With Love, Meghan Episode Fifteen: A Weekend Away

WITH LOVE, MEGHAN: A WEEKEND AWAY

Original Airdate: August 26, 2025

Special Guest: Heather Dorak

Mentions of "Joy": 1

Mentions of Flower Sprinkles: No

Passive-Aggressive Moments: 1

Gushing Praise for Markle: "You make that look so easy. I love you. See, I'm so inspired by you".

Meghan Sussex is fond of puns. We've been treated to Just for the Halibut. We've been treated to Spice Up Your Life (possibly to have been originally titled Herb Your Enthusiasm). We've been treated to It's Way Past Our Bread-Time. However, we get no such puns for A Weekend Away, the fifteenth and penultimate With Love, Meghan episode. A Weekend Away sounds more like a furlough for Aitch than an enjoyable romp with Her Royal Highness Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Shockingly boring and revelatory of Meghan Markle's monstrous ego, A Weekend Away should have those suffering through this series turn to their nearest mixologist for relief. 

Meghan Saxe-Coburg & Gotha is doing something out of the ordinary for her Sussex Squad. Rather than be the Duchess hostess with the mostess, she is allowing herself a quick getaway with longtime gal pal Heather Dorak. Dorak, Meghan's former Pilates instructor, is coming in from Texas. They have traveled to many places together. Their children and husbands are friends. However, this is strictly a girl's trip. Before leaving her rented Montecito home/studio, Meghan gives us tips on packing (heavy things in the bottom first). She also tells us how she dresses monochromatically "not because I think it's the most stylish thing in the world, (but) because it's really easy". She even shows us a baseball cap that she made for "my husband's" 40th birthday. 

It took a few moments to figure out that "PH40" stood for "Prince Harry 40". It is unfortunate that "PH40" could also stand for a high-powered foam machine or acid reflux medication. Prince Harry somehow continues living out The Blue Angel, with him being Professor Unrath. I'm going to put this "PH40" faux-pas as unintentional. However, the idea that the then-sixth in line to the British throne was walking around with an acid reflux medication advertised on his head leaves me shaking my head.  

Somehow, I find this gift a perfectly impersonal one. It's something that one might expect to find at a Windsor gift shop discount bin. I am also slightly puzzled why His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Sussex would be given a baseball cap given that he is British. That Meghan gave this to all of Aitch's friends that attended his 40th birthday party makes it all the more, shall we say, curious. Yet, I digress.

Now driving to Malibu, Meghan meets up with Heather. First stop is the Malibu Potteries for crafting. Malibu Potteries owner Rivers Redclay guides our girlfriends to making mugs and plates. 

As a side note, "Rivers Redclay" is either the best name possible for a pottery maker/owner or the wildest nom de plume for a potter in all human history. 

Megs gives us My Guide to Shower Soothers, which will be great for baths. We then hit the bars to learn how to mix drinks under the tutelage of Payman Bahmani-Bailey. He teaches Meghan and Heather how to make a 50/50 martini and a Hedy Lamarrgarita, named after Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr. Bahmani-Bailey, a former lawyer-turned-mixologist, is impressed that Markle knows who Hedy Lamarr is. He is not impressed with Suits, but more on that later.

With the mixing done, the girls head back to their resort. Here, Meghan gifts Heather the thumbprint cookies that she made for her and her family out of love. In a post-credit section, we see the results of their pottery-making sent to Meghan. It looks like Heather's mug has a little crack underneath. No worries, it will make for a perfect candleholder. 

I am old enough to remember the catchphrase "Calgon, take me away". That, I imagine, is what a weekend getaway should be: a time for rest, relaxation, possibly reflection. None of that, however, is what Her Royal Highness Meghan, Duchess of Sussex plans for A Weekend Away. Instead, it is more and more activity. I know of people who seem to constantly need to have something to do. They cannot function without some kind of work, even on a short trip. 

Mrs. Saxe-Coburg & Gotha seems to be that type. Granted, there may be people who think that a weekend excursion means learning how to mix drinks and make pots. I am not that type of person. I am also not the type of person who would agree to partake in such matters. My trips are to explore new places, not learn how to mix drinks.

Heather Dorak is unique among the many With Love, Meghan guests. She is not famous. She has no television program or major business to speak of. She is as close to a regular person as will be featured on the show. That, however, means that Dorak does not get any kind of shout-out. If one looks at the IMDB for A Weekend Away, you see only one person listed as "top cast": Meghan Markle. To be fair, Dorak is listed in the A Sweet and Savory Adventure IMDB entry, but that one seems to have everyone who appeared on Season Two/One Part Two. 

A Weekend Away is perhaps the dullest and most pointless With Love, Meghan episode that one is likely to see. She packs, advising us that "a little preparedness goes a long way". She makes thumbprint cookies. She plays with clay with someone that she travels often with. She makes cocktails. That pretty much sums up A Weekend Away. At about 29 minutes this is I think the shortest With Love, Meghan episode of this second set. Part of me sees how that happened. How long can one stay mixing drinks and mixing clay? 

A Weekend Getaway is dull and pointless. However, it has one of the best With Love, Meghan moments in the form of Payman Bahmani-Bailey. The exchange between Bahmani-Bailey and Markle will go down in history as the ultimate in ego-deflating. 

Meghan attempts to curry favor with our mixologist by asking him, "How did you get into mixology?". I concede that such a question is perfectly logical. "That's a very good question", Bahmani-Bailey begins. "So, I was a lawyer in New York, and..." before he can continue telling us his journey, Meghan Markle has to immediately jump in to make it about herself.

"Did you watch Suits?", she asks enthusiastically. Bahmani-Bailey, perhaps a bit puzzled and/or peeved at the sudden interruption, cuts this off gently. 

"No, no. I don't watch basic cable", he tells Her Royal Highness. "I like shows with curse words and stuff", he tells Markle as she responds to his smackdown by laughing hysterically. 

This exchange may have set Markle to fits of laughter. My sense is that she was going for praise only to see it blow up spectacularly in her face. One is flabbergasted at Markle's massive ego. It brings to mind that old joke "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV". Would it have been so terrible to let Bahmani-Bailey finish his own story before even asking such a self-centered question? Just because Bahmani-Bailey was once a lawyer does not mean that he would naturally gravitate to legal dramas, let alone specifically to hers. 

It is surprising that Markle, as executive producer of With Love, Meghan, opted to keep this moment in A Weekend Away. At first, I thought that she needed a way to give Bahmani-Bailey's story to us. I then thought that perhaps this was a way to "humanize" Mrs. Sussex, to show that she could laugh at herself. Now, however, I think she was just dumb to show us how someone flat-out did not care who she was prior to her second marriage. 

Payman Bahmani-Bailey came across looking like someone who should have his own show. "I like to say cooking is an art, baking is science and mixology is like alchemy", he tells them after the subject of baking comes up. He is pleasant, efficient and most important, able to clamp down on silliness. He reminds me of Ramon Velazquez, who also managed to put Meghan Sussex in her place. I do not think that Bahmani-Bailey, like Velazquez, had any negative or harsh intentions in mind. Both of them just wanted to work and show off their passions. They did not want to be sideshows to others.

Unlike Velazquez, however, Bahmani-Bailey at least gave Markle a touch of gushing praise. When he brought up Hedy Lamarr, Markle notes that she was "probably one of the foremost people in terms of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). She was brilliant". Lamarr was more than just a beautiful woman (though she was most certainly that). "It's good because most don't know what I'm talking about, but you know what it is," Bahmani-Bailey tells her before they dive into the Hedy Lamarrgarita. 

This exchange is the only good thing in A Weekend Away. We don't learn much if anything about Heather Dorak. She started out as Markle's Pilates instructor. Why did Markle not opt to let her show us some Pilates? Why opt for pottery making? We really did not hear much from Dorak, except to gush over Markle. Rivers Redclay was pleasant, but she stayed mostly in the background. It was nice to see Payman Bahmani-Bailey mix drinks, I suppose. For full disclosure, I do not drink, so that segment held no interest for me.

I do travel, but I think I pack rather well.

A Weekend Away was nothing. It was not interesting. It was not informative. It was just there. A Weekend Away is not good enough even for basic cable. 

1/10

Next Episode: A High Tide Rises All Boats