bitchy | Duchess Meghan’s ‘publicist’ left because she was only hired for one project

For the past nine months, I’ve complimented the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s improved communications strategy. After five years, they finally freed themselves from the “never complain, never explain” bullsh-t strategy of dealing with the daily onslaught of false reports about every part of their lives. Well, late last week, the Daily Mail gleefully reported that Meghan had “lost her tenth publicist in five years.” Much like the number of bathrooms in the Sussexes’ Montecito palace, the number of staffers “lost” is always inflated by the British press. The up-to-date story was about Emily Robinson, who used to work for Netflix, specifically doing publicity for The Crown. She only worked with Meghan for about five months and then moved on. today we know why, because of the responsiveness of the Sussexes’ comms team:

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s team is seeing some major changes. Five months after Emily Robinson was named the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s director of communications, she has decided to bow out of the role.

“Ms. Robinson oversaw project-based work for a very successful season of With Love, Meghan and additional support for the production company,” a spokesperson for Meghan told E! News in an Oct. 24 statement. “She did an excellent job and completed these projects with great success.”

Indeed, Emily—who was previously Netflix’s senior director of publicity for eight years until May 2024—had proven to be a shining diamond in the Sussex crown. After all, thanks to the success of seasons one and two of With Love, Meghan, the Suits alum was able to explore a new chapter in her lifestyle series.

“The holiday special is coming out in November,” she shared at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit earlier this month. “It’s a really good one.”

[From E! News]

So, Robinson was hired on a temporary basis and her work was focused on With Love, Meghan. I actually suspect that Robinson leaving that job says more about Meghan’s plans for WLM more than anything else, you know? Robinson leaving tells me that Meghan probably doesn’t have plans to film another season of WLM right away. She indicated as much during her Fortune Q&A session, where she basically made it sound like WLM is a huge time commitment and her focus needs to be on As Ever. In any case, the British tabloids certainly made a mountain out of a molehill. Gee, I wonder why they all decided to attack Meghan after a week of ghastly headlines about Prince Andrew, Jeffrey Epstein and an incompetent, dithering king.

Speaking of As Ever, Meghan’s been teasing a new product drop on the 28th (Tuesday). She posted this on her Stories… is that tomato sauce? It looks tomato-y and not raspberry-esque. Yes, I’m still pining away for the raspberry jam! But if Meghan is selling tomato sauce (???) then I will try it. I love tomatoes.

Photos courtesy of Netflix, As Ever’s IG.