‘Awkward’: Mindy Kaling has last laugh after on-air Meghan spat

A very awkward moment between the Duchess of Sussex and Mindy Kaling had everyone talking. Now, the star has come out on top.

COMMENT

Well, hey, isn’t this funny.

Nearly four years on the knocker since Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex sat down with Oprah in 2021, we are right back talking about her making TV again.

This time, though, it’s not monarchy-rattling, Zeitgeist-shaping, headline-hogging viewing.

Now, Meghan has found joy.

She’s found “finishing salt”.

And she’s found a second series of the very same show where she oh-so-helpfully bestows upon the world a recipe for ice cubes. (It’s here. There are instructions).

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It was revealed over the weekend that we are set to get another big old serving of With Love, Meghan, with Netflix and the duchess both announcing a follow-up series will be coming in the northern autumn.

But details, like recollections and line-caught ahi tuna, can be slippery things. Dig a little deeper, and With Love has not been “renewed” precisely, as various headlines have ballyhooed.

It turns out that season two was actually shot last year.

Season 2 of With Love, Meghan is coming. Picture: Netflix

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In fact, the Telegraph reports that “It was filmed just weeks after the first series had wrapped” and was made inside the same rented $US8 million mansion as the first one.

There is no “renewing” here, because more domestic-doyenne Meghan was a foregone conclusion; the world was always going to be invited back inside the duchess’ kitchen again, where joy is compulsory and which has all the spontaneity and fun of a Communist re-education camp.

All of this answers the question – why are we set to be treated to another go-round in her sprinkled flower sweatshop, despite With Love earning no end of burning reviews, including from Time, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The Economist, The Guardian, New York Magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle.

But as the time-honoured journalistic saying goes, never let the truth get in the way of a good story or press release or cheery Instagram post.

The already-in-the-can of it all also explains why there will be a second series despite the middling reaction from audiences.

Mindy Kaling's Running Point is killing it on Netflix. Picture: Netflix

But less than a week after debuting, With Love is not in the top 10. Picture: Netflix

According to the website Flix Patrol, which monitors daily streaming data, less than a week after debuting, With Love is not in the top 10 shows on Netflix.

Nor has the duchess’ offering managed to crack the top three in the US, which would surely have to be Meghan’s most important market, only getting as far as fifth place. Since then, it’s been falling and is at number nine.

The only countries where With Love made it to third on the charts were, per Flix Patrol, Estonia, Latvia, Ireland and the Maldives. Let’s hope that they really go in for shortbread mixes in Tallinn and Riga when the tie-in As Ever products finally eventuate.

Also, while Netflix might have confirmed that With Love is set to return, the streamer has failed to put out the same sort of chuffed, self-congratulatory press release they did after 2022’s Harry & Meghan release which excitedly touted it as the platform’s biggest documentary debut.

But you know who has been dominating both Netflix’s most-watched global and US charts? Opening at number one and pretty much consistently taking out the top spot? Running Point, the new project from With Love guest Mindy Kaling.

Awk-waaaaard.

The duchess was clearly annoyed. Pictures: Netflix

Mindy Kaling earned an on-air rebuke. Pictures: Netflix

This makes for the second time in a week that Meghan and Mindy have uneasily butted up against one another.

If you haven’t watched With Love, in the second episode, Kaling turns up to play her part as Meghan’s starry mate du jour, there to do the exhausting job of raving wildly about the duchess’ ability to militarily arrange sliced ingredients on plates.

The Office star, trying to inject a teaspoon of levity into proceedings, lightheartedly talks about “Meghan Markle” eating fast food – only to earn herself a barbed, on-camera correction from the clearly annoyed duchess who says, “It’s so funny, too, that you keep saying Meghan Markle”, even though no one looks like they are having a skerrick of fun.

“You know I’m Sussex now.”

You know what they say about last laughs …

Also in the bad news stakes, over the weekend The Sun claimed the duchess had a tough slog getting big names to do With Love, with an insider saying, “They struggled to book guests. They had a real hard time, and it shows”.

It was an awkward moment. Pictures: Netflix

While the series features longtime Meghan-ites including her makeup artist Daniel Martin, Suits cast mate Abigail Spencer and fellow polo wife Delfina Blaquier, it does not star any of the duchess’ genuinely A-list friends like Serena Williams or Kerry Washington or Ellen DeGeneres or those who have previously been in the duchess’ orbit like Amal Clooney or Victoria Beckham.

Maybe they already had their fill of joy?

So too over the weekend, the duchess admitted to having “made mistakes” while appearing at an event at local bookstore Godmothers.

“Every day, I’m learning so much as a founder. I’m taking baby steps and big strides at the same time, making mistakes and learning from them, and really working to find all the joy while diving into the creative process and the business,” she said, according to the Daily Beast.

The series does not star any of the duchess’ genuinely A-list friends. Picture: Netflix

And there’s that “joy” again.

After all of this, the numbers and reported “struggle” for guests and that uncomfortable “Meghan Sussex” moment, it sure is lucky the duchess is so naturally gifted at finding it.

(That ease might have something to do with the fact that, per the Telegraph, the 43-year-old “is not thought to have been shown any negative reviews and does not look them up herself.”)

So prepare yourself accordingly for more With Love; for more watching the royal refugee hand-whittle radishes into rhomboids and more high-pitched enthusing and more colour-coding berries and more flowers raining down on every plate, cup, surface and standing-still-duke. With Love will be back.

Joy.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles

Originally published as ‘Awkward’: Mindy Kaling has last laugh after on-air Meghan spat