Gwyneth Paltrow weighs in on comparisons between Meghan Markle’s new Netflix series and Goop
Gwyneth Paltrow has weighed in on the comparisons between her wellness and lifestyle brand, Goop, and Meghan Markle’s new show on Netflix, With Love, Meghan.
Meghan’s series features famous guests and friends in each episode, as she offers them a range of gardening, cooking, and hosting tips.
Paltrow was asked how she felt about the Duchess of Sussex starting her own lifestyle business in a new interview with Vanity Fair.
“There’s noise about certain women in the culture, I do have, always, a strong instinct to stand up for them,” she told the publication. “I was raised to see other women as friends, not foes. I think there’s always more than enough to go around. Everybody deserves an attempt at everything that they want to try.”
She said she was 19 when she first learned this advice from her mother, Meet the Parents star Blythe Danner. Often, her mother would tell her that “another woman is never your competition” and that “what is right for you will find you.”
Paltrow also shared that she’s not close friends with Meghan or her husband, Prince Harry, despite the fact they’re neighbors.
“I don’t know Meghan and Harry,” the Iron Man star explained. “I mean, I’ve met Meghan, who seems really lovely, but I don’t know her at all. Maybe I’ll try to get through their security detail and bring them a pie.”
The actor launched Goop in 2008, offering a range of skincare, beauty, fashion, and home goods products. Goop has also previously raised eyebrows for its risqué products, including its infamous candle: “This Smells Like My Vagina.”
Earlier this month, Netflix released Meghna’s highly anticipated show, which detailed how she soft-launched her brand American Riviera Orchard, now rebranded to As Ever. However, the program received some scathing reviews, with The Independent’s Katie Rosseinsky calling it “queasy and exhausting.”
“The only tea that is being spilled here is brewed with fresh mint picked from Meghan’s garden, or an allergy-busting concoction containing turmeric and cayenne pepper that she blends up for [longtime makeup artist Daniel] Martin,” she wrote, giving the show one star out of five.
She concluded: “The heady blend of aesthetic curation, inspiring truisms and those inescapable edible flowers might well leave you feeling a bit queasy — or simply worn out at the prospect of having to adequately perform gratitude for all the thoughtful touches involved in Meghan’s ‘guest experience.’”
However, With Love, Meghan director Michael Steed has since defended the program and its cooking sequences, saying he was impressed by the duchesses’ culinary skills.
“Her cooking is pretty spot-on,” he said during an interview with People earlier this month. “She’s not a chef, and it’s definitely not meant to make it seem like she is, but there’s just a love of cooking that is palpable.”
Despite the negative reactions to her show, Meghan has already filmed a second season, which is set to arrive on Netflix this fall. Steed will also be returning to the program as the director.
