I spent 24 hours living like Meghan Markle – it was a waste of my time | Royal | News

Meghan Markle has divided critics from across the globe following her new sickly sweet lifestyle show on Netflix.

With Love, Meghan, was finally unveiled on Tuesday, starring the Duchess of Sussex in a rented California mansion hosting front and centre for celebrity pals. From her favourite recipes, crafts and home remedies, the show quite frankly consists of some of the most bizarre lifestyle tips on the planet.

If I am being brutally honest, it was very hard to digest, and I had to force myself to not fall asleep between the so-clearly choreographed segments.

But is there something I’m missing? It has afterall been renewed for a second season. Intriuged, I grabbed a pen and paper and decided to chase the California dream and try out some things for myself.

Here’s my verdict on five of Meghan’s must haves…

Meghan welcomed actress Mindy Kaling over and showed her how to host a children’s tea party. One of the recipes she took pride in was a vibrant-themed fruit platter – which was worlds away from the fruit salad I was given as a kid. The arrangement was undoubtedly stunning and a real work of art.

I will not hide the fact I am an amateur cook, but in the words of Meghan all I kept hearing over and over was her famous words “We’re not in the pursuit of perfection, we’re in the pursuit of joy.” With that in mind, I began chopping away.

I thought I would get creative and throw together some carrots and cucumber with mango, strawberries, blueberries and cherries which created the same bright illusion as Meghan’s.

I was shocked to find that this does take an immense amount of skill to carefully arrange and organise the fruits according to their shape and colour – it is not as quick and easy as she made out.

After an hour tending to what I thought was a masterpiece, it actually turned pretty terrible and messy. Meghan’s finished product was perfect and featured fluffy food clouds. Nevertheless, I wish I never bothered and saved myself the time by tossing it all in a bowl from the get-go.

Meghan discussed the benefits of dehydrated citrus and claimed: « They make a really good gift too. Maybe the lemon ends up being for a great sparkling lemonade or a lavender lemonade cocktail and you put that dehydrated citrus ring in there. »

« If during the holiday you’re doing a spiced cider, you have a ring of dehydrated orange you can put in that, it will make it look so beautiful and present well,” she added.

I decided to make a winter warmer just as the Duchess suggested. Although I do not have her expensive cooking dehydrator and did not fancy wasting my money, so I used the oven roasting them dry for about 15 minutes – I would say they were more crisp than dehydrated, but it did the trick.

If I had the choice to do it again, I would definitely give it a miss, it just seemed rather tedious and pointless, but I can appreciate the idea if you were having a soiree and wanted to go the extra mile.

Throughout the series, Meghan often decorated her creations with edible flowers, so I decided to bake some fresh brownies, lemon drizzle slices and doughnuts. After getting stuck into this, I did actually find it enjoyable.

I also adopted her suggestion of “naked” styling to showcase my decorating skills. For this, I simply sprinkled petals over my cake and brownies.

To be honest, this is something new to me as my go-to would have been just adding sprinkles, however, it did look very pretty on my charcuterie board.

Next on my list was her « sun tea » which she makes by adding a tea bag to a jar full of water and leaving it to « sit in the sun » outside.

This was bewildering and I did get some stares from my neighbours when I left it on the doorstep to brew. Meghan said that she « made it as a kid and now makes it » with her own children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

I can safely say I will never be making that again. It tasted disgusting and I nearly threw up from the first sip.

Meghan suggested that she thinks of flower arranging as a meditative art. The Duchess mentioned that she even enjoyed a class at her baby shower.

However, after a long and busy day I found it boring to come home and start arranging wild blooms when I could have bought a stunning bouquet from the supermarket for a fraction of the price. Also, it caused a huge mess as the needles went all over my floor which was a nightmare to clean.

It’s safe to say that overall, I found Meghan’s go-to tricks a complete faff. Most of us who work do not have the time to do half the stuff she did after a full day at work. Also, there are few of us who live in sprawling masions like her’s and the reality of leaving my tea on my doorstep instead of a perfectly curated garden says it all, not to mention I did not have a quarter of her space in my flat kitchen.

With Love, Meghan is out of touch with reality.