‘Undermine it all’: Bizarre detail in Meghan Markle’s new Instagram video

With only days to go until the launch of her new TV show, the Duchess of Sussex has inadvertently let slip one very revealing detail.

You know the old joke, how many people does it take to change a light bulb? How about, how many people does it take to make a cutesy cooking show?

At least 50, according to the Daily Mail, were needed to shoot Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex’s forthcoming entertaining eight-parter, With Love, Meghan. So too does it take numerous trucks, a ream of SUVs, plenty of tents and a leased mansion.

Now ask yourself, how many Instagram posts does it take to undermine it all? The answer is, one.

Sure, we all know that reality TV is far from actual, you know, reality – but the duchess has accidentally just reminded us all of how synthetic, in one glaring regard, her new show is.

This week it was revealed that With Love, which will debut on January 15, has been categorised as “reality TV” by the streaming giant.

The blurb on the platform describes the show as featuring her “[inviting] friends and famous guests to a beautiful California estate”.

Note the wording – “a beautiful California estate”, not her beautiful California estate.

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That’s a pertinent fact that the trailer seems to try and do its best to gloss over.

In the one minute 50 clip, we see the Duchess of Sussex contemplatively ambling in a large kitchen garden and casually, barefoot, totting a basket full of freshly picked vegetables across a lawn while the voiceover promises that it’s all about “connecting with friends” and “how you incorporate these practices every day”.

The Office star Mindy Kaling says that Meghan had texted her to invite her to feature in the series, saying, “I was like, ‘I’ll come to Montecito and have you cook for me and go to your garden.’ And that’s what we did.”

With Love is “highly personal”, the Telegraph has reported, and “genuine to who she is”.

How utterly charming and perfect and … unreal.

Meghan herself has now, via one single Instagram post, highlighted the sleight of hand going on with this project.

Meghan and Mindy Kaling in an episode of With Love, Meghan. Picture: Netflix

On January 1, to ring in the new year and to immediately Mother Teresa-style cure hangovers the world over (the Lourdes of likes?), the duchess returned to her natural haunt, Instagram, after a five-year-long social media drought.

First came a black and white video of her doing some blithe beach larking before, second, came the trailer for With Love.

Combined, these videos have been viewed 17.2 million times.

Meghan made a return to Instagram on New Year’s Day 2025.

Then on Wednesday came her third post in under a week, a touching video tribute to her rescue beagle Guy who passed away, and which included a series of photos and footage taken inside her and Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex’s $20 million-odd Montecito mansion.

Starring in this video: The Sussexes’ actual wood-panelled and very different-looking kitchen – and not the blindingly white one that prominently features in With Love.

The Instagram video shows inside their kitchen. Picture: Meghan/Instagram

Why undermine the, erm, “reality” of her own project?

Maybe the Duchess of Sussex has a high opinion of her audience’s intellect and thinks we are all savvy enough media consumers to know that reality TV is about as authentic as a dime store weave being pulled for the cameras, so why pretend?

Still, it’s all a bit jarring.

Also, of the rented $9.9 million property where With Love was actually filmed, it was the Duchess of Sussex, according to The New York Post, who “had initially sought out the farmhouse aesthetic thinking it would help bring an ‘average rustic-look vibe’ to viewers instead of filming at her extravagant Montecito mansion”.

Meghan filming her new cooking show, with a very different kitchen. Picture: Netflix

That’s not the only incongruity surfaced by the Guy video, which is her first fundamentally personal post since returning to Instagram. The montage includes a panoply of shots of Harry, their kids and their home, confirming that the duchess will be sharing far more than just business and charity-related content.

It’s an interesting swerve given that protecting Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3, from the royal demand to regularly put them on public display was reportedly a motivating factor in them upping sticks and Megxiting off to their life of supposed freedom.

(Crucially, the little prince and princess’ faces are never seen, the duchess clearly drawing a line in the sand. As the duke himself pointed out to Netflix’s cameras in one episode of 2022’s Harry & Meghan: “As a dad, and as parents, I think consent is a really key piece to this. That if you have children it should be your consent as to what you share.”)

Another example of dissonance here is the very fact that the duchess is back on Instagram at all. Meghan has repeatedly spoken out about her treatment online and only last October spoke to a group of young girls about “being one of the most bullied people in the world”.

Meghan chose not to film at her extravagant Montecito mansion. Picture: Supplied

One of the Sussexes’ Archewell Foundation key pillars has been about addressing the harms done by social media and last year launched the Parents’ Network support group to this end.

Walking this line, between their work on digital wellbeing while also capitalising on the brand-building power of Instagram, is going to be a tough one.

(She could have some very high level help here. Vanity Fair has reported that, “Meghan’s return to the platform came following meetings with executives at Meta, Instagram’s parent company, about fostering healthier online experiences.”)

What is clear is, despite the problems thrown up by this Guy video, it’s already paying dividends. That post, complete with her real kitchen and featuring her kids, saw her gain 200,000 followers, as the Daily Beast’s Tom Sykes has pointed out, with her total count climbing from 1.2 million to 1.4 million.

That’s plenty real.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles