EXCLUSIVE: Meghan Markle 'Feeling Unbelievable Pressure' Over Launch of New Netflix Show — 'She's Working 24/7... Like Any Old Ordinary, Struggling Influencer!'
Meghan Markle is said to be grafting like a poor influencer to make her content break through and survive in showbiz.
Feb. 26 2025, Published 10:00 a.m. ET
Meghan Markle was once infamously branded a "grifter" by Spotify boss Bill Simmons when he yanked her monster podcast deal.
But now RadarOnline.com can reveal she’s being forced to be a grafter – like any old ordinary social media influencer – and feeling the pressure after working hard on establishing herself online ahead of the launch of her make-or-break Netflix "lifestyle" show as she battles to make herself into a cookie-cutter version of actress-turned wellness guru Gwyneth Paltrow.
It's not just Markle's streaming content that will be a hard sell – even the launch of her posh jam has hit the skids.
The diva Duchess of Sussex is set to unveil her high-end food and homeware brand to coincide with her new TV program, With Love, Meghan, which will be available to watch from March 4.
In tandem, she has been sharing more intimate moments of her life with her 1.8 million Instagram followers, including a heartfelt message to Prince Harry on Valentine's Day alongside a snap of them kissing.
Showbiz fixer professor Jonathan Shalit, chairman of InterTalent Rights Group, said Markle will likely have been "working very hard for four or five months" head of her make-or-break cooking show.
The talent manager, who has worked with famous figures including Dame Joan Collins, added: "When you're managing a program or a podcast there's a lot of hard work you don't see.
"My guess is she's been working very hard for four or five months and feeling pressure when you put your work in the public domain to be judged, here's always going to be pressure."
Prof Shalit also said Markle is becoming an "influencer with influence" and is "working hard to pay the bills" as she has an "impressive engagement on social media|" to maintain.
But our source branded Markle an "influencer without influence" – before sneering: "She's just like any old ordinary influencer now on the workfront, constantly having to prove herself and pump out new product.
"But knowing Meghan, it's not something she's going to have the patience – or skill – to maintain."
Markle's products, rumored to include jam, tea, coffee, wallpaper, pet shampoo and olive oil, are set to first pop up in two American mega-malls on the outskirts of Dallas and Philadelphia.
Netflix will also set aside space in two of their brand-new brick-and-mortar stores.
But the duchess had a significant setback when her $20million Spotify podcast series was canceled with Simmons describing Markle and husband Harry as "grifters".
Markle's business has been plagued with issues.
The couple's $100million five-year Netflix deal expires later this year and insiders believe it will not be renewed.
A source said: "If Meghan's show is a massive hit and she sells tons of products off the back of it then maybe Netflix will reconsider but at this stage it's all about them supporting her show and then quietly letting the contract run its course."
It was recently revealed her brand had been renamed As Ever.
The Duchess ditched her American Riviera Orchard name for the broader As Ever – which also ended up causing her major headaches.
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American Riviera Orchard emerged last year when she began sending jams in limited edition jars to her most famous friends to share on social media. But ARO, as a brand, crashed.
As Ever was launched in a close-up Instagram video in the Sussexes' Montecito garden where Markle gave a nod to the trademark row that saw her American Riviera Orchard application refused by the US trademark office for being too geographical.
She gushed: "Last year, I had thought, American Riviera, that sounds like such a great name. It's my neighborhood; it's a nickname for Santa Barbara, but it limited me to things that were just manufactured and grown in this area."
As we revealed, the business has since run into a string of copyright issues and other setbacks – spelling more trouble for the desperate duchess.
