want To Eat. She also runs a website which sells cookie mixes (like Meghan’s As Ever) and cake mixes, plus cookware.
A second series of With Love, Meghan was announced less than a week after the first aired. The first series featured the Duchess’s ‘tips and tricks for hosting and adding more fun and thoughtfulness to the everyday’.
The biggest ‘name’ in the first series was actress Mindy Kaling. The pair are pictured together in a scene from the first series
Meghan and Chrissy have much in common. Both appeared as ‘Briefcase Girls’ on game show Deal Or No Deal in the US. Meghan is pictured in an episode of the show where she was in charge of briefcase #24
That’s a new look for you, Sister Michael
Siobhan McSweeney has a ball as the dying mother of flamboyant aristocrat Henry Paget, the fifth Marquess of Anglesey, in the film Madfabulous.
The forthcoming drama is being screened in Cannes, and this picture (below) is a first look at McSweeney as Blanche Mary Boyd, second wife of the 4th Marquess, with Callum Scott Howells as her son. Quite a departure from Sister Michael in Derry Girls.
Eccentric and outrageous, Paget inherited an income equivalent to £15 million a year when he was 23… which he blew on jewels and a theatre company, before dying, bankrupt, in 1905, aged just 29.
Of McSweeney, director Celyn Jones said: ‘I cannot wait for audiences to see this performance.’
The Marquess’s devoted manservant is played by Rupert Everett and Lady Clara Paget — the daughter of the current marquess — has a pivotal role, too.
