The time has come to journey to Montecito. After much anticipation, speculation and fleeting sneak peeks, Meghan Markle‘s With Love, Meghan, drops on Netflix on Tuesday, March 4, at 3 a.m. ET — but before that, Us Weekly nabbed and watched advance screeners of all eight episodes. Here’s everything we learned from binging the Duchess of Sussex’s new lifestyle show.
What’s the vibe and format of the show?
Each episode features the Duchess, 43, on a simulation of the sumptuous Montecito, California, estate she shares with Prince Harry and their children Archie and Lilibet, where she demonstrates her tips on cooking, baking, crafting, hosting and more as she receives visits from friends (new, old, famous, not-so-famous).
Looking stunning, expensive and often barefoot in casual, California-chic outfits (lots of neutral tones, denim and one Northwestern University sweatshirt), Meghan chats with her guests, her director and the camera as she works on projects in the kitchen, the garden, a chicken coop and other spaces — musing about things like the joy of hosting, her love of the outdoors, working with and making things with her hands, imperfection, healing, motherhood and, yes, life with Harry and her kids.
“The joy of hosting for me is surprising people with moments that lets them know I was really thinking of their whole experience from morning to evening,” she says.
Meghan Markle Courtesy of Netflix
Somewhat reminiscent of Ina Garten‘s The Barefoot Contessa or Nigella Lawson‘s Nigella Cooks, the camerawork is intimate and gauzy and, when outside, dappled with sunlight, offering many glimpses of the jaw-dropping scenery: the mountains, ocean views and lush greenery of the Santa Barbara region. (We’d very much like to live in Montecito!)
The soundtrack befits what Meghan describes on the show as her go-to playlists: “I listen to a lot of ’70s soft rock, a lot of yacht rock, a lot of soul and also French dinner music.”
Who are Meghan Markle’s guests?
Meghan Markle and Mindy Kaling Courtesy of Netflix
The Duchess’ visitors to her show home include her former Suits makeup artist-turned-friend Daniel Martin, Hollywood star Mindy Kaling, LA-based celebrity chef Roy Choi, Deflina Blaquier (Argentinian wife of Nacho Figuera, Harry’s polo-playing best friend), former Suits costar/close friend Abigail Spencer and philanthropist Kelly Zaijfen, local chef Ramon Valezquez, Tacha skincare cofounder Vicky Tsai, designer Tracy Robbins, philanthropist Victoria Jackson and legendary farm-to-table chef Alice Waters.
What kind of food does Meghan make on the show?
Over eight episodes, using much of the fresh produce from her gardens, the Duchess prepares elaborate, artful platters of crudité (three in total) and fruit rainbows, pasta (single-skillet spaghetti, rigatoni with greens), salt-baked branzino, Korean fried chicken, chicken tinga tacos, a last-minute frittata (for Kaling), quiche, tea sandwiches for kids and whimsical crostini (one that looks like a ladybug), plus homemade coffee creamer, sun tea, blooming tea, bellinis, mimosas and mason-jar cocktails.
“I love feeding people,” she says. “It’s my love language. The only thing better than eating food is making food for someone and watching them eat it with delight.”
What other projects and crafts does Meghan get into?
Alice Waters and Meghan Markle Courtesy of Netflix
In a full beekeeper’s suit, Meghan harvests honey from her personal apiary, and later melts the beeswax to make candles. Of working in close proximity to the bees, she says, “It’s beautiful to be this connected … we’re going to have a lot of honey, honey.” Later, she admits, “You know what’s ironic? I never liked honey … and now because of this process I just appreciate it so much.”
For makeup artist/friend Martin’s sleepover, she makes a welcome tray with homemade bath salts, truffle popcorn (from a dried corn cob), Trader Joe’s peanut butter pretzels and a bedside bouquet. For Kaling’s visit, Meghan throws a “mock-up tea party” that they could stage for their kids, complete with DIY balloon arch and a goodie bag featuring mini gardening tools, seeds, compostable pots and manuka honey sticks. (“Anything with whimsy is great for all kids,” she says.) For a gal pal lunch, she visits a local flower market and makes a photoshoot-ready bouquet; on another episode, she deconstructs a grocery-store bouquet with carnations to make it look “stunning and high-end.”
A big lover of handwritten notes and labels on all her food products and gifts for friends, Meghan writes out the menu for a brunch party. “Anything I can do with handwriting adds a personal touch,” says Meghan, who got an A-minus in penmanship class. (Looks pretty good to Us.)
Do Prince Harry and kids Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet appear in the show?
Harry, 40, is heard off camera in two flashback videos shared while Meghan reminisces about the past, and appears briefly in the final episode, when Meghan throws a celebration brunch to mark the launch of her business (her lifestyle brand, now called As Ever). “Well done! You did a great job. I love it,” the Duke of Sussex tells her, giving her kisses and hugs during the party. Archie, 5, and Lilibet, 3, never appear on camera but are mentioned in passing throughout the show. (A snapshot of Archie at his first birthday party is seen in a flashback.)
Does the show feature Meghan’s famous preserves or future products from her lifestyle brand As Ever?
Made from fresh berries in her garden — strawberry, raspberry and other flavors — the jam that Meghan sent to 50 celeb friends last year comes up often as a condiment for yogurt and ice cream parfaits, a cocktail ingredient, breakfast condiment and cake topper. Kaling, among the celebs to receive the jam, called it “one of the most glamorous moments of my life” when she was gifted a jar of Meghan’s product — but grilled the Duchess about her methodology behind the numbers affixed to each jam.
“As a very hierarchical person, I was like, ‘Who are these people? Does having a lower number make me more special?’”
“It was not a ranking!” Meghan replies, adding that her mom Doria Ragland was one of the recipients. “It was just ‘let me share them’ and then people started to take it very personally.”
While no other As Ever products have been announced yet, Us wonders whether the Duchess might offer honey, chili oil, essential oils, candles or cake mix, based on some of the items made onscreen.
What does Meghan reveal about Harry, the kids and her life now?
While their onscreen appearances are rare or even non-existent, Meghan references her close knit family of four often. Here are just a few of her quotes about her husband and two children:
- “When I’m cooking bacon, my kitchen very immediately becomes full of [my] husband and three dogs … My bacon brings all the boys to the yard.”
- “I have a family, a husband who no matter what meal is put in front of him, before he tastes it, always puts salt on. So I try to undersalt.”
- “We have a lot of arnica in my house. Toddler life! Lots of bumps and bruises.”
- Calling Harry “H,” she says, “H is a great cook. Really good breakfast!”
- “When you’ve had kids, you’re used to balancing things on your hip.”
- “Lili made a song” about cleaning, she reveals: “Clean as you go! Clean, clean clean!”
- Meghan recalls a recent “family vacation” where Archie caught two fish (trout) and they prepared a meal with his catch. The kids “loved it — it was very sweet.”
- “Lili got a doll that was — I don’t remember who gave it to her. She has a little baguette, she has a little cheese, and she’s called Stella Al Fresco!”
- As seen in one segment, the family’s chicken coop is called “Archie’s Chick Inn,” and Meghan gifts one friend a branded carton of eggs.
- Meghan says her relationship to cooking has “changed since I had the kids.”
- “It’s so much a part of what I want them to learn and to have these great formative memories of being with me, like ‘Oh, Mama used to make this!’” she explained.
What does Meghan reveal about her past before Prince Harry and before she was famous?
Roy Choi and Meghan Markle Courtesy of Netflix
“I was a latchkey kid, so I grew up with a lot of fast food and TV tray meals [watching] Jeopardy,” she tells Kaling.
As she reveals on one episode, her first job, at age 13, was at an ice cream shop called Humphrey Yogart.
Going on a hike in the mountains with Argentinian pal Blaquier, she reveals she lived in Argentina for several months while “interning at the U.S. Embassy…I loved it!” (She also speaks Argentinian Spanish beautifully.)
Reminiscing with Tsai, she recalls working briefly as a cocktail waitress “at a bar in Chicago” during her college years at Northwestern. After she misunderstood one customer’s order for a Ketel One martini, her bosses made her “go back to being a coat check girl,” she says.
“I used to teach gift wrapping class when I was an auditioning actor,” she says while wrapping a gift for Waters.
Of her earliest days on Suits, makeup artist Martin recalls to Meghan, “I was told by my agent that you reached out to them directly, that you didn’t have representation [an agent],” adding that she was working on her lifestyle blog Tig when not filming the show, which premiered in 2011. “We were both creating and figuring it out,” she replies.
Spencer says she was “head of morale” for the cast and crew of Suits. “I liked to plan fun for everyone,” Meghan concurs.
Hours after The Hollywood Reporter published a piece alleging Meghan Markle’s “terrible” behavior is the cause of the high turnover rate at the company she runs with her husband, Prince Harry, a current employee posted a note on Instagram passionately debunking the report. The September 12 article, which claimed that those who work for Meghan […]
What are some other memorable moments?
Meghan loves a pun (“He puts stock in this stock!”) and speaking to food items: to a cake going in the oven, she says “goodnight, sweetheart!” and “see ya later, ladies” to fruit about to be dehydrated.
On mom guilt, Meghan says: “Just because you can’t do everything doesn’t mean you don’t want to do some things. ‘Some things’ is where a lot of that love can come in. You’re not losing extra credit — you’re not losing the gold star by not making the dumpling wrapper!”
When Kaling calls her “Meghan Markle,” Meghan corrects her. “It’s so funny, you keep saying ‘Markle’ … you know it’s Sussex now. You have kids and you go, ‘I share my name with my children.’ I didn’t know how meaningful it would be to me, but it just means to much to go, ‘This is our family name.’ Our little family now.”
Eric Charbonneau/Archewell Foundation via Getty Images Royal fans, rejoice — Meghan Markle is gearing up to release her new lifestyle brand! The Duchess of Sussex, 43, announced on February 17, 2025, that she had changed the name of the brand from American Riviera Orchard to As Ever to reflect the expansive range of products that […]
Does Meghan address past royal family drama?
Meghan does not directly address her difficult time as a working royal, her and Harry’s decision to leave the U.K., revelations made in a CBS interview, Harry’s memoir Spare, their initial Harry and Meghan Netflix special or any speculation made about friction with the rest of the British royal family.
She does, however, vaguely allude to her recent past. She says friend Martin “was in my life for the before, during and after, shall we say” — seemingly referring to her time as a working senior royal.
During a talk with friend Tsai about imperfection and the art of Japanese kintsugi, she seems to gesture at past pain: “If you break something that is precious and valuable, it’s not broken, but that fracture makes it more beautiful. That break makes it more beautiful. It felt really symbolic … for anyone who’s been through something, you’re not broken: it can be fixed, it can be sealed and healed.”
Meghan becomes visibly emotional in a closeup when Tsai adds: “Perfect isn’t beautiful. Things that lived and been dropped and put back together again are more beautiful.”
With Love, Meghan begins streaming on Netflix Tuesday, March 4.
