Meghan Markle's Career Has Become an 'Exhausting Doom Loop', Royal Expert Claims

After a flurry of business launches last year — from her lifestyle brand As Ever to the Netflix cooking series With Love, Meghan — the Duchess of Sussex finds herself caught in a cycle that royal observers say is wearing thin with the British public. Despite her ambitious ventures, including the podcast Confessions of a Female Founder and an anticipated cookbook for spring release, critics argue that Meghan's post-royal playbook has become frustratingly repetitive, with each new announcement met with mounting scepticism rather than excitement.

The pattern, according to analysts, follows an unmistakable formula: launch with fanfare, generate initial buzz, disappoint commercially, rebrand quietly and repeat. Lee Cohen, a US-based royal commentator, has crystallised this observation in stark terms. 'My take is that Meghan Markle's post-royal career is no longer a journey. It's a loop,' he told the Daily Express. 'A doom loop, it seems: Launch. Hype. Disappointment. Rebrand. Repeat. By 2026, the pattern isn't just familiar — it's exhausting.'

The Limits of Royal Capital

Cohen's assessment underscores a fundamental problem facing the duchess: her royal connections can no longer carry her ventures forward. 'Markle soldiers on with As Ever, the rebranded corpse of the eternally delayed American Riviera Orchard,' he explained, describing the latest iteration of her lifestyle brand as emblematic of a broader struggle. 'It's the ultimate influencer grift: overpriced wine, homeware, candles and platitudes peddled as "aspirational."'

What began with considerable anticipation has increasingly become a source of scepticism. Her Netflix series underperformed, failing to generate the sustained audience engagement that major productions require. The question now facing insiders is whether Meghan can rebuild credibility without the institutional scaffolding of royalty that once guaranteed media attention and consumer curiosity.

A Strategy in Crisis

As the duchess embarks on 2026, the outlook appears increasingly constrained. 'So, 2026 in a nutshell? More launches. More breathless announcements. More delusional insistence that breakout success is one pivot away,' Cohen continued. 'But zero breakthroughs. No relevance. Just diminishing returns and public exhaustion and alienation.'

The criticism speaks to a deeper commercial reality: without substantive product innovation or authentic consumer demand, launching new ventures merely exposes the weakness of previous ones. Recent focus has shifted to As Ever, with the duchess releasing branded items including a leather bookmark — modest offerings that contrast sharply with earlier ambitions. A rumoured cookbook release this spring suggests she is doubling down on lifestyle content despite waning public interest.

A technical glitch on the As Ever website recently revealed details about the brand's inventory management. When a significantly larger quantity of products was added to a shopping basket, the checkout system exposed remaining stock levels — prompting questions about sales performance. Insiders close to the business claimed the incident revealed something more positive: that the Duchess had successfully sold approximately 90% of her original inventory, with the brand now preparing for international expansion.

Royal watchers suggest that even operational developments don't change the fundamental narrative. As ventures launch without clear commercial success or cultural relevance, the cycle repeats, further distancing the duchess from her aspirational brand promise. Whether strategic pivots or product breakthroughs can reverse this trajectory remains the key question for her business in 2026.