Katherine Ryan has become the latest Netflix star to criticise the Duchess of Sussex – saying it feels like she has lied and puts on an act of ‘oh, I’m just so humble’.
The comedian insisted she had ‘liked’ Meghan, was ‘rooting for her’ and believed the Duchess’s claim that she suffered from ‘institutionalised racism’ while in Britain.
But after the release of new lifestyle series ‘With Love, Meghan’ on Netflix last week, Ryan – who has three shows on the streaming platform herself – has hit out at her.
Ryan is the latest Netflix star to criticise the Duchess after fellow comedian Christina Pazsitzky described the show – and her – as ‘highly inauthentic’, ‘fake’ and ‘phony’.
AÂ Netflix insider revealed the firm does not see the show as ‘a runaway success’, while TV viewing figures revealed subscribers prefer her on screen with Harry.
It comes after comedian John Mulaney joked at a Netflix season launch event in January that the prestigious evening was a ‘fun experiment’ and ‘not since Harry and Meghan has Netflix given more money to someone without a specific plan’.Â
Now, Ryan has described Meghan as putting on a ‘very manicured and very forced’ act, adding: ‘She is very Hollywood – even for me – and I don’t like that in people.’
She also said it ‘does feel like she has lied about whether she knew who Prince Harry was’ and that ‘details about her childhood change and don’t add up’.
Ryan cited how Meghan said on her new Netflix show during a discussion with Mindy Kaling that she ‘grew up with a lot of fast food and also a lot of TV tray dinners’.
But in 2016 while a judge on US children’s show Chopped Junior, Meghan spoke about growing up in eating ‘farm to table, sort of fresh, really simple ingredients’.
Prince Harry jokes with Katherine Ryan (right) at the WellChild Awards at London’s Hurlingham Club on September 7, 2023 after she previously called him the ‘Duke of I Just Came-bridge’
The Duchess of Sussex’s new show ‘With Love, Meghan’ came out on Netflix on March 4
Ryan shares Canadian links with Meghan, having been born in Sarnia, about 150 miles away from Toronto where the Duchess lived while filming the legal drama Suits.
They also share a connection through both being on Netflix, with Ryan having two live stand-up specials on the platform – ‘Katherine Ryan: In Trouble’ in 2017 and ‘Katherine Ryan: Glitter Room’ in 2019, followed by her comedy ‘The Duchess’ which came out in 2020.
And in the latest episode of her podcast Telling Everybody Everything, called ‘I’m Sussex Now’, Ryan began a segment on Meghan talking about how she had admired her.
She said: ‘I liked Meghan Markle. I was rooting for Meghan Markle… several things can be true at once. I think a lot of the British viewing public do have internalised racism that they’re not even aware of.
‘This is a very racistly structured country – I mean colonialism is the most racist thing ever, we have a Royal Family in a palace, we speak about working class. We don’t even have words like that in Canada.’
She continued: ‘There is an unconscious bias in this country and in most countries really, that a lot of people don’t even realise they have.’
Speaking about Meghan’s claims of having suffered racism, Ryan added: ‘When she says ‘oh, I feel that I was victimised by institutionalised racism’, then you have to believe her.
‘Like, that is her experience, and it’s really weird for white people to say ‘no you weren’t, we’re not racist, we just don’t like you’. It must feel incredibly gaslighting as a woman of mixed ethnicity to be told ‘no, it’s not racism, you’re wrong’. Yes, of course.
‘So I think this country does have institutionalised racism, yes, and unconscious bias, yes. Not every single person, but a great many, yes. And to be someone with a mother who’s black, entering the Royal Family, I’m sure they had some feelings about that because that’s the Royal Family.’
But Ryan then turned her attention to what she does not like in the Duchess.
Ryan cited how Meghan said on her new Netflix show during a discussion with Mindy Kaling (pictured) that she ‘grew up with a lot of fast food and also a lot of TV tray dinners’
But Ryan referred to how in 2016 while a judge on US children’s show Chopped Junior, Meghan spoke about growing up in eating ‘farm to table, sort of fresh, really simple ingredients’
She said: ‘In addition to that though, she is very Hollywood – even for me – and I don’t like that in people. I see now, and maybe it’s just the projects she’s choosing, it does feel like she has lied about whether she knew who Prince Harry was, and these details about her childhood change and don’t add up.
‘Like, she said on her new Netflix show that they ate TV dinners growing up. But then in an old interview, she was like, ‘we would eat farm fresh’. You know, just little things. Her whole act just seems very manicured and very forced. And I was rooting for her.
‘So I think, I’ve known a lot of Hollywood people – they’re not bad people. I certainly don’t think she’s a bad person, but I think she likes cosying up to celebrities and she wants the one million deal or ten hundred million dollar deal, anyone would, and she likes the fact that she’s married to a prince, like of course.
‘But I would rather someone lean into that and be like, ‘oh my God, look, I used to be on Suits and now I’m married to a f***ing prince! I would rather that than this act of: Oh, I’m just so humble.’
In addition, Ryan then referred to the ‘flower sprinkles Netflix show that she’s got’, saying it was ‘really revving people up’.
She said: ‘So, Netflix continues to try and make Meghan Sussex, formerly Meghan Markle and technically Meghan Mountbatten, happen, with her latest peak behind the royal adjacent curtain titled With Love – comma – Meghan.
‘Described as part Martha Stewart, part Ina Garten, part Alison Roman, part totally unnecessary, the eight-episode lifestyle show is a follow-up to her decidedly unmoving podcast and docuseries that landed with respective thuds, in which the rogue Duchess espouses things as inaccessible as souring beeswax from your local beekeeper, to as basic as arranging fruit in a rainbow order.
‘But one culinary embellishment that is turning heads is Meg’s penchant for sprinkling, hopefully, edible flower petals on any dish that she thinks could use a pop of whimsy. Cake, doughnuts, crudité platter, Rainbow fruit salad, frittata and so on. These are known as flower sprinkles.’
Christina Pazsitzky, a famous stand up and Netflix star, has also panned Meghan’s new show
Ryan said she was unimpressed by this, pointing out that viewers were specifically watching the show because they wanted to see how bad it was – dubbed ‘hate watching’.
‘Netflix will be content with people still talking about Meghan’s show’
By SEAN O’MEARAÂ
I think at this stage, there’s no amount of public relations work that can convince people that this show is groundbreaking, authentic must-watch television. The reaction has been that bad.
But that doesn’t mean people won’t ‘hate watch’ it in significant numbers. People will watch the show just to have an opinion on why it’s bad. It will spawn memes. The tide has turned and having a spicy public take on Meghan is now a lower risk endeavour than it was a few years ago when criticising her seemed to invite a backlash from influential corners of the media and Hollywood.
From the Netflix point of view, I think they’ll be content with the fact that people are still talking about it. The best public reaction to any new show of course would be ‘this show is great, you must watch it’. The worst reaction is silence and indifference. What ‘With Love, Meghan’ is getting is actually ‘this show is terrible, you must watch it’. It is not being ignored. So I don’t think they’ll be losing sleep because of criticism coming from ‘in house’ on this one.
The people criticising the show publicly who have their own relationship with Netflix will have weighed up the benefits and risks of speaking out, regardless of whether their contract mentions anything about public criticism of Netflix products. In fact, it would be terrible PR for Netflix to try and enforce any terms like that.
And it feels like Meghan has sadly run out of goodwill. This is not her first attempt at creating something ‘authentic’. Had this been a new show from a relatively new performer, creator or comedian, who isn’t married to a Prince, then I think people would have been significantly less likely to stick the boot in.
SEAN O’MEARA is managing director of the PR agency Essential ContentÂ
She said: ‘I have seen this, I have seen it from chefs – they like to put wild garlic or flowers or something on a meal. And I’m not about it. And I also don’t think it constitutes an entire cooking show. People are hate-watching it though.
‘Like, who knows what Netflix are doing? They are smart – people are tuned in whether they love something or hate something, whatever keeps them watching more episodes, and they’re posting loads about it online.
‘If this was Netflix’s intention, to be like, ‘let’s throw Meghan under the bus’, like, personally, where even the people who really liked her are sort of turning… not against her, but… this is just, she just doesn’t seem to be the kind of gal that I would want to be friends with. It’s too manicured, it’s too beige.’
The comedian then moved onto talking about how Meghan corrects Kaling during an episode of the show when The Office actress refers to her as ‘Meghan Markle’.
Ryan said: ‘This clip that’s going around where Mindy Kaling is in her kitchen, and Mindy is like ‘oh, who would have thought Meghan Markle eats a Jack In The Box’.
‘And Meghan says: ‘You know I am Sussex now, my last name is Sussex and it feels so wonderful to have the same last name as the Royal Family, I mean my children’.
‘I don’t even think, I think less, honestly, here, there, I’ve said it, I feel less of women who change their name anyway, to match their husband’s name – unless you have had a chat about it and unless you have approached that decision with equality, and been like ‘My dad was an abusive alcoholic, what was your dad’s last name? OK, let’s take that one’.
‘But just this assumption – it goes back to just not questioning things, not questioning the way things are done. Like, ‘we shall take your last name’.’
She continued: ‘You know how many of my girlfriends had cool last names, and they’re married to guys with s**t last names and now that’s their last name and their kids’ last name, You could have workshopped it a bit.
‘But a lot of the times, not just the man would have refused to take the woman’s name, but the entire woman’s family would have been like, ‘what, what do you mean you’re not taking his name?’ I hate it. I don’t know why.
‘Something that’s as important as your name – and your children’s name – at the very least deserves a discussion. It should not just be the given thing that you take the husband’s name.’
Turning her attention back to Meghan, she said: ‘In the case of Sussex, which like, did we even know Harry’s last name was Sussex? Like fine, if you want to be Meghan Sussex.
‘But then, let’s be honest about why you’re choosing that. Don’t be like ‘I had no idea who he was, I’ve never even been to Sussex’. It’s because it’s a way to hang on to the Duchess of Sussex.’
Katherine Ryan with husband Bobby Kootstra at the Bafta TV Awards in London in May 2024
Katherine Ryan, her partner Bobby Kootstra, and their children Violet, Fenna and Fred attend a gala performance of Bluey’s Big Play at the Royal Festival Hall in London in December 2023
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The Netflix show is being viewed as a make-or-break moment for the Duke and Duchess
Prince Harry makes just one appearance at the end of the first season’s final episode
The podcast was released about 18 months after Ryan had an awkward conversion with Harry in London in September 2023 at the WellChild Awards for young people with complex medical conditions.
One of Ryan’s famous running jokes is that she previously had a relationship with Harry before meeting her now-husband Bobby Kootstra – crudely branding him the ‘Duke of I Just Came-Bridge’.
Ryan has even previously joked that he may have filed a ‘restraining order’ against her for some of her inappropriate jokes.
But they met for the first time at the awards ceremony, with Ryan joking on Instagram that it was ‘deeply awkward having my current husband and ex in the same room’.
After their meeting, she told the Daily Star: ‘I was a little bit nervous because I have made jokes about Prince Harry but not at his expense. None of those jokes were at his expense.
‘I previously called him the ‘Duke of I Just Came-bridge’ so I was worried that he might at some point have been told or seen my jokes because I don’t want him to feel uncomfortable. I’m just having a laugh.
‘But he was great. He was wonderful and my husband was not threatened. My husband’s very comfortable with how much I admit I love Prince Harry, but he also knows that I’m not as in love with him as it seems.’
Speaking on her podcast about the meeting, she said that when Harry saw her as entered the room: ‘First thing out of his mouth: ‘Oh, you’re the one who tells jokes about me.’
She recalled telling him: ‘I was like: ‘Yeah, it was me, sorry about that’. And he said: ‘It’s okay, I like jokes.’ And I said: ‘Okay, well, none of them were at your expense.’ And he said: ‘No they weren’t, so keep telling the jokes.’
Ryan added: ‘His presence was so striking, seeing him up close,’ she added. ‘Prince Harry in the flesh, looks exactly, but taller, like the image of Prince Harry you have in his hand. He’s in HD, and the photos of him look like the real him.
‘He has a lovely peaceful presence. He’s so dutiful and beautiful. He went all around the room, very confidently.’
Ryan has also previously praised the Duchess, including in an interview with Express.co.uk in May 2022 when she said: ‘I love Meghan Markle’s voice and her confidence to challenge the norm and what’s expected of her in that role.
‘Equally anytime that you challenge an idea people are going to come after you. So, I mean I’m not exactly sure what makes her such a target, but I think it’s her confidence in challenging the shape of what a woman in that role should like, which is someone who wears stockings.
‘Someone who covers their shoulders, someone who follows the rules. I feel like I would find it very challenging being real because many of us couldn’t fit into those constraints very easily.
‘It would feel like a real infringement on your sense of personal freedom. So, I don’t understand why people feel so aggravated by that, I think it’s a great challenge and things evolve.’
Later that year in December 2022, Ryan shared a picture of her having welcomed her second child Fenna Grace while her phone was open with the ‘Harry & Meghan’ Netflix documentary playing.
That came after Ryan tweeted after the infamous Oprah Winfrey interview in March 2021: ‘RESEARCH – and I can’t stress this enough – YOUR HUSBAND.’
With Love, Meghan launched on Netflix on March 4 – with a second season now on the way
Despite the show being savaged by critics, Netflix bosses are pressing ahead with season two which was confirmed by Meghan last Friday. This came three days after the first series aired, after being delayed from January because of the Los Angeles wildfires.
Meghan also officially launched her As Ever brand last week, with her updated website revealing her first products were her raspberry jam, and the flower sprinkles she repeatedly promotes throughout the show.
But the eight-part series, which sees the former Suits actress give hosting tips and cooking with her celebrity friends, has been widely criticised.
One review in The Guardian described it as a ‘gormless lifestyle filler’ and ‘so pointless it might be the Sussexes’ last TV show’, while The Telegraph gave it two stars and branded it ‘insane’ and an ‘exercise in narcissism’.
The second season of Meghan’s show is coming in the autumn, and has already finished filming, according to Netflix.
Prince Harry makes just one appearance at the end of the first season’s final episode when he joins Meghan, her mother Doria Ragland and friends for an outdoor celebratory brunch.
In what is being seen as a nod to the restrictions she felt within the royal family, Meghan raises a toast, saying: ‘This feels like a new chapter that I’m so excited that I get to share and I’ve been able to learn from all of you.
‘So I just thank you for all the love and support. And here we go, there’s a business. All of that is just part of that creativity that I’ve missed so much, so thank you for loving me so much and celebrating with me.’
The show is being viewed as a make-or-break moment for the Sussexes, who signed a $100million (£80million) deal with Netflix in 2020, with their most successful output being their controversial Harry & Meghan documentary, which features accusations against the royal family.
The Duchess renamed her lifestyle brand As Ever, switching from the name American Riviera Orchard just weeks before the launch after facing trademarking setbacks, with Netflix now a new partner in her business.
As Ever trademark applications include a vast range of products from shower gels, incense, pet shampoo and gardening trowels to cutlery, stationery, diaries, paper party decorations, wrapping paper, ornamental non-precious stones, bird houses, honey stirrers, jams, marmalades and tea sets.
Before marrying Harry, Meghan closed down her lifestyle website called The Tig.
MailOnline has contacted representatives for the Sussexes today regarding Ryan’s latest comments.
