The Duchess of Sussex and the Princess of Wales have both kicked off the Christmas season in their own way.
Mirror had an exclusive conversation with a royal expert over the rivalry between the pair and how it is still alive and well.
Last week, Meghan delivered the festive special of her Meghan, With Love Netflix series just a few days before Kate hosted her star-studded Together at Christmas carol concert at Westminster Abbey.
Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams says the two events could not have been more different and he suspects Meghan may now retire her lifestyle show altogether.
“Meghan is secretly battling to emulate some of the magic that Kate clearly creates, but it is not working,” he told the outlet.
“She displayed almost relentless positivity, which actually becomes weary to watch. It seems that she’d like to be a sort of Californian Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way, and therefore her show just does not have the same level of substance as Kate’s carol concert,” he added.
The format of Meghan’s Holiday Celebration followed her earlier shows, with cooking demonstrations, DIY tutorials for wreath making, the odd cameo from husband Prince Harry and a few celebrity friends such as tennis ace Naomi Osaka.
The show landed in Netflix’s Top 10 TV Shows in the UK within 24 hours of airing, but critics were less than impressed. The mostly one or two-star reviews in British newspapers described it as “bizarre” and one reviewer said it was “quite mad and a little bit sad.”
Richard continued, “The trouble is that in the position she is in with their downgraded Netflix deal, which isn’t an unusual position to be in, she needed a big name.”
“While Naomi Osaka is very big in her field, there will be many people who didn’t know who she was. So if viewers are Googling the names of her guests, it’s not looking particularly good for their future with Netflix, so this may well be the last episode we get of the series,” he explained.
The episode also mentioned clashes between the Sussexes and the Royal Family, airing on the same day as King Charles and Queen Camilla hosted the German state visit, and a few hours after Kate released a personal letter to guests attending the carol concert.
Kate Middleton talked about Christmas being a time that “speaks of love taking form in the simplest most human ways” and “invites us to remember the power of reaching out to one another with generosity of heart, understanding and hope.”
