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Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, live on a stunning estate in Montecito, an upscale coastal enclave near Santa Barbara, Calif. Purchased for almost $15 million in 2020 and now estimated to be worth twice as much, the home where the couple is raising their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, has roughly 18,000 square feet of interior space; one journalist who profiled Meghan described it as “the kind of big that startles you into remembering that unimaginable wealth is actually someone’s daily reality.” The five-acre grounds feature gardens, a pool, a tennis court, a guest house, and other outbuildings. But you won’t see any of this in With Love, Meghan, the Duchess’ new Netflix lifestyle show. It was shot at a rental a few miles away with its own Nancy Meyers kitchen and lush gardens.
Meghan isn’t exactly pretending that she’s welcoming us into her home; she has spoken about her choice to film elsewhere and, in the show, occasionally refers to the backdrop as a set. In an interview with People, she explained that she wanted to preserve the estate as a “safe haven” for her family, rather than transforming it into a bustling ad-hoc TV studio. It’s a prudent decision, especially when you consider that inviting dozens of strangers into their private space would pose a unique security risk for one of the world’s most surveilled families. Yet it captures a fundamental frustration about the expatriate-era Sussexes and their implicit promise to earn our attention—and eight-figure content deals from some of the biggest platforms in media—by showing us the reality behind a royal veneer. There have been exceptions, like Harry’s blunt memoir, Spare, and their revelatory 2021 Oprah interview. But with each glossy new program, podcast, and lifestyle brand, the promise of authenticity has given way to an impersonal performance of perfection. With Love, Meghan might be the most performative example to date.
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