MasterChef viewers spotted an inconsistency between Meghan Markle’s on-screen remarks about her upbringing and what she previously shared on her own Netflix programme.
On the Australian cooking competition, the Duchess of Sussex described her childhood as involving fresh Californian produce and home cooking.
However, a year earlier, she had offered a different account on her Netflix series With Love, Meghan, one involving fast food chains, microwave dinners and eating alone as a child.
During her appearance on the programme, which aired in Australia on Sunday, the 44-year-old told fellow judges and contestants: “I grew up in California and so, as you know, we have incredible produce, so you just start to love farm-to-table at an early age.”
MasterChef viewers spotted an inconsistency between Meghan Markle’s on-screen remarks about her upbringing and what she previously shared on her own Netflix programme
|
GETTY
She went on to heap praise on her mother, Doria Ragland, describing her as “an incredible cook” and noting that she had spent her youth “watching so many cooking shows.”
The duchess also spoke warmly about food as an expression of affection, telling those in the MasterChef kitchen that “food and cooking are how I show my nurturing and love for my friends, family and my kids.”
She encouraged contestants to draw on nostalgic, sentimental memories when preparing their dishes.
Those remarks struck a markedly different tone from what the duchess had said on her Netflix series, With Love, Meghan, the previous year.
Meghan Markle is the only daughter of Doria Ragland
|
GETTY
“I was a latchkey kid,” she disclosed on that programme. “I grew up with a lot of fast food and also a lot of TV-tray dinners.”
She described microwaveable children’s meals as entirely “normal” for the era in which she was raised.
The former actress also reeled off a list of American fast food chains she had frequented as a youngster: “I used to eat a lot of Pollo Loco, Taco Bell… Jack In The Box, because my mom loved their tacos.”
Ms Ragland, whom she now characterised as “an incredible cook”, was seemingly equally fond of drive-through dining.
Meghan Markle starred in two series of her lifestyle show on Netflix
|
NETFLIXDuring the show, she insisted on being addressed as “Meghan” rather than by her title when judge Poh Ling Yeow asked whether to call her “duchess.”
Contestants were tasked with creating a “dish fit for a duchess” using ingredients she had personally selected, including Australian honey, macadamia nuts, citrus and celeriac.
Prince Harry made a surprise appearance via FaceTime during the judging, quipping “G’Day!” before asking to see the contestants’ creations.
The duchess also mentioned that her children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, happily eat Brussels sprouts, and revealed that when they request dessert at their Montecito home, she tells them: “If you can pick it, you can have it.”

