Meghan Markle has been labeled “inadvisable” and “enormously shallow” by royal biographer Tina Brown for kickstarting several business ventures simultaneously.
The Duchess of Sussex, 43, has rolled out a series of new businesses in recent months, from her new Netflix show and lifestyle brand to a shiny new podcast and digital storefront.
But it seems as though the “Suits” alum’s professional strategy has rubbed some critics the wrong way, including Brown, who served as the editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair from 1986 to 1992.
“Her problem is just that she is so ADD. She just never stops making announcements and never really follows through,” Brown, 71, said on the “Mixed Signals for Semafor Media” podcast on Friday.
“It’s like, I’m gonna do a cooking show! Nah — I’m going to be a podcaster. And hello, hello, I’ve got a beauty line!”
“It’s like, just do one of those things, do it really well, and then do something else,” Brown added. “She’s weirdly panic-stricken in her business model.”
Most recently, Markle released her new podcast “Confessions of a Female Founder.”
The announcement was closely followed by the release of her digital storefront, for which she has already been accused of “monetizing the monarchy.”
The duchess also launched her lifestyle brand, As Ever.
Some of As Ever’s products were featured on Markle’s Netflix show, titled “With Love, Meghan,” which premiered last month as part of the Sussexes’ $100 million deal with the streamer.
“Maybe she’s just so devoid of self-confidence that she’s always trying to be a sort of instant Beyoncé or instant Michelle Obama without the background that has built those people — you know, those very, very strong structures on which they stand. So that’s really been her problem,” Brown said of the duchess.
“If she’d simply succeeded at one thing, and then done another thing, she’d be in a much, much better place. But she’s enormously shallow in her approach to the work she does.”
Still, the royal expert admitted that Markle isn’t “bad at anything that she does.”
“She has a huge influencer following,” Brown said. “When she puts on a shirt or carries a handbag, it sells out, which means that she clearly has a following of people who really like what she stands for in some ways.”
“Obviously, there are Meghan lovers and Meghan haters. The palace just doesn’t really think about Meghan anymore. It’s almost like she’s gone. And I think the tragic aspect is Harry,” she added.
Elsewhere, Brown said that she’s heard Markle is “inadvisable.”
“She’s had a lot of good people willing to give advice to her, but what has irritated the people who do — and big people who do — is that they sit with her and they give her very good advice, and she kind of appears to be extremely motivated by it,” she said.
“And then she doesn’t do it, and does something else. She’s worn out her advisory circle, who just feel like, well, what’s the point? She’s not going to do it.”
“And, unfortunately, she is the major advisor to Harry. She doesn’t take advice, and he only takes hers. That’s not a very good combination really for either of them,” added Brown, who released “The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor, the Truth and the Turmoil,” in 2022.
In 2007, Brown’s Princess Diana biography titled “The Diana Chronicles” became a New York Times bestseller.