If Netflix’s newest lifestyle offering, With Love, Meghan, proves anything, it’s that Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, is right where she belongs.
For fans of founding food media mothers Ina, Nigella, Martha, and company, the setup of With Love will feel warmly familiar. True, Meghan doesn’t have these same culinary background as the leading domestic goddesses, but her goal isn’t to impress the audience with her cooking prowess. Instead, the show focuses on the way she uses meals as an opportunity to connect. Its most revealing moments are the ones that highlight the importance of her community—something the duchess has clearly leaned on in the years since moving back to California and starting her family. With its glimpses into Meghan's daily life and its many guest stars (including friends, local chefs, and even fellow celebrity moms), With Love offers the most detailed peek into the Sussexes's life at home since Harry & Meghan, the 2022 Netflix documentary that narrated the couple’s courtship, marriage, and eventual disruption of the royal status quo.
As a passionate home cook who has consumed a lot of food media over the years, I found that With Love strikes a fine balance between friendly lifestyle voyeurism (in the form of both gorgeous Montecito views and glimpses into the duchess’s personality) and true service content. All the recipes look beautiful, but they still feel accessible for the regular person at home—and now all I can think about is attempting to make my first salt-baked whole branzino or a fluffy honey lemon naked layered cake later this spring.
Of course, domesticity isn’t just a role or a hobby these days; it can also mean big business (just ask Nara Smith). Coinciding with the premiere of With Love, the duchess is set to release her long-awaited line of home goods, As Ever. The recently-renamed brand will include, yes, the ever-elusive, if-you-know-you-know jams that fans have been dying to try—and which happen to appear many times throughout With Love.
Ahead, here are my biggest takeaways from all eight episodes of With Love, Meghan. All episodes are available to stream on Netflix now.
Comfort in the Kitchen
It's clear from watching With Love that the duchess has an eye for tiny details (think burlap bows, calligraphy-enhanced signage, and freshly-picked flowers for every occasion), but that doesn’t mean the meals she’s making aren’t approachable. A number of the dishes featured in the series are cooking-at-home mainstays that arguably anyone could attempt, like lush yogurt parfaits with peach preserves, garden pasta full of green vegetables, and an heirloom tomato quiche with basil. And the more complex feasts—like Korean fried chicken with homemade kimchi and pickled daikon, or a Peruvian style ceviche and chicken tinga taco station—are still made with tradition in mind. Every featured meal has a tie to either Meghan’s life or the lives of her friends and featured guests, driving home the fact that the series is really about the simplest pleasures more than over-the-top entertaining.
California Style
This may be a show about embracing one’s love of food, family, and friends, but we’d be remiss to not talk about the fashion. In the five years since she and Prince Harry said goodbye to their traditional royal duties, Duchess Meghan has slowly eased back into her signature West Coast-inspired style. She admits in the series (while making ladybird caprese tea sandwiches with Mindy Kaling) that she loves a “high low mix,” often pairing low-key Zara finds with more luxurious, quality pieces like Loro Piana knitwear or Emilia Wickstead dresses. We also see her wearing items from J.Crew, Ulla Johnson, Posse, and Anine Bing—check out the full breakdown here.
The Importance of Community
While the duchess could have used her show as an opportunity to flex those in her famous circle, she instead enlisted help from her longtime circle of confidantes like her makeup artist Daniel Martin, Tatcha founder Vicky Tsai, and fellow Suits star Abigail Spencer. A number of the show's guests are people who knew the duchess “before, during, and after”—in other words, they’ve seen everything Meghan has experienced over the whirlwind last few years. They know the core values she holds dear, and have remained by her side amid the ups and downs of pre and post-royal life. That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for new friends, however; actress and screenwriter Mindy Kaling makes a hilarious cameo for a mothers-only tea party that provides a peek into Meghan’s new chapter in Montecito.
Meghan’s Return to Self
With Love is meant to celebrate the duchess’s new chapter back home in California, but it really feels as if she’s getting back to her roots at The Tig. Longtime fans have been begging for Meghan’s return to her role as a lifestyle aficionado for years now, and, indeed, she spent much of the Netflix series reflecting on her time curating the lifestyle blog. Thoughtful, intentional content is truly where the duchess has always thrived (think of the Together cookbook!), and now it seems that her inner California girl—the one who was put away for so long due to the duty of it all—is finally coming back to life. Curated crostinis and freshly-squeezed mimosas aside, one can’t help but notice that Meghan seems so happy—to be a mother, to feel safe at home, and to have creative freedom once again.