One of my “favorite” things about the Duchess of Sussex is that her haters watch her and act like everything she does and says is the most shocking and ridiculous thing. Meghan appeared on MasterChef Australia as a guest-judge, and Meghan’s “critics” are behaving as if no cooking show has ever had a celebrity guest judge before, and no guest judge has ever chatted about their own life and their own relationship with food and cooking. It’s only Meghan who does this, obviously, and therefore she deserves to be mocked and pilloried. They’ll keep bitching and moaning about Meghan and MasterChef until one of the left-behinds appears on a cooking show, then it will suddenly be the most normal and aspirational thing in the world. From the Times’ “review” of this particular MasterChef Australia episode.
This is, you would be forgiven for thinking, the most exciting day of the MasterChef Australia team’s lives. They are about to welcome a guest “beyond (the contestants’) wildest imaginations”. The set is decked out in flowers and red velvet, and we are told to expect a judge who is “a global icon, a philanthropist, a humanitarian, a woman known around the world of her heart, her voice and her deep love for home cooking”. And so of course, clad in black silk and walking down the red carpet to flashing lights and great whoops from assembled wellwishers, here comes the Duchess of Sussex.
MasterChef Australia is a far bigger, brasher affair than its British counterpart. This is a show in which a crowd cheer and pump their fists from a balcony when a chef successfully cooks his steak medium rare. Such things are a hard watch for a buttoned-up Brit, but are — one suspects — far more appealing to our super-saccharine, ever-so-sincere Californian duchess.
As always, we are a good quarter of an hour into the 90-minute (90 minutes!) show before anybody so much as picks up a spoon. During this extensive preamble, we are treated to a slightly excruciating stand up interview with… well, “Do I call you Duchess?” asks one extremely excitable host. “Oh, call me Meghan,” our hero trills.
The duchess’s husband, we are told, “being from the UK, loves a lot of meat, potatoes, cream sauces”. But like his wife, he does not shy from spice: “He can handle a really good curry.” She feels very blessed to have a large garden and lots of produce on hand. When her children ask, “Mama, can I have dessert?”, she replies, “If you can pick it, you can have it.” Much of this we learn, along with the fact that Meghan likes a mixture of savoury and sweet food, and is amused by the quirky fact that she says the word “basel” instead of “basil” — Americans! What are they like! — after she is asked what her favourite dish is to cook at home. We do not, in fact, learn what her favourite dish is to cook at home.
All that is left, following extensive gushing, is for Meghan to set a task for the four blushing contestants (“It’s like speaking to your first crush,” one says). With the pull of a rope, a red velvet rope descends and reveals a table laid with a variety of “hero” items: lemon, honey, strawberries, celeriac and apples, among others. Meghan’s hope is that the contestants will pick an ingredient which “almost feels like an heirloom” and base a dish around it. Perhaps the ingredient should be related to “something from your family” or a memory: “Something we can also taste in your dish.”
For two of the four contestants, this ingredient turns out to be celeriac. We get celeriac ice cream, and celeriac and steak. One other guy is up to something with carrots. After much celeriac-based faffing, Meghan is asked to declare to the contestants that they have 30 minutes remaining. She refuses to shout this out to the whole room, and instead heads to the workstation of each contestant to tell them individually. “She looks through your soul a little bit when you’re talking to her” is the contestant Casper’s response to this interaction. He is making octopus with Jerusalem artichoke puree. When Meghan likes it, he looks as if she has just proposed marriage.
We are now getting into the judging in earnest. “I mentioned my husband was a real meat and potatoes guy. This feels like the most elegant elevated version of that. H would love this dish,” Meghan informs Mr Celeriac and Steak. Is there a chef alive who has not dreamed of hearing that Harry Windsor would like his steak? Carrot man is up next, but who is this? A producer scuttles on screen: “Sorry to interrupt. We’ve had a phone call to the studio.” And up pops the ginger mug of the man himself on a video call: “Whats going on? Have I interrupted something?”
“It’s amazing. They are so talented. We wish you were here” the duchess trills. “He’s in Canberra now. With the veterans,” she adds, for our benefit.
Basically, the Times and other British outlets are super-pissed that the Australian contestants and MasterChef team enjoyed spending time with Meghan. That’s it. That the chefs were in a tizzy because they got to cook for Meghan, and that Meghan was chatty, personable and well-received. That’s what is deserving of all of this mockery. In case you’re like me and wondered what the hell “celeriac” is… it’s celery root. That’s what we call it in America. Anyway, on any given day, you can tell how successful Harry and Meghan are by how outraged the British press is about nothing in particular. This is the equivalent of throwing a national tantrum over Ina Garden’s hash potato recipe. (All that being said, those Aussie chefs were SO STRESSED about cooking for Meghan. It was funny as hell.)
You can see more clips from MasterChef Australia on their Instagram.
BTS of Meghan on MasterChef Australia.
A stunning entrance to cheers and applause! ✨#MeghanonMasterChef pic.twitter.com/I3Z5Cd2UqD
— ChrisBaronSmith (@ChrisBaronSmit1) July 26, 2026
More royal surprise? 🔥
MasterChef Australia- Meghan, Duchess of Sussex has filled the MasterChef Kitchen with a beautiful spread of ingredients…. Plus, a royal surprise from Prince Harry that you won't want to miss…”
Find out tonight at 7pm Australia time on Channel 10 AU. pic.twitter.com/I0cXLvzk2N
— ChrisBaronSmith (@ChrisBaronSmit1) July 25, 2026
Prince Harry surprising Meghan live on the set of MasterChef Australia is iconic! 🇦🇺🥘📲
“Hi my love!” Her showing him around the set, introducing the judges, and teasing him over the spicy sambal is too sweet. The contestants couldn’t believe their eyes! #masterchef pic.twitter.com/dLGykwJ6ub
— Rebecca 🤎 (@rebecca_sussex) July 26, 2026
Photos courtesy of 10 News Sydney, MasterChef Australia and Instagram.
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- The Duchess of Sussex, alongside staff members, serves lunch to a resident during a visit to McAuley Community Services for Women, a women’s homeless and family violence shelter in Footscray, in Melbourne, Victoria, on day one of the royal trip to Australia. Featuring: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex Where: Footscray, Australia When: 14 Apr 2026 Credit: Jonathan Brady/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Duchess of Sussex serves lunch to a resident during a visit to McAuley Community Services for Women, a women’s homeless and family violence shelter in Footscray, in Melbourne, Victoria, on day one of the royal trip to Australia. Featuring: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex Where: Footscray, Australia When: 14 Apr 2026 Credit: Jonathan Brady/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Duchess of Sussex during a visit to Batyr, a mental health engagement programme, at Swinburne University of Technology in Hawthorn, Melbourne, Victoria, on day three of the royal trip to Australia Featuring: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex Where: Melbourne, Australia When: 16 Apr 2026 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
One of the #SussexSquad✨️💖✨️ on Bluesky sent me a link to watch the episode which I JUST completed…Meghan was LOVELY & knowledgeable✨️💖✨️…along with the rest of the talented BRILLIANT contestants & hosts…I will DEFINITELY be watching the other episodes of the show and I would LOVE to see Meghan do MORE things like this…I TRULY enjoyed it❣️
I suggest we no longer refer to these trolls … either in the British media or on social media as “critics” of MM but rather as trolls or her stalkers. This has gotten to the level of ridiculous but not unexpected.
100% agree. Stalkers more appropriate
They are paid propagandists. Whether it’s through the money individual creators get in the attention economy from spreading rage, or they are getting favours and access direct from the BRF in return.
It’s all hater propaganda based on incentives.
Truth!! 🎯 If you don’t hate Meghan it’s amazing how lunatic these “critics” sound – the jealousy is epic.
Someone in Australia said this show had more commercials than the other Masterchef’s shows, the channel promoted the heck out of this show.
Harry and Meghan are so funny, “hello my love,” turns the phone to the contestants, “it’s my husband.”
The link is on Reddit to watch the show.
As a regular watcher of the show, it had almost twice the number of ad breaks as normal. The network made bank off the episode which was the second most watched of the season.
It is an absolutely fascinating quirk of human psychology — quirk may be too small a word — how people caught out in a brazen lie, or smear, or just being twats, will double down, play the victim, attempt to turn the tables, and nurse a grievance, rather than just back down and go away. I think it boils down to a need for attention or acknowledgment. They keep waiting for her to acknowledge them, as if it’s a two-way street, and she just ….doesn’t. Which is absolutely correct. You don’t owe anyone violently inciting hatred and loathing of you, for no plausible reason, any acknowledgement. My god.
Well that was written with an especially snarky mean girl tone. You would think the Times is written for middle school bullies.
I can’t believe they did a one episode review of Masterchef Australia. The obsession with Meghan is off the charts. I have no doubt when Kate or William end up on a competitive tv show the British press will be gushing about it.
If Kate went on a cooking show, it would be so heavily edited there wouldn’t much for the press to feed on. Her public appearances generate lots of “post-cancer” sympathy, but other than her clothes and “sensitivity and understanding” of whatever cause she’s supporting, Kate is rarely seen actually doing anything.
“Such things are a hard watch for a buttoned-up Brit,” why do they always frame things as if anything created or produced on the planet needs to be done exclusively to appeal to the ” British” palate?
In any case, sounds like it was a great show. The contestants were happy with the guest judge and suitably thrilled to cook for them. The guest judge got along well with the hosts and crew, and they were personable and they made for good television. That somehow being a bad thing is weird, but if anyone can make that happen it would be the British media.
Again, this is them being angry that they can’t control the narrative. It’s getting harder and harder to convince the casual observer that she’s this horrible monster, who just manages to charm every person that she meets directly and who doesn’t seem objectionable unless you’re nitpicking. And now in addition to it impacting their hate industry, it makes their long held demonization of her same even more ridiculous.
Indeed, @Dee(2), agreed, and — for a point of pure logic — how “buttoned-up” can these self-promoting Brits be, if they’re literally having a nervous breakdown about Meghan and Harry, nearly seven years after they left the country, and the trigger is — GASP — a cooking show!!!!! It would be funny if it weren’t so delusional.
I was recently subjected to a rant by a British friend of a friend, who nearly derailed a perfectly lovely brunch with a lecture about how the problem with Americans is that we take ourselves too seriously, whereas Brits can laugh at themselves. I was so tempted to whip out my phone and pull up one or two or twenty articles in which the British author is melting down over a woman tending to her garden, loving her husband and kids, and selling candles and jam.
@Dee – coming to say something very similar – Why the British media think that everything has to be viewed through their lens is beyond me. As well, the colonialist patronizing racism evident from articles like this, this time directed not only at Meghan, but also at Australia, is not the flex they think it is.
It’s xenophobia dished out for a xenophobic British audience.
Only seen snippets of the show but what I have seen is absolutely lovely. Will watch more once posted
Ad an Australian, she was obviously loved here, and on masterchef. These morons are bizarre. They tried to make Po angry ffs. Po isn’t angry with anything.
They’re so upset at how it went, they’re perpetrating lies. Btw Materchef posted loads of very fun vids. Good on them.
Got my hands on a link for us non-Aussies to watch and it was lovely. Those chefs were crushing so hard. One of the judges teased Meghan because she had no poker face when she tasted one of the chef’s food while it was still in progress at his station. She was supposed to stay stone faced for drama and to make him squirm, but she let it slip that his puree was delicious, it was funny. Her presence really amped up their stress! Loved it! At some point when you say someone is awful and your reasons amount to “something, something smiles too much. Something, something who does she think she is…” you’re losing. Enjoy your salty tears, The Times.
Didn’t Kate cook with Mary Berry? Or feature with Mary Berry I can’t remember. Anyway guest judges are par for the course.
And Kate’s pigeon flinch was on that Mary Berry appearance!!
LOL Why don’t you insult Australia and California, too, while you’re at it. “Trills“? Chef’s kiss! 😂
I just happen to actually be in Australia right now. The person we’re visiting is a foodie nerd like me and a MasterChef fan, so we watched it together. He’s never really cared about the RF in general or Meghan in particular, aside from being vaguely aware that tabloids constantly talk shit about her. Afterwards, his reaction was basically, “well, she’s kinda corny, but it’s sweet. Why do people hate this woman so much?” Every time Meghan makes an appearance like this, people who normally don’t pay much attention see that she’s warm and engaging, if a little bit cheesy (to her fans, that’s part of her charm!), and perfectly harmless. It also probably leads to them realizing that all the attacks against her for, you know, just existing, are utterly unhinged.
That’s the thing, maybe you personally find her a little corny or cheesy but that’s not a crime. There’s nothing objectionable about what she’s saying or doing. Which is why they’re so angry when they appear in public, or interact with people directly and want them to hide out in California and never say anything or go anywhere.
Because this ogre that they keep trying to create doesn’t exist. And the more people that they interact with on a one-on-one level across the world, the harder it is to convince people that she’s managing this psyop for the past decade. Actual people that met her report that she’s nice and welcoming, because she’s nice and welcoming. All these ” sources” saying she’s evil, won’t go on the record for a reason.
She walks with such confidence and grace
The British rota is so anti-fun … they hate enthusiasm of any kind. And Meghan’s earnestness drives them (further) around the bend.
But Kate’s fake enthusiasm, gurning and jazz hands are perfectly OK because, well, racism.
Wow, the Times really went all in, didn’t they?
Insulted the show itself, the judges, the hosts, the contestants, the audience, chefs who cook steak or carrots, Meghan, Harry, California, America, Australia, other aspects of the event I’ve already forgotten, and just to top off the “buttoned-up” nastygram, they insulted celeriac, a perfectly inoffensive vegetable.
And what’s the worst they can come up with to attack Princess Meghan? She’s so dreadful, so terrible, surely she must have done something absolutely awful for them to point at, right? What was it?
Tripped another judge? Made a contestant cry? Demanded everyone on set bow to her? Stomped around in her stilettos and whisper-screamed at cameramen about not getting her best angle? Bought and paid for her appearance for evil Netflix PR purposes? There must be SOMETHING awful that Meghan did, to justify all this frothing and outrage, right?
What’s the absolute worst insult the Times could scrape up, the bottom of the barrel? They’ve decided that in addition to committing the mortal sin of being sincere, our Duchess is SACHARRINE.
So… she’s sweet. Sweet to people she meets, sweet to her husband, sweet about her children and how she guides their nutrition. Oh. My. Golly. HOW DARE SHE??
Meanwhile, after the Times left a very sour taste in my mouth, I watched the clips linked in this article. And sat there with a silly grin on my face, completely charmed by the whole thing, especially Meghan and Pop-Up Prince Harry.
It’s astonishing how the Palaces, the UK press, the “royal” family, all keep so insistently staking out the territory of Bitter, Racist, and Visibly, Hopelessly Crushing On people they’ve iretrievably caused to despise them.
They want the Sussexes back in the worst possible way. They want the shine, the sparkle, the attention, the validation. They want the little Sussex family to arrive at Heathrow and declare themselves all-in for England, ready to take every vicious slap, absorb every cruelty, and beg for more while posing beautifully for the cameras.
“The scars of your love remind me of us
They keep me thinking that we almost had it all
I can’t help feeling
We could have had it all
You had my heart inside of your hand
And you played it, to the beat…”
Was this story really written by someone who had graduated from school?