RICHARD EDEN: Meghan Markle’s cookery show for Netflix ‘won’t be filmed at the Montecito mansion she shares with Prince Harry’ – and filming is due to start tomorrow!
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.
Meghan Markle announced her new business venture, American Riviera Orchard, with a clip which showed the Duchess cooking in a stunning kitchen, with copper pans hanging over her head as she whisked
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. Pictured, their Montecito home
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.
The message followed the Sussexes’ explosive 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey in which, among other accusations, they claimed there had been among the Royal Family ‘concerns and conversations about how dark’ the skin of the child Meghan was expecting at the time – Archie – would be.
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.
The other project will feature professional polo, a sport loved by Harry. Netflix says that one will ‘provide viewers [with] unprecedented access to the world of professional polo’. Both Harry and Meghan will serve as executive producers.
It gushes: ‘Known primarily for its aesthetic and social scene, the series will pull the curtain back on the grit and passion of the sport, capturing players and all it takes to compete at the highest level.’
Harry and Meghan spent the weekend in Florida, filming scenes for the Duke’s new series about polo.
He and Meghan were the main attraction on Friday afternoon as they attended a charity match at the Royal Salute Polo Challenge at the Grand Champions Polo Club.
Meghan, thought to be pictured in her office, has already given many peeps inside her home in Montecito, California
In their Netflix docuseries, Prince Harry was seen in one piece of footage reading to his two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, with the couple’s dogs enjoying the California sunshine at their Montecito home
Their ‘Spanish Revival-style’, £11million mansion (thought to be pictured) boasts, by some accounts, nine bedrooms and 19 bathrooms. It also has a gym, bar, five-car garage and other amenities
The Duchess’ 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. Pictured, what is thought to be the couple’s sitting room
The couple mingled with spectators and smiled for photos before Harry saddled up to take on a team captained by his dashing Argentine professional polo player pal, Nacho Figueras.
The carefully choreographed event raised funds for the Sentebale organisation which the Prince co-founded in 2006 to help children battling HIV in Africa.
It was also a chance to begin filming for Harry’s new series; a camera crew followed the couple’s every move as the Prince scored a goal then stepped up to the podium to receive the trophy – and a tender kiss from Meghan.
They were once again in the world of polo on Saturday as around a dozen crew members arrived at the US National Polo Center to get in position to film a US Open quarterfinal between the Coca-Cola and Valiente teams.
The new show will be produced by Miloš Balać, the Emmy-award winning filmmaker behind the Ryan Reynolds sports documentary Welcome to Wrexham.
Echoing the Duke’s choice of showrunner, the Duchess’ programme is being run by Leah Hariton, who produces Selena Gomez‘s cooking show Selena + Chef, which sees the popstar learn how to cook dishes with professional chefs.
Both programmes are being executive produced by Archewell Productions, the couple’s own creative firm, with titles yet to be announced.
Meghan’s show is being produced by Sony Pictures Television’s The Intellectual Property Corporation, the company behind Hulu’s The D’Amelio Show and A&E’s Leah Remini: Scientology & the Aftermath.
The Duchess is set to be an executive producer for Archewell, alongside Chanel Pysnik the company’s head of non-fiction.
It is almost inevitable that Meghan will seek to link her as-yet-untitled programme into new lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard (ARO), which she launched earlier this year with a video of her mixing ingredients in a retro-styled home kitchen.
American Riviera Orchard (ARO) is meant to coincide with the launch of a new cookery show for Netflix. Meghan will be making, and selling, products such as jams, an insider previously reported
The brand is set to work as an extension of her former lifestyle blog The Tig, an insider told Page Six Style
The Duchess of Sussex launched her ‘passion project’, a website called The Tig, back in 2014, naming it after her favourite Tignanello red wine
Trademark applications in the US have indicated Meghan will sell trendy cookware as well as fashionable food products such as fruit butters and spreads made with legumes under the ARO brand, as well as her own cookbooks.
Experts have claimed the merchandise will generate six-figure sales within weeks of being launched – despite struggling to win over fans in her native US.
An insider previously told the Dailymail.com that the brand is centred around Meghan’s passions, and has reportedly been in the works for more than a year and is set to feature ‘all the things that are close to her heart.’
The insider said the luxury brand is meant to coincide ‘with the launch of a new cookery show for Netflix. Meghan will be making, and selling, products such as jams. And at some point there will be a book and blog etc.’
The brand will focus on home, garden, food and general lifestyle wares. It is reportedly set to work as an extension of her former lifestyle blog The Tig, an insider told Page Six Style.
A source said: ‘She’s been working on this for over a year and it’s all the things that are close to her heart – all the things she’s passionate about.’
A video posted online announcing the brand started with a washed-out video of a woman arranging white and pink pastel flowers.
It then faded to reveal Meghan cooking in a stunning kitchen, with copper pans hanging over her head as she whisked.
Meghan Markle was seen congratulating her husband Prince Harry with a passionate kiss after he won a charity polo match in Miami on Friday
The Duchess of Sussex braved the grassy terrain in a pair of towering nude heels that left her at serious risk of sinking into the ground beneath her
Harry’s new Netflix polo show will allow him to give an inside look at the world of the international sport that he has loved for so long
Insiders previously claimed future projects for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will ‘reflect their differing professional interests and talents and are the result of significant thought about their future direction and careers’.
A source claimed: ‘They are both working on their own things. They are fully supportive of each other’s concepts and ideas, but they are different from one another, they have different meanings.’
Meanwhile, Harry and Meghan’s Netflix deal, worth a reported $100 million, has sparked five shows, including the new polo and lifestyle programmes.
The three programmes already available to stream include Heart of Invictus, following athletes competing in the veterans’ sporting event founded by Harry and Live to Lead, a documentary series on world leaders.
The other is Harry & Meghan, the insight into the couple’s life away from royal circles, which holds the record for the most viewing time of any Netflix documentary in its debut week, at 81.55 million hours.
The couple also paid £3million for the film rights to Carley Fortune’s novel Meet Me At The Lake, which has been described as being ‘right up their alley‘.
It features a character whose parent dies in a car crash, and was described by one reviewer as ‘a perfect summery blend of sexy romance and second chances’.
