There are fewer revelations about life Chez Sussex in With Love, Meghan than fans would have hoped. In many ways, the Duchess shared more with People magazine in an interview published pre-Netflix release than she does in the show. It’s clear, though, that Meghan sees herself as entering into a new chapter, career wise—launching not just With Love and As Ever but also a Lemonada Media podcast this spring—and that caring for her house and family is utterly central to both her life and business propositions. Below, seven key takeaways from With Love, Meghan.
The word “homemaker” doesn’t quite cover it
“I wake up every morning, and I really take a lot of pride in making breakfast for my family,” she tells the camera while prepping a frittata in episode two. Said breakfast often includes bacon (“my bacon brings all the boys to the yard”). When Archie and Lili return in the afternoon, meanwhile, she’s usually making jam from the abundant blackberries in her Montecito garden (“My kids will now connect coming home from school and smelling sweetness that wafts through the house when you are slow-cooking fruit. ‘Here she is! Mom’s making preserves again!’”). It’s her desire to preserve the sanctity of her home that led her to shoot With Love, Meghan at a rented Santa Barbara property rather than her own Montecito estate. “I wanted to protect that haven,” she told People. “We’re a close-knit family, and I love those moments—putting Lili down for a nap, having lunch together, having sacred time together at the end of the day. Our kitchen is where Mama just cooks for the family.” Her signature “Mama Meal” is a roast chicken, the same dish she was preparing when Prince Harry proposed back in 2017.
She’s a neat freak
“I’m not messy in the kitchen,” she tells Korean-American chef Roy Choi. “I always clean as we go.” She even admits to tidying up hotel rooms before checking out—making the bed, putting towels in the bath. “It becomes embarrassing,” she says of leaving a mess behind. “I think, even if you don’t know the people, even if they don’t know who you are, I would, in my head, picture my mom or even my grandma going, ‘Where is your home training?’”
If she had to define her style in one phrase, it would be “high-low”
Meghan, apparently, doesn’t know what “lewk” means (“My who?” she responds to Mindy Kaling when she asks her about her outfit), but the Duchess says that her style is “high-low”, pointing out that she’s wearing Zara trousers with a Loro Piana top.
Day drinking is a go in the Sussex household
“I like just a wink of fruit flavour in my bubbles, a wink or a whisper,” she tells Kaling at one point, pouring out coupes of Taittinger and presenting a selection of juices and nectars to add to the champagne. “I think this is the earliest that I’ve had alcohol in a long time,” Mindy protests, to which Meghan replies: “Oh, welcome to Montecito.” Alice Waters, when she comes to visit in the final episode, gets a glass of rosé, too. The Duchess’s go-to cocktail in the evening, however, is a skinny margarita, with “lower sugar” and “a little bit of kick to it.” She likes everything spicy, in fact: “I love the heat.”
She’s a Sussex, not a Markle
“It’s so funny that you keep saying Meghan Markle,” she tells Kaling at one point. “You know I’m Sussex now? You have kids and you go, ‘No, I share my name with my children.’ And that feels so… I didn’t know how meaningful it would be, but it just means so much to go, ‘This is our family name, our little family name.’”
The woman is a crudité apologist
During a portion of the series set to Freak Nasty’s “Da’ Dip”, she explains to Choi, a crudité doubter, that she “eats a crudité platter every single day”. By this point in the series, it’s also apparent that Meghan has never met a “color story” she didn’t like. Take the platter of vegetables she arranges in the episode titled “Surprise and Delight”: “Some greens, Persian cucumber, rainbow carrots, when you cut into them you get beautiful colours. Purple cauliflower… I’m starting to create gradients of colour. So we have all of our greens in the same world. They’re getting into different colours on this side. When things are presented in a nice way, I find people smile and they feel happy. It’s not that deep but it is thoughtful.” And then, just to reiterate: “We have a veggie platter every day in our house.”
