Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are reportedly under increasing pressure as their stay in the USA continues, four years after they left the Royal Family.
As the pair attempt to build a solid foundation and career stateside, they have ventured into different career paths with Harry continuing his work on the Invictus Games and Meghan now launching her own cooking show on Netflix.
However, the build-up to the show has reportedly created tension around the pair at their home in Montecito, California as they await to see whether it will not be a success.
The new show, the latest in a long line of initiatives launched by the couple, recently wrapped filming and is due to launch later this year.
Speaking to Closer about the impact of the show, a source said that the pressure being felt by Meghan was also rebounding onto Harry.
They said: “You can just imagine the kind of pressure it’s putting on her and by extension Harry. If this show flops it will be a total disaster, and she knows it.
“She’s on tenterhooks waiting for it to come out and the stress it’s causing her is being felt by everyone around her, especially Harry.”
The cooking show has arrived hot on the heels of the launch of Meghan’s lifestyle brand ‘American Riviera Orchard’ earlier this year and it is hoped the show won’t get cancelled like the couple’s Archetypes podcast.
Whilst Meghan is trying to build a new career in lifestyle, the source said that whilst the Duchess of Sussex is expanding into new areas, this is not what matters to Harry.
They said: “Harry certainly isn’t expecting her to create an empire, he loves her no matter what and at the end of the day, he just wants her to be happy.”
Nevertheless, a lot is riding on the success of the new cooking programme on Netflix, a project that has already received criticism despite filming only just being completed.
Sky News Australia presenter Rita Panahi said: “Meghan Markle has just wrapped up filming on a new cooking and home show for Netflix, a show which has yet to receive a formal title or air date, as part of the Sussexes $100m deal and was filmed at a property near their Montecito mansion in Los Angeles.
“It’s apparently going to focus on the joys of cooking, gardening, entertaining and friendship and I’ve gotta say, it sounds bloody awful.”
The debate over whether or not Meghan’s latest venture will flop is the latest in a series of speculations about the couple’s activities after Prince Harry accepted the Pat Tillman Award for Service.
Following his acceptance, a source told OK that Harry and Meghan were beginning to feel the pressure. They revealed: “This has been such a tough few months for Meghan and Harry and the pressure they are under is a lot to handle, they feel they are constantly under attack.
“When they first left the royals, they had so much support and that support seems to be dwindling over time and they’re facing more and more criticism.
“Harry has been really hurt by the backlash over his award nomination and Meghan is still reeling over the Spotify axe as she loved doing that podcast and she knows people want her to fail with her next project so there’s quite a lot of tension in the house at the moment.”