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5 Takeaways From Meghan Markle’s Netflix Show ‘With Love, Meghan’

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5 Takeaways From Meghan Markle’s Netflix Show ‘With Love, Meghan’

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has returned to the small screen with a new cooking and lifestyle show that was released on Netflix on Tuesday.

Filmed at a property near her home in sunny Montecito, Calif., the eight-episode series positions Meghan, 43, as a modern domestic goddess embracing the do-it-yourself delights of cooking, crafting and entertaining.

“Love is in the details, gang,” she says on an episode of the show, while preparing her own lavender towels.

The series, which Netflix has pitched as “inspiring,” saying it “reimagines the genre of lifestyle programming,” is directed by Michael Steed, who worked on “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.” It is executive produced by Meghan and is loosely organized around a series of creative projects — teaching a friend to make bread, throwing a game night for friends and planning a brunch — and offering tips along the way.

“We’re not in the pursuit of perfection,” Meghan explains in the show as she makes crepes. “We’re in the pursuit of joy.”

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It has been about five years since Meghan, and her husband, Prince Harry, officially stepped back from their royal duties in Britain. The family is now firmly planted in Southern California. Prince Archie is 5 and Princess Lilibet is 3.

And now, in the empire-building tradition of lifestyle gurus like Martha Stewart and Ina Garten, Meghan is about to drop a lot of Meghan, with some help from guests like the actress Mindy Kaling and the chef Roy Choi, along with some of Meghan’s close friends.

This spring, she is expected to release products, such as fruit preserves, from her new lifestyle brand As Ever, as well as a new podcast with Lemonada Media.

Here are details on the harvests, recipes, crafts and theories on the good life that she shares in the new series, which feels a lot like a billboard for her next chapter.

Mostly, light, simple, recipes with local ingredients — a one-pot tomato pasta, quiche with eggs from the family’s chickens, and a salt-baked fish stuffed with herbs.

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The series moves away from the stand-and-stir format of cooking shows and opts for a more conversational approach — think “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” … if they were making pickles.

“I love feeding people,” Meghan says. “It is probably my love language.”

She chats with Ms. Kaling about eating fast food as a child while she demonstrates how to cut sandwiches into shapes for a kid-friendly tea party in the garden. Mr. Choi talks about going to Meghan’s school for dances, as they get ready to make Korean-style fried chicken and drink champagne.

While preparing focaccia with Delfina Blaquier, the wife of the polo player Nacho Figueras — whom Harry knows through polo — Meghan reflects on her time living in Argentina.

Seemingly as much as she can, while also happily embracing a shortcut.

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“I love to be able to take something that’s pretty ordinary and elevate it,” she says.

She uses the leftover wax from a beehive to make candles, scented with essential oils. She turns leftover bacon into dog biscuits for a friend’s pet. She even does something thoughtful for the family’s chickens, many which were rescued from a factory farm, giving them a block of ice filled with fruits and vegetables.

For a brunch, prepped with the guidance of the chef Alice Waters, Meghan, a calligraphy expert, writes her own menus, in careful penmanship.

“You set your guests up so they have an amazing experience,” she says, “and everyone can relax and enjoy.”

So many things!

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The series opens with a shot of bees, and cuts to Meghan at the beehive, where she helps to collect the honey. A fan of personalized gifts, she also demonstrates to viewers how to build a harvest basket with lemons, cucumbers and cabbage, and create a welcome tray for house guests.

“The joy of hostessing for me is surprising people with moments that let them know I was really thinking of their whole experience,” she says.

Meghan picks fresh berries for her jams and citrus fruits that she uses to make dehydrated garnishes for cocktails, which she serves to friends during a game of mahjong.

Ms. Kaling asks the same question.

“I like high and low,” Meghan says, explaining that she is wearing white Zara pants, a cream short-sleeved Loro Piana top and a cream-and-white striped Jenni Kayne sweater.

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Throughout the series, she wears lots of casually elegant neutrals, in creams, tans and blues as well as the occasional floral dress (and one white Northwestern University sweatshirt).

Not really.

Unlike “Harry & Meghan,” the 2022 Netflix documentary series that focused on the couple’s relationship and their decision to step back from the British royal family, this is Meghan’s show.

Her family, though, is infused throughout. Meghan drops a few anecdotes about her children and Prince Harry into conversation. There are also many shots of her dogs.

Harry makes an appearance onscreen in a final scene at a brunch held to celebrate her business, dressed crisply in a light blue button-down and sunglasses, as Meghan toasts people who have helped her along the way.

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“This feels like a new chapter that I’m so excited that I get to share,” she says. “And here we go, there’s a business. All of that is part of that creativity that I’ve missed so much.”

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In Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, children’s entertainment comes with strings

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In Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, children’s entertainment comes with strings

The Tin Soldier, one of Nicolas Coppola’s marionette puppets, is the main character in The Steadfast Tin Soldier show at Coppola’s Puppetworks theater in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood.

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Every weekend, at 12:30 or 2:30 p.m., children gather on foam mats and colored blocks to watch wooden renditions of The Tortoise and the Hare, Pinocchio and Aladdin for exactly 45 minutes — the length of one side of a cassette tape. “This isn’t a screen! It’s for reals happenin’ back there!” Alyssa Parkhurst, a 24-year-old puppeteer, says before each show. For most of the theater’s patrons, this is their first experience with live entertainment.

Puppetworks has served Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood for over 30 years. Many of its current regulars are the grandchildren of early patrons of the theater. Its founder and artistic director, 90-year-old Nicolas Coppola, has been a professional puppeteer since 1954.

The outside of Puppetworks in Park Slope.

The Puppetworks theater in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood.

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A workshop station behind the stage at Puppetworks, where puppets featured in the show are stored and regularly repaired.

A workshop station behind the stage at Puppetworks, where puppets are stored and repaired.

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A picture of Nicolas Coppola, the founder and artistic director of Puppetworks, in the theater space.

A picture of Nicolas Coppola, Puppetworks’ founder and artistic director, from 1970, in which he’s demonstrating an ice skater marionette puppet.

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For just $11 a seat ($12 for adults), puppets of all types — marionette, swing, hand and rod — take turns transporting patrons back to the ’80s, when most of Puppetworks’ puppets were made and the audio tracks were taped. Century-old stories are brought back to life. Some even with a modern twist.

Since Coppola started the theater, changes have been made to the theater’s repertoire of shows to better meet the cultural moment. The biggest change was the characterization of princesses in the ’60s and ’70s, Coppola says: “Now, we’re a little more enlightened.”

Michael Jones, the newest addition of puppeteers at Puppetworks with Jack-a-Napes, one of the main characters in "The Steadfast Tin Soldier." (right) A demonstration marionette puppet, used for showing children how movement and control works.

Right: Michael Jones, Puppetworks’ newest puppeteer, poses for a photo with Jack-a-Napes, one of the main characters in The Steadfast Tin Soldier. Left: A demonstration marionette puppet, used for showing children how movement and control works.

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Marionette puppets from previous shows at Puppetworks hanging on the wall.

Marionette puppets from previous Puppetworks shows hang on one of the theater’s walls.

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A child attending a 12:30PM showing at Puppetworks on December 6, dressed up in holiday attire featuring the ballerina and tin soldier also in "The Steadfast Tin Soldier."

A child attends Puppetworks’ 12:30 p.m. showing on Saturday, Dec. 6, dressed in holiday attire that features the ballerina and tin soldier in The Steadfast Tin Soldier.

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Streaming has also influenced the theater’s selection of shows. Puppetworks recently brought back Rumpelstiltskin after the tale was repopularized following Dreamworks’ release of the Shrek film franchise.

Most of the parents in attendance find out about the theater through word of mouth or school visits, where Puppetworks’ team puts on shows throughout the week. Many say they take an interest in the establishment for its ability to peel their children away from screens.

Whitney Sprayberry was introduced to Puppetworks by her husband, who grew up in the neighborhood. “My husband and I are both artists, so we much prefer live entertainment. We allow screens, but are mindful of what we’re watching and how often.”

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Left: Puppetworks’ current manager of stage operations, Jamie Moore, who joined the team in the early 2000s as a puppeteer, holds an otter hand puppet from their holiday show. Right: A Pinocchio mask hangs behind the ticket booth at Puppetworks’ entrance.

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A child attending a 12:30PM showing at Puppetworks on December 6, dressed up in holiday attire.

A child attends Puppetworks’ 12:30 p.m. showing on Saturday, Dec. 6, dressed in holiday attire.

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Left: Two gingerbread people, characters in one of Puppetworks’ holiday skits. Right: Ronny Wasserstrom, a swing puppeteer and one of Puppetworks’ first puppeteers, holds a “talking head” puppet he made, wearing matching shirts.

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Other parents in the audience say they found the theater through one of Ronny Wasserstrom’s shows. Wasserstrom, one of Puppetworks’ first puppeteers, regularly performs for free at a nearby park.

Coppola says he isn’t a Luddite — he’s fascinated by animation’s endless possibilities, but cautions of how it could limit a child’s imagination. “The part of theater they’re not getting by being on the phone is the sense of community. In our small way, we’re keeping that going.”

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Attendees of a 12:30PM showing of "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" and "Nutcracker Sweets" at Puppetworks on December 6, 2025.

Puppetworks’ 12:30 p.m. showing of The Steadfast Tin Soldier and The Nutcracker Sweets on Saturday, Dec. 6.

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Children meeting and seeing up close one of the puppets in "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" after the show.

Children get a chance to see one of the puppets in The Steadfast Tin Soldier up close after a show.

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Left: Alyssa Parkhurst, Puppetworks’ youngest puppeteer, holds a snowman marionette puppet, a character in the theater’s holiday show. Right: An ice skater, a dancing character in one of Puppetworks’ holiday skits.

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Community is what keeps Sabrina Chap, the mother of 4-year-old Vida, a regular at Puppetworks. Every couple of weeks, when Puppetworks puts on a new show, she rallies a large group to attend. “It’s a way I connect all the parents in the neighborhood whose kids go to different schools,” she said. “A lot of these kids live within a block of each other.”

Three candy canes, dancing characters in one of Puppetworks' holiday skits, hanging in the space waiting to be repaired after a show.

Three candy canes — dancing characters in one of Puppetworks’ holiday skits — wait to be repaired after a show.

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Anh Nguyen is a photographer based in Brooklyn, N.Y. You can see more of her work online, at nguyenminhanh.com , or on Instagram, at @minhanhnguyenn. Tiffany Ng is a tech and culture writer. Find more of her work on her website, breakfastatmyhouse.com.

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