Even people with small houses can enjoy domestic bliss like me, says Meghan

Credit: Netflix/With Love, Meghan

People with small houses and gardens can still enjoy a “small piece” of the Duchess of Sussex’s lifestyle, she says in her new Netflix documentary.

The Duchess, who lives in a $14 million (£11 million) mansion in Montecito, filmed her new series With Love, Meghan in a hired house with a large kitchen, and used her own garden for outdoor scenes in which she collects eggs from chickens and cuts salad leaves.

“People watching this at home might think, ‘Hey I don’t have this space at home!’” she said, in a discussion with chef Alice Waters, who is considered a pioneer of farm-to-table cooking.

“But this is the value, I think, of what you’ve done – urban farming. Even if you’re just in a little flat in London or small apartment in the city, what people can do to make them feel that they have some small piece of this.”

The eight-part series, which was released on Tuesday morning after a seven-week delay, is described as a lifestyle show that blends practical tips and tricks with conversations with her celebrity friends.

It will act as a springboard for the launch of the Duchess’s new commercial brand, As Ever, which will promote a domestic idyll through sales of everything from jams and cutlery to nut butters, placemats and cookbooks.

In the series, the Duchess said she loved to surprise her guests with little touches “that really let them know I’ve been thinking of their whole experience, from morning till evening”.

She said the best compliment was her visitors having a good night’s sleep. “I want everyone to come and feel really comforted when they are in our house,” she said, as she was filmed making a jar of bath salts for Daniel Martin, her friend and make-up artist.

She says: “Whenever I have someone come and stay, one of my favourite things to do is to prep the guest room… I think about the two places of a guest experience once they have gone into the room, what’s at the side of their bed for them – that’s their good morning and goodnight moment – and what’s in the bathroom for them so they can have a beautiful soak and a nice bath at the end of the night.”

She also revealed that she had never liked honey but could now “appreciate it” after keeping bees. “It’s that reminder to do something that scares you a little bit,” she said as she harvest honey with a beekeeper.

“I’m trying to stay in the comb of it because it’s beautiful to be this connected. I’ve got good vibes. Good vibes for good hives,” the Duchess added.

Don’t cry over burnt milk

However, life is not all plain-sailing for the Duchess. In the penultimate episode, she is seen making coffee and assembling a basket of shop-bought croissants when a pan of milk bubbles over on the hob behind her.

While she is arranging strawberries and mint around the croissants, Michael Steed, the show’s director, interrupts to tell her: “Check the burner… oh lordy.”

Taking the pan of boiling “creamer” off the hob, Meghan insists: “I bet it’s good.” Stirring it, she tells Steed: “Look, by the way… lets see. It didn’t scald. We would have smelt it. It’s a beautiful pillow of creamy goodness.”

“Hold on,” she continues, tasting it. “It’s very good.”

Credit: Netflix/With Love, Meghan

In a separate scene, in which Meghan makes a “harvest basket” using vegetables, fruit and plants from her garden, she said: “We don’t all have a garden like this. I fully recognise that. I didn’t grow up with a garden like this. But if you have a farmers market, you can definitely find something.”

The Duchess spoke of the benefits of fresh food, and the joy she has found in picking it with her children. “For me, growing up, it was so much fast food,” she said. “Yes, I get when you’re on a budget it’s affordable but it costs you so much in the long run!”

Picking her own tomatoes, she added: “Who wouldn’t want this?”

The Duchess revealed in the third episode – “Two Kids from LA” – that she made fresh platters of food every day for her children, Princess Lilibet and Prince Archie.

In the episode, LA-based chef Roy Choi told her that crudités were “boring”, joking that criticising them seemed to be Meghan’s “trigger point”.

Credit: @Netlfix/ Instagram

While chopping up fresh vegetables for her platter, she said she was “doing a colour story” and added: “We do them everyday because I think that’s how our kids love eating vegetables so much.”

Another of her domestic tips was adding a “tiny splash” of cold sparkling water to eggs before scrambling them, telling Choi: “It helps them rise, gets them fluffy.”

‘Don’t use tap water for ice’

Meghan also told viewers not to use tap water while making ice cubes.

In the episode “Surprise and Delight”, she demonstrated how to freeze edible flowers in ice cubes for champagne cocktails, ahead of the arrival of two friends – Abigail Spencer, her former Suits co-star, and Kelly Zajfen, a former model and charity founder.

Addressing the camera, the Duchess said: “The one thing you need to know when doing these, I’ve made this mistake, do not just use tap water. The reason is if you use distilled water you’re fine. If you boil the water first, you’re also fine. But otherwise the ice cubes just come out a little cloudy and you want to see the flower.”

Describing why she liked to place edible flowers in ice cubes, the Duchess said: “That’s a surprise and delight moment for people when they get their glass.”

The Duchess also froze orange juice in rose-shaped moulds for mimosas, saying: “I’ve always loved just taking something simple and elevating it.”

Once her guests had arrived, the hostess stressed the need to fill the champagne bucket with water in order to keep it cold. “Pretend like you’re in a cold plunge. She needs to be swimming in the cold,” the Duchess told her friends.

“The Wim Hof champagne,” joked Ms Spencer.

In the series, the Duchess admitted she found it “embarrassing” when people did not clean up after themselves at hotels.

She emphasised the importance of tidiness when cooking, too, and bonded with Choi about cleaning up as they go.

Before the Korean-American chef arrived to meet her, the Duchess said: “I need to impress this man. Not just with my donuts, [but] with my tidiness, with my kitchen savvy, my cleanliness.”

She admitted that, when cooking for her husband and their two children, she was “not messy in the kitchen”, adding: “I always clean as we go.”

Choi and the Duchess joked that they both tidied up hotel rooms, too, with Meghan admitting she always pictured her mother and grandmother chiding her if not, asking: “‘Where is your home training?’”

She also stressed the importance of having a bin – or “garbage vessel” – close by when preparing flowers or food.

As she tossed cellophane from freshly bought flowers into a bin, the Duchess offered her wisdom on disposing of waste. “So just as with cooking, I will always have, like, a garbage vessel [when preparing flowers],” she said.

“Everything stays organised, clean as you go.”

Lilibet’s cleaning song

Giving a rare insight into her three-year-old daughter’s life, the Duchess said that Lilibet had created a song about cleaning up.

She told viewers: “Lili has made a song out of it,” before breaking into chorus: “Clean as you go – clean, clean, clean, clean.”

Meghan also revealed her daughter’s eagerness to help her pick strawberries and cook with them. She said: “Lili and I actually made this batch [of jam] together, she picked all those berries with me and then she’s like, ‘No, Mama, I’ll do it’ and she wants to try.”

In the same episode, she spoke of Lili being given a doll with a “little baguette and a little cheese”, named Stella Al Fresco.

While the doll was not shown, a toy listed as “Wee Baby Stella peach Al Fresco” is listed on the Shop Manhattan Toy Company website for $49 (£38.47).

She also disclosed that the family had salt-baked two trout that their five-year-old son Archie caught on a family holiday the previous year.

The Duke of Sussex made a short appearance in the final episode of the show, along with Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland.

Wearing sunglasses and hugging guests who had arrived for a brunch to celebrate the Duchess starting her business, Harry was seen eating food and grinning for the camera.

Credit: Netflix/With Love, Meghan

Gesturing to the spread of food and drink she had laid out, the Duchess told him: “It’s good, right?” The Duke replied: “Well done, you did a great job. I love it.”

Thanking guests for coming and “loving me so much”, the Duchess gave a short speech expressing her excitement at rediscovering the “creativity I’ve missed so much”.

Revelations about her family’s tastes and habits were shared throughout the series, such as that the Duke “loves fried chicken”, which she intended to make more often, and that Lilibet swayed when she tasted food she liked – which the Duchess admitted she did, too.

She said: “Even at a young age, we didn’t have a lot but we travelled. My mum was a travel agent . We would just try so many different flavours in different places. My mum would make gumbo. Soul food has a lot of flavour and a lot of kick to it. I crave that and always gravitate to that level of heat. I am ushering my family into my palate.”

The Duchess appeared emotional while raising the Japanese concept of kintsugi, in which broken pottery is repaired with lacquer and gold.

Telling her guest Vicky Tsai, a skin-care business executive, that “you gave me this idea. I think it’s so meaningful”, she explained: “If you break something that is precious and valuable, it’s not broken.

“That fracture actually makes it more beautiful. That break makes it more beautiful. And I think it felt really symbolic of saying to anyone, if you’ve been through something – you’re not broken! You can be fixed and healed and sealed.”

Vicky replied: “Or celebrated, because it’s what makes you beautiful. Perfect isn’t beautiful. Things that have lived and been dropped and put back together again are more beautiful.”

Meghan looked emotional, pursing her lips as if to stop herself crying.

Duchess’s last roll of the dice

The new series is considered Meghan’s last roll of the dice with the streaming giant as the Sussexes come to the end of their lucrative five-year deal. If it flops and Netflix opts not to make another series, it will likely distance itself from both Prince Harry and his wife.

The show was due to be launched in mid-January but was delayed to allow the Duke and Duchess to “focus on the needs of those affected by the wildfires” in their home state of California.

The Duchess has spoken about how making the series allowed her to return to her roots, telling People magazine this week: “As a woman, a mom and a wife, to be able to find yourself again… is a wonderful feeling.”

She insisted that despite her return to Instagram, she did not consider herself an influencer.

She said: “I see myself as an entrepreneur and a female founder, and if the brand ends up influential, then that’s great.”

The Duchess revealed that Prince Harry and their children had sent her a large bouquet of flowers to mark the launch, with a note reading “Congratulations mumma! We love your show, and we love you”.

The note was signed “Lili, Archie and Papa”.

Posting on Instagram, the Duchess also revealed that she surprised fans at a special screening of the show, where a group of women traded friendship bracelets and sported temporary As Ever tattoos.

She captioned one photo: “Had to make sure they saw it first. The girls that have supported me for nearly a decade!”

The Duchess is also filmed in the series baking focaccia, salt bake fish and “single skillet spaghetti”. She also “crafts mixed drinks in mason jars”, reveals that she has been learning mahjong, goes hiking and discusses her love of flower arranging.

The Duchess has said that filming the series and creating her new business, As Ever, has allowed her to show her children the realities of being a ”working mum”.

The show is produced by the Sussexes’ Archewell Productions company with Meghan listed as an executive producer.