Is It The End Of The Netflix Deal For The Harkles?
The Polo reality show is followed by TW's lifestyle and cookery show
In April 2024, there seemed to be a flurry of activity from the Harkles as Harold jumped on a reality series on polo while he was participating in the Sentebale Cup in Florida, while TW was busy making jam and distributing to faux friends afar who had a social media following at the same time. Now, in 2025, it looks as if Netflix gave them a deadline to fulfil their contract or to repay their advance, and so Netflix has ended up with a show on polo that no one was remotely interested in, and a fake cookery show that TW has been pursuing since her ‘Tig’ days.
While we don’t know what really happened behind closed doors, the word on the street is that Netflix did want to end the contract, but the Harkles had spent all the advance and so Netflix had no choice but to let the contract run its course like Spotify. Judging by the lack of genuine success of any of the Archewell productions, one only has to look at the popularity of the Netflix trailers for both on YouTube for a more realistic consumer response and interest in the Netflix shows that involve the duo. Some may say it doesn’t matter why people watch it as long as Netflix has the viewing figures, but do they really want to be known for creating content that people watch merely to mock?
Take the polo series that was supposed to spark interest as a reality type of show. No one had any interest and even the media didn’t bother. The YouTube trailer ended up with 15k dislikes and a rather pathetic 1.4k likes. If you consider that a percentage of the likes were from multiple accounts, a more realistic figure of likes is probably under a thousand. Still, it means that Harold is less popular than TW, but isn’t as disliked as much as her. I’m not sure which is better…
Harold said in an interview that the problem was the Meghan versus Kate issue, (why they were forced to leave) but that’s his perception rather than the truth. TW’s PR and cult fans constantly attacked Kate and put her down to make TW appear ‘better’, whereas now the battle is between Harold and TW. Who does the public dislike more? TW appears to be winning hands down as her true colours are evident for the sane of mind to see.
While both can be considered hypocrites, saying one thing and then doing the exact opposite, Harold has had a reputation for not being bright and could be easily influenced. TW on the other hand has had a reputation for being a bully, manipulative, rude, and not a delight to work with (this coming from people she has worked with, and of course the bullying reports at Kensington Palace during her brief stint there). The fact that many members of staff (Tig, KP, and Archewell) have resigned because of her speaks volumes (including Samantha Cohen), and of course they will have been forced to stay silent with an NDA. TW can’t force them to say nice things about her, but she can pay them to stay silent. Harold doesn’t seem to be winning any new fans and has lost many of his old fans, but then again he is a prince and doesn’t care if people like him or not.
When the duo ‘left’ the RF, perhaps they had been pushed out of KP but that may have been a protective measure to safeguard William and George as the heirs to the throne (think treason, and plausible deniability). The then Sussex staff were all suddenly made redundant except for James Holt, and Heather Wong, who were seen at the time as sort of traitors because they had clearly helped the Harkles with under the table activities to attack the late Queen and RF using KP and BP resources and were rewarded with jobs.
Holt, is now heading Archewell, while Wong could see that things were not going to be rosy and left Travalyst before the one year grace period was up. I’m sure she has lots of tales to tell from behind the scenes as she was Harold’s aide back in May 2016, when he visited Toronto to launch the Invictus Games, where he had met TW for the first time with her then live in partner Cory Vitiello, who was the private chef at a dinner that was thrown for Harold. TW stated she had first met Harold at an Invictus event in her Vanity Fair interview (interview June 2017, published September 2017), but later the online version was altered and said that she had met him on a blind date in June-July 2016. The hard copies of Vanity Fair still carry the original text based on what TW had said, where she had approved the copy before the interview was published, and it probably hadn’t occurred to her how bad it would look, pursuing Harold while she was still in a relationship with another man. Needles to say, Vitiello was dumped shortly after she met Harold.
However, TW seems to have beat her puppet husband as in less than a week as her Netflix trailer has 119k dislikes and 14k likes (where we can assume 50% are purchased likes or are from multiple accounts).
With nearly 40k of comments praising Netflix for keeping comments open (that’s all they are praising Netflix for), it’s hard for Netflix to try and spin this as any kind of success before the show has aired. The same was said about ‘Polo’ and there was hype for a few seconds, and then once it was aired there was pretty much no interest at all. I don’t think people even bothered to watch it to criticise it either as it was Christmas and people had much better things to do.
Hot off filming for the polo series, TW had tried to spark some interest in her brand American Riviera Orchard, and by using some social media pals to promote it for her. Many mocked the fake artisan jam labels that were peeling off, and where some jars had black hairs stuck to the lid. That coincided with the filming of the cooking series, but are the criticisms on the trailer justified before the show has aired?
The main issue is that the entire series is based on a fake premise that TW is sharing tip and tricks on living from her home, when first of all it’s not her home but a rented one that is being used as a set, and who would want to take advice from TW as she’s known primarily as an ex-actress and a woman who married a prince?
I feel that people take exception to the farce of TW swanning around a house and garden that is rented, pretending it is hers and inviting friends around to praise her cooking. We also know that the production crew have probably purchased all the food and prepared things, cleaned the areas and set things up, so really TW hasn’t done much except wear numerous designer outfits to cook, and people quite rightly have a problem with her long hair dangling over the food.
TW is a far cry from Delia Smith who used her own utensils and own kitchen, and who is well-known for her cookery and tips that work. I recall when she used an omelette pan (Little Gem) and her recommendation saved a family business that was about to go bust. There was no sponsorship or endorsement to use the product, but it was what Delia chose because it was good. On the surface it looks like a vanity project that is geared towards the brainwashed cult fans who aspire to be like TW, and that is not the masses.
The irony is in the title of the series, ‘With Love’, because TW only loves herself, money, and fame. That, it seems is the purpose of the project to try and show the world that she has money, can buy expensive designer clothes, has some fake friends, and that she can entertain them with food that other people have helped prepare, and who can jump around and clap with her with their fake laughs (after all most of them are actresses). Just imagine TW as a contestant in Hell’s Kitchen with Gordon Ramsey— people would pay good money to watch that instead!