Prince Harry made an unexpected cameo on Sunday night, surprising Meghan Markle with a FaceTime call while she was appearing on MasterChef Australia.
The Duchess of Sussex, 44, was a guest on the hit Channel Ten cooking competition and was in the middle of sampling dishes from the show’s finalists when a crew member stepped onto the set with a mobile phone, telling her she had a call.
Meghan’s face lit up when she realised it was Harry, 41, calling in to say hello.
‘Hi, my love! My husband’s here!’ Meghan excitedly told the studio, before turning the camera toward judges Sofia Levin, Poh Ling Yeow and Jean-Christophe Novelli. ‘I’d like you to meet the judges!’ she told Harry.
‘G’Day! What’s going on? Have I interrupted something important here?’ Harry quipped, drawing attention from the MasterChef Australia set.
‘Well, we are actually in the middle of tasting all the dishes. We have four incredible cooks here! It’s amazing, they are so talented!’ Meghan replied, clearly delighted by the moment.
Prince Harry surprised Meghan Markle with a FaceTime call during her guest appearance on MasterChef Australia on Sunday night
‘I can see the chandeliers in the background, they look very nice… wonderful!’ Harry added as he took in the studio surroundings.
He then asked to see the contestants’ dishes and Meghan panned the camera over them.
‘I wish you could try this. These dishes are fantastic, really great dishes, there’s a hot sauce and it is so good!’ she said, cheekily adding: ‘I think it might be too much for you though.’
‘I will leave you to enjoy it. All is well here, see you later,’ Harry said as he waved goodbye to his wife while the studio erupted in applause.
Earlier in the show, Meghan revealed Harry’s favourite meal.
She was asked by judge Jean-Christophe what her preferred dish was to cook for her husband and their two children – Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five.
The former Suits actress admitted it was a ‘tough’ decision to make given the different taste preferences in her famous family.
‘It’s a tough one because I have a lot of palates to appease. My husband, being from the UK, loves a lot of meat, potatoes, cream sauce,’ Meghan began.
The Duchess of Sussex , 44, who guest-starred on the popular Channel Ten reality show, was taste-testing the finalists’ dishes when a stagehand walked onto the set carrying a mobile phone and told her she had a call
Meghan was thrilled to discover it was Harry, 41, ringing to say hello
‘As a California girl, I like a grilled fish, grilled meats, citrus. I just like using lots of really pure natural herbs and spices. I like heat in my food, anything with spices.’
She revealed that her love of spicy food was shared by her husband.
‘He can handle a really good curry! We just do a lot of barbecues, whatever is seasonal. The kids are great eaters, we are very lucky on that front,’ Meghan added.
Meghan then went on to proudly boast that both her young children enjoy eating Brussels sprouts.
For her guest spot, contestants of the hit show were asked to create a ‘dish fit for a Duchess’ using ingredients she handpicked from the pantry.
She asked them to whip up a dish using ingredients like honey, macadamia nuts, citrus, edible flowers and celeriac.
Meghan later paid the highest compliment to finalist Petro Papathomas, gushing that his celeriac ice cream dessert, which featured pickled apples and a hazelnut crumb, was of truly exceptional quality.
‘The execution is beautiful. To be that creative and courageous, to make something new, you did it! It feels very Michelin star to me,’ Meghan gushed to Pedro, who had the best dessert on the night.
As she unveiled a table laden with seasonal produce, Meghan told the contestants ‘my kids eat Brussels sprouts’, as Poh could be heard saying ‘that’s impressive’.
Meghan also showed the finalists who was on the other line
She also panned the phone up to the eliminated contestants who were watching the show from the balcony above
As for her family’s favourite dessert, Meghan said that she encourages her children to pick fruit from the garden of their multimillion-dollar home in Montecito, California, but the family often enjoy pudding.
‘The kids jump in a lot, especially with the garden. I think it’s really… It’s such a nice luxury to be able to have so much space and things to cook. And if they say, “Mama, can I have dessert?” You say, “If you can pick it, you can have it,”‘ she explained.
‘No, you can’t pick chocolate, which is great. So, you can go pick a nice piece of fruit or whatnot. But, no, we always have a nice, as my husband would say, pud after dinner. But I think what’s really sweet is that they all chip in. Family time, I think, is really key to connect through food. So, as many meals as we can do together, we always do. It’s beautiful.’
Meghan then shared a few words of wisdom for the contestants as she acknowledged ‘there is a lot of pressure in this kitchen’.
‘I don’t like to cook that way; I like to cook in a really relaxed fashion,’ she continued.
‘So, all I can say to the competitors is to just remember to have fun, to keep a sense of humour about it, and to cook from the heart.’
Meghan added that ‘food and cooking are how I show my nurturing and love for my friends, family and my kids’ in a sweet nod to her children.
She told the contestants: ‘The hope is that you’ll really hone in on one (item) as your hero item. These are all things that, for me, feel really nostalgic. And I love if there’s a connection that you can find when, as you’re cooking something, you ask: what is the story behind it? It almost feels like an heirloom, right? What is something from your family or from a memory, something sentimental that we can also taste as we taste your dish?’
At the start of the show, Meghan insisted that she did not want to be called ‘Duchess’ as Poh introduced her onto the set.
Meghan was tasked with judging four dishes from the remaining contestants on Sunday night
Meghan has said her love of good food and Australia were the two reasons she chose to be a guest judge on the country’s biggest cooking show
At the start of the show, Meghan insisted that she did not want to be called ‘Duchess’ as Poh introduced her
‘Welcome. Do I call you Duchess?’ Poh asked.
‘Oh, call me Meghan. Absolutely, yeah,’ she said.
After introducing herself as ‘Meghan’, she went on to declare her love for the land Down Under, explaining the trip was a ‘full circle’ moment for her and her husband as they had announced they were expecting their son Archie while visiting the country eight years ago.
‘Oh, we’re so excited. We love Australia. We had the most sentimental, amazing time. We were here almost eight years ago. We announced we were pregnant with Archie at the time. So, it’s full circle, here we are, but thrilled to be here with all of you and taste some really good food. I’ve heard you’ve been cooking up a storm this season,’ she said.
