The reviews are coming in for Meghan's podcast 'Confessions of a Female Founder'ions of a

[LaBarruci]

Not listened to the first in Meghan's podcast series, a conversation with the founder of Bumble, Whitney Wolfe Heard, but the Mail has collated all the press reviews so far, with links. The Guardian, Telegraph and i-Paper are unanimous: the podcast is cloyingly dreadful.

The reviews for Meghan Markle's latest podcast are in! Two stars for Confessions of a Female Founder https://mol.im/a/14584193 via https://dailym.ai/android

Agreed the tariffs don’t help, but the biggest problem with As Ever is that it is a disorganised shit show. Propel will often fork out for a bit of luxury to make themselves feel better. Look at how lipstick was seen as important for morale during the war. Boxed shortbread and pancake mixes, not so much. And especially not if never in stock or not delivered on time

Just to be clear @smilesy I'm talking about the delusion of someone with the sort of self belief that has got MM, an unremarkable individual in every way, where she is today. I believe she believes that she will get that she wants. And her belief in herself and her publicity machine might just swing a deal, especially as there will be a an inevitable tabloid furore over With Love Part 2.* If she doesn't, she will claim it is not her fault, the locus of blame will be elsewhere, like tariffs and Trump and the shit distribution company she's engaged. She can never take the blame for her own crap ideas and output. Just look how she is making out that the ARO failure was everyone else's fault, including the public for being nosy about it!

*I know nobody cares about the podcast which makes her look like her star is waning, but that's because it's dull, nobody cares about the guests and, most importantly, they can't see Meghan. It is her image, what she's wearing, her strange interactions with others and her doing odd things that gets peoples' interest up. That will all start again in the Autumn on Netflix.

I agree with you . Her name is now associated with lies , bullying and narcissism.

I do wonder how much stuff was actually sold . I know that some superfans posted photos on line but I don’t think there were huge numbers .

I understand what you are saying but I really don’t think anyone will actually want to buy a brand that has not had any proven commercial success, particularly in the current economic climate. Everyone is becoming risk averse and betting on Meghan would be a huge risk. I agree that won’t stop her thinking that she is amazing and someone will give her money, though. It will be interesting to see what happens when the Netflix contract is due to expire

Superfans or paid PR.

I agree with you regarding M's intentions, but think she faces a real uphill battle.

M sold an aspirational image that ticked the corporate zeitgeist in the social justice era and initially gained lucrative contracts based on promises of future success. But M has now executed on these initial contracts for years, so M now has a track record which any future investor will take into account.

M lost Spotify money and was harshly dismissed as a "f*ing grifter" a label which will make credible investors very wary. M's new podcast has sunk into oblivion with A-listers avoiding participation. Aside from the H&M reality series attacking the royal family, M's Netflix contract is marked by canceled projects or shows with poor reviews and ratings. M's As ever had a chaotic rollout, poor marketing, poor delivery and mostly negative product reviews (packaging and flavor).

It is a hard time to launch an aspirational food product line when middle class incomes are being crushed by inflation with households trading down from big brands (e.g. Kelloggs, Nestle) to grocery store brands or moving their food shopping away from regular grocery stores to discount stores such as Aldi.

M's current image does not provide a compelling value proposition for her target market to part with their hard-earned cash in this tough economic environment. Her aspirational image has been corroded by the cumulative effect of negative WLM show reviews and negative As Ever product reviews from the very liberal left LA Times to the conservative right Wall Street Journal. M's image is so bad that she is now fodder for late night comedians from Jimmy Fallon on the left to Gutfeld on the right.

IMHO, serious investors who do their due diligence will pass on M's company. It is the shadier "investors" who will circle M, and, in a few years, I will not be shocked if we see Fergie 2.0 drama stemming from As Ever "investors".

@IdaGlossop has posted on another thread that Meghan’s Easter ShopMy links have been taken down. Maybe because Wasternis over or because the palace didn’t like the link to clothes worn by George and Charlotte 🤷‍♀️

Years and years ago, I had an idea that I thought I could build into a business, if my thoughts alone were enough to have made it happen, I would be quite wealthy now.
My thoughts let me down though and so here I am working for someone else.

Ha ha. Just come to post about that here. I've never used ShopMy but the ghost Easter store being still visible, but with no products, is typical of M's sloppiness, unless it's not possible to take them down.

Why would she promote clothes worn by Charlotte and George? Thats so weird!

It's as if she's playing some weird game and doesn't give a monkeys that it makes her look foolish.Maybe it's to annoy K&W ?
I agree that the whole thing is so sloppy .

I doubt the palace would have said anything. How could they? George and Charlotte wearing something doesn't mean BP/KP has any rights over them. In any event, I think Meghan is buying identical clothing to that which the eldest Wales children wear for her own children: because she has a stalkerish interest in Catherine's taste, and is dressing her own children like the most popular young royals.

M has told Forbes the tariffs don't affect her.

I'm wondering if there was never any intention to build a brand and that the launch on 2 April was actually an elaborate PR push.A real vanity project. How ever she expects to build brand loyalty when, three weeks after the launch, the website shows every product still sold out without messaging about when the restock will happen. My bet: it won't.

I've just had a look at her Shopmy , she has 28 products, I can't see how she will make any substantial amount of money from it.

The Royal family may be able to say something on the basis of her not only using her title to make money, but also involving by implication two members of the family who are minors ie not a matter of law but a matter of merching someone else's children looking bad on her. Perhaps for once, she took advice and followed it.

It's interesting that William has appointed Mischon de Reya as his lawyer so he nolonger has the same lawyer as KCIII. I read somewhere that it was done to block M from using Diana's divorce lawyer if she and H divorce. Maybe, but there are other benefits - greater confidentiality, two separate practices to deal with joint issues like the Sussexes.

But she's going to be a billionaire!

If you were going to buy a brand, you'd be commissioning research on IP like good will, and looking at sales figures and longterm growth potential. There is no good story to tell for any of those.

The DM had a unusually positive article describing her wares as " surprisingly affordable'

I've just googled the dress and it's £300 , 1 of the sweaters is also 300 odd quid and the dogtooth skirt is £1,300 certainly way out of my budget!

Not cheap! Even so, if she's taking a 10% cut, billionaire status is a way off 😉

I didn't post because I couldn't find it on Shopmy (I couldn't find anything on her Shopmy at that point) but in the article it is the identical dress worn by Charlotte, not similar, identical.

" I don't have a great relationship with my SIL, big backstory. Anyway, she sneers at the clothes I sometimes put my kids in for photos and things and calls them old fashioned. She's now got monitised links on her Insta shop to EXACTLY the same clothes as they are apparently "things she loves". AIBU to think she's a bit of a hypocritical copycat ? "

KateWalesKensington

There were musings on X that one possible reason that William and Kate chose not to do the Windsor pap walk on Sunday was that they did not want the children's clothes being "merched" by their sister-in-law.

Didn't make sense at the time but it does now!

There's an easy solution to that: have the clothes made by a dressmaker.

If what you say is true, how awful to have to build your arrangements around a sister-in-law you nolonger speak to.

It would be awful if they had to go to those lengths, but doesn't it speak volumes about Meghan's attitude to W&C, and her raging jealousy!