If the Duchess of Sussex hopes to strengthen her standing in Hollywood, she may need to trade carefully polished appearances for something more candid and emotionally open, according to a branding expert.
Despite Meghan Markle’s global profile, her Netflix lifestyle venture, acting background and even an Emmy nomination, her latest screen project has struggled to generate the enthusiasm that might have been expected. The Girl Scout cookie documentary Cookie Queens, produced through Archewell Productions, drew mixed reactions from critics, with some describing its presentation as overly staged and others arguing that it drifted too heavily into reality-TV territory.
Reports that the film brought in only around £500 per cinema screening have added to the scrutiny, prompting fresh debate over whether Meghan’s highly managed public image may now be working against her ambitions in Hollywood.
To add insult to injury, it was beaten by CatVideoFest 2026, which pulled in £421,334 despite airing in 191 fewer screens than Cookie Queens.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, PR professional Rebecca May said that ‘Meghan doesn’t have a visibility problem… but she does have a perception problem.’
Inevitably embroiled in memories of ‘Megxit’ and her husband Prince Harry‘s ‘feud’ with the King and Prince of Wales, it’s ‘affected her brand’ in the industry.
‘If you are trying to build something wholesome, warm and aspirational, but there is still so much noise and division around your personal brand, it is difficult for people to separate the two,’ Rebecca explained.
‘Hollywood is used to dealing with high-profile personalities, but there comes a point where too much noise around someone becomes a brand risk.
‘You don’t want the person attached to a project constantly becoming a bigger story than the project itself. This can run the risk of the person becoming the story and the project losing control of its own narrative.’
Despite being one of the most famous women in the world, a Netflix lifestyle show in her roster, a start on an successful legal drama – and even an Emmy nomination – Meghan’s latest on-screen project, a documentary about Girl Scout cookies, received a half-baked reception
While the Duchess isn’t expected to share everything, the expert said ‘controlling the narrative too tightly can work against her’.
‘I don’t think it is necessarily just an authenticity issue either. Meghan could have very real reasons that we don’t publicly know about for the estrangement from her father, for instance,’ Rebecca added. ‘But from a reputation point of view, it has become an elephant in the room.
‘There needs to be some vulnerability and something that feels less practised and managed. You can still protect your privacy without everything feeling so controlled.
‘From a brand and PR perspective, the difficulty today is converting the huge level of interest in her and her life into genuine interest in the projects she is trying to build. That, for me, is why Hollywood has been difficult to crack.
‘The person continually risks becoming bigger than the product itself, and the project simply gets overshadowed.’
Rebecca said that there is also the matter of how her recent documentaries have been perceived.
Inevitably embroiled in memories of ‘Megxit’ and her husband Prince Harry’s ‘feud’ with the King and Prince of Wales, it’s ‘affected her brand’ in the industry
‘A lot of Meghan’s previous projects have also hit a wall and we’ve seen former collaborators and industry figures publicly breaking their silence and being quite critical at times,’ she shared.
‘All of that can unfortunately follow you into the next project.’
The expert suggested that, ‘quietly, behind the scenes, this is probably a time to almost go into reputation-management mode and look at the root cause of why the brand isn’t evolving in the way she potentially wants it to.’
‘At this level, there are also only so many major deals and opportunities available,’ she explained.
‘You can’t keep changing the project if the public perception of the person behind it stays the same.
‘Until that perception changes, I think whatever Meghan does next risks being viewed through the same lens.’
Since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex first dipped their toes in the world of Hollywood six years ago, the couple have found they’ve experienced the film industry’s ruthless nature first-hand.
In 2025, Netflix had a stake in her Meghan’s lifestyle and cookery brand As Ever, which includes her jam, rosé wine and flower sprinkles, and helped launch the corresponding Netflix series – which aired for two seasons with an additional holiday special.
However, earlier this year it was announced the brand had split from Netflix and Meghan would instead take complete control of As Ever.
A source told The Sun at the time: ‘Meghan is still on good terms with the Netflix team and close personal friends with Ted [Sarandos], so hasn’t wanted to upset him, but is very happy to have full control of the company.
‘It’s a good time for Meghan to have complete control, given recent successes.
‘Netflix have been a good partner, but she’s wanted to go global with the brand for some time, but has been held back by the more cautious Netflix team.’
Last August, the couple signed a more restrictive, first-look agreement with Netflix.
Meghan described the deal at the time as ‘an incredible sign of the strength of our partnership’, despite rumours the network may be pivoting away from her and Harry.
The latest film development comes months after it was announced that the couple were involved in another Netflix film production, an adaptation of romance novel The Wedding Date by best-selling author Jasmine Guillory.
The book was published in 2018 and became the first in a six-book series.
It is being adapted by screenwriter Tracy Oliver who was behind the 2017 movie Girls Trip, and the couple are producing the movie alongside Ms Ryerson.
A blurb for the Wedding Date book says: ‘A groomsman and his last-minute guest are about to discover if a fake date can go the distance in a fun and flirty debut novel.
‘Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn’t normally do. But there’s something about Drew Nichols that’s too hard to resist.’
The couple’s other major media deal with Spotify ended in 2023 after one season of Meghan’s podcast Archetypes, with one of the streaming giant’s executives later branding them ‘grifters’.
