Many “celebrity chefs” film their cooking shows in their own homes. Martha Stewart and Julia Child were the pioneers of home-cooking shows, and people like Giada De Laurentiis and Ina Garten film inside their homes still (Ina’s Hamptons kitchen is a dream). I really, really wanted to see the Duchess of Sussex’s Montecito kitchen, but alas, we will not get to see it on her new Netflix cooking/entertaining show. They’ve got a stunt kitchen or something, at least according to Richard Eden at the Daily Mail:
The Duchess of Sussex is due to start filming her first solo series for Netflix on Tuesday, but viewers hoping that it will give them a glimpse into Meghan’s enviable lifestyle are going to be left sorely disappointed. For I can disclose that the programme will not be filmed at the home she shares with Prince Harry.
Instead, the series – which will, according to the American streaming giant, ‘celebrate the joys of cooking and gardening, entertaining and friendship’ – is to be shot at another property in their expensive California neighbourhood.
‘Netflix has rented a house in Montecito for filming,’ a source tells me. The news may surprise fans of the couple, as they have already given many peeps inside their home in Montecito, California. Their 2022 Netflix ‘docu-drama’ Harry and Meghan showed the couple at home, where Harry was seen receiving what he said was a text message from his brother, Prince William, that left him visibly shocked.
A spokesman for Meghan declines to comment on why she has chosen to film her new series at a different property. It’s surely unlikely to be due to a lack of space. Their ‘Spanish Revival-style’, £11million mansion boasts, by some accounts, nine bedrooms and 19 bathrooms. It also has a gym, bar, five-car garage and other amenities.
The series, which will tie in with Meghan’s new lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard, is one of two new television projects she and Harry are making for Netflix. Their multi-million-dollar deal with the company is up for renewal next year.
I know Eden is trying to be salacious, but he inadvertently reminds everyone that the Sussexes have a great life in Montecito – they live in a big, beautiful home with eleventy billion bathrooms, they have the backing of Netflix to rent out another home in Montecito just to film Meghan’s cooking show, and this is all just an advertisement for Meghan’s series. I wonder if the rental house will be used exclusively or whether there will be some glimpses inside Casa de Sussex, especially the exteriors. If Meghan is talking about gardening and this is all tied in with her American Riviera Orchard line, it would be “synergy” to actually show the Sussex gardens.
Photos courtesy of Archewell, Netflix.