Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, on Life and Business Beyond the Royal Spotlight

25:46I know. That's your real life. Yes. I guess the distinction there, as we were touching on this a little bit earlier, is those people don't know me and they're not talking about me. And that's a really hard place to come to terms with. But that's the truth. So if you can really compartmentalize it and go, oh, right, there is a very, very powerful machine, and it's all about generating income, those stories aren't just appearing because it's fun. Clickbait has a huge financial implication. If I'm part of an SEO and that gets them more clickbait, then, yes, they're incentivized to churn out as many stories, false or damaging or whatnot, to feed the beast because that's paying them.

26:28And I think a lot of people forget the economic element of it. And I think from my standpoint, that's why I don't look at it. It would be very hard to see anything about yourself that isn't true. But equally, it's not me that they're talking about. It's some caricature they've had to create to get clicks. I'm very clear on the difference between the two. The show hit the top ten. Yeah. Globally. Globally, yeah. And yet there were mixed reviews. How did that land for you? I think I knew who I was trying to meet. And so if you know your audience, you know your demographic, well, they love the show.

27:04And my partners love the show. And that's why we have a season two and why we have more fun coming. I think oftentimes the negative voices, again, are they saying negative things and then secretly going home and making single skillet spaghetti? Possibly. And that's all right. They're trying to pay their bills. And that's for them to sort out if they're comfortable doing it at someone else's detriment. From my standpoint, the intention of the show was to share more of myself, to share tips that I love in my life, and to have fun. And we achieved all those things and made a really incredible show with an amazing crew.

27:38And we could keep doing it. So for me, it's great. Everybody else, I don't know. The Netflix of it all. You have a really unique relationship with them. How does it work? Like, take us behind the curtain. Sure. Who has the last word? Creatively, they very graciously said, no, this is your baby and this is your brand. So all creative decisions and final decisions like that end up with me. Though the CPG division might be newer for a lot of people to hear about, they have been doing that with a lot of shows and brands that they've had and been in the consumables territory and market. So, for example, with Stranger Things, they've introduced a line of ice creams or pizzas.

28:15So they have a lot of incredible suppliers and manufacturers that they are comfortable working with. And then I'm able to try the products, work with those teams as well, and then sort of green light. So not as much searching. And then I would say, look, we began our relationship with Netflix five years ago purely as a production company with Archwell Productions to put great content out. And we've managed to have some wonderful shows and docuseries that we're really proud of. And then with the evolution of that, we're able to see the ambition of it being something larger than just the production deal.

28:46So the evolution of our partnership now is them doubling down in their support of as ever, especially as we talk about the global expansion and different territories we can go into. And the show complements that. Yeah. But there's this take that you're glorifying homemaking or glorifying trad wives. Oh, really? That feels odd to me. How do you respond to that? That feels odd to me. I mean, I hadn't heard that. I'm really unapologetic about the fact that, though, would it be lovely to go and churn your own butter? Sure, maybe. I don't have time for that. I don't have time for that. And I don't think you get an extra gold star if you do that.

29:21For me, a lot of it is how do you show up thoughtfully? I don't have time to make dinner every night. I wish I did. I don't have time for that. I'm great at ordering takeout and plating it beautifully. And look, and yes, do I have small things where even on my kids' plates, I wipe the side of the plate? Some of them might go, oh my gosh, that's so ridiculous. For me, that's two seconds where I get to present something that looks a little bit more beautiful. I have absolutely no judgment on trad wives. If that works for them, then they should do it. And frankly, anyone who has a criticism on that, why?

29:52That's their life. For me, I think finding the hybrid model that works for you, if that means take out all day every day, go live your best life. And if that means making everything from scratch, then go and do that. But for me, I think there is an in-between. Joy for me comes in finding that sweet spot in the middle. Yeah. There's this flywheel effect when you link content and commerce. Yeah. How do you think the show impacts as ever? And what's the strategy there? Yeah, I think you're definitely onto something. And, you know, you see that model play itself out in other, not even platforms. Platforms, yes.

30:26But prior to that, if you look at other channels, I won't name the ones that I'm thinking of specifically, but they were really wise about bringing in a show and launching a brand off the heels of it and using the two to really pull the levers. Now, the difference here is I had the ideation for my brand in advance and the show was in development. They don't have the same name, but they are in a complementary world of each other. And I think when you're able to see something and then whether you want to make it or not, you can choose that route. Or you could say, oh, or I could buy something that comes from the same universe.

31:00So it's not merch, but it is something that I think really is an extension of what we're creating that you see on the show, like show and tell. Yeah. I'll show you how I do it. I can tell you if you want to go and buy it over here. Otherwise, let's make it together. I'm curious about your takeaways from the hits and misses because you've done some other things. You had this deal with Spotify that, I don't know, it went for a year or so. I can't remember how long it went for, but Archetypes was very successful. What were the sort of lessons there? What did you learn about yourself and about your audience?

31:31The audience, that was the first indication that I had in this new chapter of my life of how global the audience was. Because it was, I want to say, 30 plus countries that it went to number one in non-English speaking. English isn't the first language, rather. So France, for example, has a huge podcast community, but most of their podcasts in the top 10 are in French. And so being able to see that metric, especially on a thematic that was pretty niche, Archetypes was very niche in terms of what we were discussing, that was a helpful reminder of the global reach and desire to sort of see what I was going to put out in the world.

32:06I think I also learned at that time, look, we were in our partnership with Netflix, but had very close personal relationships. And with Spotify, it's another large conglomerate and business company that I think for me, I really love and embrace working with a small hands-on team. And that I had in my team that was producing the podcast with me. So Terry Wood, for example, she's incredible. She was Oprah for years and she was my primary producer on archetypes. So that was helpful knowledge to translate when we went to Lemonada and to work with a small female founded team that could really be like minded and meet me in the conversation that I wanted to share.

32:44That was a huge learn. Another big learn from that was people said, we love hearing her, but we want to see her. And it wasn't a videotaped podcast. It was just voice. I wanted people to relax and say, if you want to have your hair in a towel and have deep conditioner on, you do whatever you want. Let's just chat. But that was a helpful learn, which I think was catalyzing for having the With Love, Megan series. So you could have both. Celebrity brands are all the rage right now. It seems like every day, you know, someone's launching a new skincare line or a beauty line or a tequila. What's going to make yours stand out?

33:17What makes yours different? I mean, I had a lot of options of things that I could jump into. The authenticity is probably what will help it stand apart. Also the price point. I think certainly we're looking at economically what's happening right now. You really want things to be in a range that people can still have a piece of, whatever ends up happening with our economy. More than anything, I've just poured so much love into this brand. And I would say the same for so many of these celebrities who probably have dreamed of something for a long time. And at the same time, when they see it come to fruition, for a lot of them, are they writing copy and doing all these things?

33:53Maybe they are, which I think is incredible. And so I think from my standpoint, as long as you're authentic, you really have a strong business plan, you know what your North Star is, then I think you're in pretty good shape. Everyone is putting out something unique in the world, even if it feels like there's a million tequilas. I'm sure they all have a different point of view in some regard. And I really do believe that a high tide raises all boats. I believe that. I think there's room for all of us. Yeah. I mean, there's speculation you want to get into hospitality. Are there hotels? Oh, gosh.

34:24restaurants, beauty, fashion, what's on the horizon? Oh, that's a lot of stuff. I mean, we were just talking about how I'm trying to narrow the scope of what I'm doing because it's a lot. I do not, at this moment, have any aspiration of getting into hotels and hospitality. That's the first I've heard that one. I just think even a B &B would be a lot to run. I'm open to the possibilities of what can happen, certainly in the expansion of As Ever, and then knowing that I'm in my 40s, So it's still a lot of time to develop and iterate on other ways to dream. I would not put beauty or fashion out of the mix.

35:00I think those are things that people associate with me and it's categories that I really love. I just wanted to start with something that felt a little bit closer to home. So what is the grand vision for As Ever? What do you want it to be? What don't you want it to be? Yes, I don't want it to feel generic. I don't want it to feel cookie cutter. I'll start with the don'ts. I don't want it to feel like it was phoned in. And I know that it would be impossible to feel that way because I know how much time I spend on it from soup to nuts. But I want it to be something that people feel excited to have in their home and especially that people feel excited to gift.

35:35I oftentimes find myself, you go, what's the hostess gift that I can give? Whether you're making something from your home or you found some great produce at the farmer's market or you say, I'm bringing you a pot of jam. I just hope that there's always a piece of it that people can hold on to and share in a really meaningful way. and then it becomes a staple. But that starts with consumables. So we've invited you into the kitchen. And then the natural expansion of that is where else in the home are we going to invite you? In the garden? Well, what are we going to use out there that will make your garden experience better?

36:02What are we going to use when you're setting up a guest room that might make your experience better? So the verticals are vast, but they're also very clearly connected to the core of what the brand is about, which really is elevating the everyday, but it's stemming from the garden. What are the things from my garden and I can bring it to my home and then share throughout the space. Do you have any backers other than Netflix? No. Or are you looking for other investors? At the moment, no. Netflix is my partner and investor. So what is the path to profitability? The scaling is going to be key. And certainly we look at the show continue to be not a marketing tool, but a complement to the brand, as we discussed.

36:40I think expansion into different territories is going to be very big for us. And certainly shifting out of D to C, not necessarily into brick and mortar of our own, but in finding the right retail partners that make sense to be on the shelves? What's the story we're telling? And how do we merchandise that story in a way that you walk in and have a real experiential feeling of, oh my gosh, I've been watching this on Instagram. I was watching her on her show. I can see these. And then you can walk into it and you can step into it and have all the things that you might need that complement each other, that match, that have the same taste levels.

37:12I think that will be a really big inflection point for us, shifting out of D to C and that path to profitability will reflect that. So you want to see, as ever, on store shelves. Do you want to see it at Target or Williams-Sonoma? I think a key retail partner is going to be very valuable. And also, look, if you look at the categories, it might not just be one. We might have exclusivity in certain ones that make sense for the consumables. But as you expand into candles or things throughout the home, where do those live that it makes sense? So it's multiple partners. And then, of course, when you look at global territories, where does it make the most sense there?

37:45And which territories first, as you talk about compliance, especially for food products, that's a lot of development. So the other pieces of it, I think it's just finding the right home and there's a lot of interest, which is fantastic. But I know that all those decisions really matter. So being thoughtful in the choice. Why do this with Netflix? Why not raise money on your own where you might have more control, you might have more our financial upside. Yeah. That had been my plan. And I thought that it would be great just to build out my own team and really do it purely on my terms. But then I also would say when Bella and I spoke and Netflix made a really compelling sell about why Netflix would be such a great partner, I had the history of having worked with them for now several years.

38:31So there's a great shorthand. And to really be able to have a network that I could tap into from them, which yes, could come with different private equity or VC without question. And I have friends who have built businesses. A lot of female founders are my closest friends and all very supportive. So I was fortunate in that as a startup, I had options, but I chose Netflix because I really think that having a partner that I have a shorthand with was key and also exploring it at the onset. If we want to end up opening that aperture a little bit, we can for funding, but at the moment we're okay. The Megan effect.

39:08I don't know if you've heard about this one. I've heard about that one. This concept that you can transform a small business by wearing or using their products. How do you make decisions about what to wear or what to feature knowing that you can have that level of impact? Yeah, it's hugely flattering. And it's also, I take it seriously. Up until then, there was always speculation on what I might be wearing. and then you'd find different media outlets would put it up with their affiliate sales. And they might sell out on a shirt, but it wasn't the shirt of that female founder that I was choosing to support.

39:42And that was really interesting for me because a lot of my choices, especially when I wasn't using my voice as often, my fashion choices were decisive. And they were really designed to uplift a lot of smaller brands that people might not know about, especially female-founded brands and designers and supporting friends as well. So from my standpoint, even having shopmai on Instagram has been an interesting exploration because I'm able to say, these are the actual brands and people can find what they're looking for if they wanted to emulate the style. But yeah, it's flattering that you can move product without leaving the house and that there's that much fascination in a skirt.

40:20You've been doing some angel investing. Yes. I saw that you called it Dolphin Tank as opposed to Shark Tank. Well, I love Shark Tank, by the way. Don't get me wrong. I love watching that show. I just wanted to approach it with friendly waters. Yeah. Well, there are sharks out there, let's be honest. How do you learn to swim with the great whites? Oh, so eloquent. So cinematic as well. I'm just really, really considered in my approach of who I want to invest in and work with, specifically women at different generations. I think it's key. I'm trying to tap into what are our needs going to continue to evolve to need?

41:00and how are they going to continue to evolve and what are we going to need at different stages in our lives, whether it's MIDI with perimenopause and menopause support or supporting a younger entrepreneur like Hannah Mendoza who created Clever, which is also filling a need of how you start your day. What's your intention of it? How do you take care of yourself? All of it really stems with different versions of how women are caring for ourselves and our families. A friend of mine, I just recently invested in her company called Palata, which I'm proud of. It's an at-home reformer, which in a very short amount of time, you can take care of your body.

41:30So as a working mom, you say, I don't have an hour. I have an hour to go and work out. And so finding things that I say, oh, that's a practical use that I would have in my home. And I know that will help someone else as well. And equally, it's not just the concept that I'm investing in. It's the founder. And really knowing how I can be valuable for them. if I don't think that I can add value for them, my association with the brand, yes, it might have that effect. But I want to be more valuable than just the clickbait version. I want to be able to bring really sound investors to their cap table.

42:06I want to be able to open up their network for them. I want to be able to be a soundboard and just a place for advice and to help them grow. That's part of the relationship building that I do when I look at my portfolio. Yeah. What's the bigger strategy? Like, are you looking at AI or biotech or e-commerce or? FinTech's really important and interesting to me. AI, man, aren't you a little bit scared by AI? Just a little. I mean, we have to make peace with it. The world is changing. Our lives are changing. So there are certain things that I just don't know enough about to want to jump in with both feet.

42:41And at the same time, I have a great team that can help with advising me on what seems like a sound investment. But yes, I mean, when it comes to women, finance, healthcare, and tech, yes. I mean, that is the world that we live in. And I think finding the ways that those make sense for my portfolio, they have to make sense for me organically. If I'm not going to use it, if it's not going to be part of my life, it's not something I genuinely believe in, I am not financially backing it. That doesn't feel correct to me. It wouldn't be fair to the brand either. Yeah. Are you using AI? I, you know, last week someone talked about ChatGBT, which of course everyone's talking about ChatGBT.

43:19I hadn't experienced it before. I'm shocked. But again, as we talked about, I'm a little bit vintage in many ways because I'm from a time capsule of handwritten notes and putting a stamp on a letter and mailing it. And yeah, it's not something that is part of my day-to-day. But you have to imagine Siri's not on my phone. I don't have location services. I'm not caught up in the day-to-day tech things that most people are. But yeah, I'm sure it will end up being a part of our life in some capacity. How could it not? AI recipes. I mean, AI recipes are huge. Thumbs up or thumbs down? This is new. Oh, yeah.

43:55You can say, I have these five things in my fridge. What should I make? No. What you should do is read Tom Colicchio's Think Like a Chef, which is one of the best books written by a chef, frankly, because it teaches you, oh, I don't want people to lose critical thinking. I don't want people to lose critical thinking. That was one of the best books I ever read that helped me navigate being in a kitchen so that you weren't looking at a recipe and going, oh, I don't have this. I don't have this before Instacart. There's no version of you have to go to the store to buy these key ingredients. No, Think Like a Chef was transformative because what it says is a chef will look in a kitchen in the pantry and say, I've got this, this, this.

44:32I know what I can whip up. I don't, I think it's great if AI can help with recipes, but I also would encourage people in the same way that I do. Cooking can be so playful and life can be so serious. And if you can find a moment where you can play a little bit, I think your day will probably be a little bit better. I love that about being in the kitchen to experiment and play and figure it out. That's part of the joy of it. And I get to share that with my kids. Do you and Harry do deals together? Any deals? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. He's a great investor and we look for different things in investments.

45:04We share some and we also have separate portfolios. So what's the sort of working together strategy? What do we both believe in? What do we think is really going to move the needle in terms of value alignment? And we're very value aligned. So, you know, again, my portfolio gleans more towards women. And his, you know, my husband served 10 years in the military. He's obviously very minded about how we show up and do good, how we can be of service. And he looks at it through different lenses as well. So kind of concentric circles. You've talked about how important it is to be financially literate, especially for women to be financially literate.

45:42Talk a little bit about your own journey around money, learning how to make it, learning how to manage it. Yeah, I've always been very financially responsible. And I don't know, where does that come from? Certainly as an auditioning actor, you are paycheck to paycheck. So you're very mindful about how you spend. But I grew up clipping coupons. I grew up looking for deals. It's like you just find all the places where you find a gift. And, you know, my grandfather had a really small antique shop. So I also grew up watching the energy of people bartering. People would come into an antique shop where he would also have a little stand at the Fairfax flea market.

46:21And I would help him when I was a little girl on weekends. And also when I was in high school, I'd go, it was every Sunday, I think. I'd go and bring him lunch and help. But I would watch exchanges in that way. I'm actually really struck by it now because everything is so digital and on a card, even for our own children. Curious with yours. They don't actually touch coins and money. And to be able to see that transaction, we were at a bouncy house place two weekends ago or last weekend. And they also had those sort of Chuck E. Cheese-esque, like the carnival machines. But everything had to be on a card.

46:54And I thought, well, no. What happened to the days of like they get tickets? You know exactly how many tickets? You'll get a coin. You get the tickets. It's there's something about transactions that aren't as clear anymore when everything is on a card or digitized. And I do think the way in which I approached money was always saving, always being mindful about what I would save up for. I would invest in things of quality. I would also really use my funds. I always worked. I mean, my first job was when I was 13. I've shared that before at a frozen yogurt shop called Humphrey Yogurt. But I worked at a donut store.

47:30I worked in retail. I worked at a restaurant as a hostess. I was a calligrapher. Gift wrapping. Taught gift wrapping class. I've had a lot of jobs over the years. And when you work really hard, you value what you've earned. I think that translates into how I invest. It translates into how I spend, what I teach my children. And I think it's incredibly important for young women, especially, to have a sense of why it matters for her to earn her own money and to be able to be financially independent. That's not about anything other than being self-reliant. The more that you're able to take care of yourself, especially as a woman, then you're making practical choices in your life that are not hindered by a need being met by someone external.

48:16Taking care of yourself is so key and it's the most empowering thing in the world. So I think it's important that young girls have financial literacy. We actually did our first lemonade stand this weekend. my daughter was asking for it good it was awesome and I think they learned a lot they're like oh this isn't so easy as it's not as easy as it looks people showed up with real money and I realized that they I don't know if she's ever counted money before she I don't think she has because people just don't use real money it's changed so much but it was such a great experience to have that whole sort of yes cycle and did they make the lemonade they made the lemonade We added some ice cream.

48:55Oh, that's great. We had an ice cream stand too. I think about lemonade stand when I was a little girl. I mean, we didn't sit around squeezing lemons. We had one little lemon tree in front of the duplex that we lived in. But that wasn't enough lemons to make a whole thing of lemonades. We would use those frozen Minute Maid cans that you would twist and just add some water. Very flavorful. Very flavorful. And by the way, it's just the act of you have to see it through. For a child, I think that's part of the learning. You have to see it through from I made this, so I value it. someone is paying for it, so they value it.

49:25And what am I going to do with these funds now? Because I worked really hard and I'm going to clean it all up and now I have a choice to make. But that's so key. And I love that you did that. Now you're going to have your sticky fingers every weekend making lemonade. I know. I think they're probably, now they're hooked. We talked about, you know, especially the importance of women being financially literate. Bigger picture, what do you see going on with women in culture and business and politics, it feels like so often women are a target. And then often they opt out of the fray. Do you see that?

49:58I think what I'm struck by when I watch women in leadership positions, in any of those verticals you just mentioned, women who are trying to break through, what I find the most troubling is that oftentimes the hindrance for their success is other women not being supportive. I find that so painful because I grew up going to an all-girls school and I was in a sorority and I've been around such a camaraderie of women. And now as an adult, my girlfriends span an age from in their 30s to in their 70s. So I have these multi-generational friendships. And I think every woman would say to you, gosh, can we get out of each other's way of being successful because we've all experienced some version of it.

50:45But why? And at what cost? And actually, it ends up being such a distraction from the larger purpose, whereas of women, if we can support each other entirely, certainly in business, you have more of a rallying cry to encourage women to keep going. But I do think it ends up being probably too challenging for most people. There are a few that are in the media lens as much as someone like I am. Few. Few. I was just a grain of salt. And, you know, so I have a thicker skin, but again, I've designed it so I protect myself from the noise that's going to limit me. But if it's new for you, one story, one, not a thousand in a day, one in a day would be enough for most people to have that be the story that they tell for the rest of their life.

51:34Like, oh my gosh, do you remember when this horrible story was written about me. And that's enough to make most people go, I'm not going to do it. In that regard, I would say, my gosh, if women across the board with each other can be supportive as we are climbing to get to the top of whatever corporate ladder you're on or whatever your personal journey is, frankly, and that people aren't trying to have a gotcha moment or to make something snarky and salacious just for the purpose of clicks, that's pennywise pound foolish. What are you actually doing for us as women when you're cutting us down as we're just trying to succeed?

52:09We're just trying to do the best that we can. And I think women have a large role in that to be able to move the needle. Do you feel like you have to be perfect? Do you feel like you have to curate what you show us or be a more polished version of the Megan that you are, like, you know, just at home putting your feet up on the couch? I did. I did feel that for a while. Even though I wasn't seeing it, you could feel the energy of it. So you feel a lot of pressure to go, is this hair out of place? I bet it is. But I'm okay with it. Is someone going to say something about anything? Probably. Once you make peace with the fact that they're going to say something about anything, then that's a hard place to get where you can make peace with that.

52:50Then I think you just settle into being yourself. Whether you're high profile or not, it's hard to be a teenager. It's hard to be in your 20s. It's hard to be a mom for the first time. Every chapter, we're figuring it out for the first time. Every single chapter. And then you layer in just the natural change that happens as we get older. My friends and I, we just talk about brain fog all the time. You're like, there are things that are just naturally going to be part of a new chapter of our life. I really think you just have to have a little compassion for that. But perfection is not the goal.

53:25I don't think there's anything valuable about trying to be perfect. Perfect doesn't exist. I guess my version of the closest thing to perfection would be being really comfortable in your own skin. And I do think that comes with time. God bless you if you're in your 20s and you feel that way. I would trade my 20s with you any day if you feel so comfortable in who you are. That takes time and, you know, maybe a lot of therapy. If you could choose one thing for people to know the truth about you, what would that one thing be? No one's ever asked me that. No. What a great question. The one thing. Oh, gosh.

54:00What's the one thing? Oh, gosh. I just, you know, I think when I sit with it for a second here, I just want people to know that I'm a real person. And I think a lot of that gets lost in what can be super dehumanizing when you look at the clickbait culture and how much is written about someone. And it's like, no, my friends have to read those things. Like I have real best friends, the same one since I was 17. I'm a real mom. I have to go and I choose to go and do school pick up and drop off. But I do that under a landscape that is created that forgets that I'm a real person. And so those things, I think, you know, I could expand on that quite a bit.

54:50But ultimately, that's what it comes down to. and how would you want someone to treat a real person in your life that you cared about or loved or respected and so there's something about that I think that often gets lost and even though earlier I was saying you can compartmentalize I say that's a caricature yes but my kids will see those magazines and we all know mom's gossip and so I have to make a choice to move through the world as myself in spite of all the noise that's created. But maybe there would be less noise if people remembered that I'm a real person. You're a real person. Yeah. I'm here and I can attest to the fact that you're a real person.

55:30Pinch me, I'm real. She's real. She's a real person. What do you want more than anything in the world? I have it. I have it. I have a beautiful, healthy family. We're happy. We're safe. We have an amazing community of support surrounding us. there's nothing else that I need. What scares you more than anything in the world? Well, the state of the world right now is scary in a lot of ways. So I would depersonalize that. I would say probably the same things that scare everyone else, especially when you have children. You want your family to be safe. You want your children to grow up in a world that is certainly more peaceful than it feels in this present moment.

56:12What's a scene in your life that changed everything, but nobody else would have thought was pivotal? Oh, boy. I mean, there's an obvious one, but I think everyone probably thinks it was pretty pivotal when I went on this date with this guy from London. It changed a lot of things. What is less expected or less known? that's pretty pivotal outside of that and I've talked about it again becoming a mom hugely pivotal for me there are a lot of catalyst moments well and here we are as you you know you're writing your next chapter maybe maybe we're in like the next chapter of your next chapter it's a long book yeah indeed there are a lot of chapters I mean life is full of surprises and I think the more that I can just embrace that and celebrate it say okay here's another adventure or something happened yesterday.

57:10My friend was at the house staying with me, and she goes, oh my gosh, it's only 9 a.m., and you're dealing with all of this? I said, oh, it's just Monday. So if you can take it with that grain of salt and that perspective, all of these moments can be super catalyzing. But yeah, I think I will flip that on its head. Thank you for letting us read this chapter. Oh, thank you for reading it with me. Yeah, I appreciate it too. Thanks, crew. Thank you, guys. I think we're gonna go eat some burgers. They're so good. Yes, I drink some beer. Just days after this interview, Netflix announced that following its five-year, $100 million deal with Meghan and Harry, they've signed a less exclusive first-look deal, similar to the Obamas.

57:55Critics seem to view this as a setback, but studios have cut back on deals like this in general. And really, it means Netflix still has first dibs on anything they develop. A season three is TBD, But Netflix is promising a holiday special with Megan and has expanded its partnership with As Ever. Thanks so much for listening to this edition of The Circuit. You can catch the full episode and see us chowing down on burgers and beer on Bloomberg Originals. I'm Emily Chang, your host and executive producer. You can follow me on Instagram, TikTok, and X at EmilyChangTV. Our showrunner is Lauren Ellis.

58:27Our producer is Victoria Lacey. This is edited by Gramercy Post. You can watch new episodes of The Circuit on Bloomberg Television or streaming on the Bloomberg app or YouTube.