Meghan Markle's Hosting Advice Sparks Mockery Over Common Sense Tips

Meghan Markle has sparked a fresh wave of mockery after her latest advice for hosts suggested they should have food prepped as much as possible before their guests even walk through the door. The Duchess of Sussex shared this guidance on Instagram, posting it through her As Ever brand account. This move comes after she previously released two Netflix series focused entirely on home cookery and lifestyle products.

Her post included a caption titled Meghan's Hosting Notes. She wrote that hosts need to prepare everything before arrival so they can save one simple task for the end. That final step should be something finished in the kitchen while everyone settles in. A little preparation goes a long way toward making hosting feel effortless.

Yet plenty of viewers responding seemed less than impressed, accusing the Duchess of offering platitudes and obvious advice. They rolled their eyes at what they saw as common sense disguised as expert counsel. Prolific online commentator Nancy Sidley posted on X to voice this frustration. She stated she loves it when Meghan trolls us with the most obvious hosting tips on the planet. Her specific target today was the revelation that you must prepare things before your guests arrive.

Next week will be about putting food on plates.' Meghan Markle's As Ever account on Instagram dropped an update offering her 'Hosting Notes'. Other sardonic responses included 'Next week will be "Turn lights on before event!"', 'Make sure to open your door as the guests arrive' and 'Put on apron beforehand as if meal was cooked by you.'

Meghan and her husband Prince Harry moved back to the UK in August with their children Prince Archie, seven, and five-year-old Princess Lilibet. They previously quit Britain and stepped back from official frontline duties in 2020 in a departure dubbed 'Megxit'.

They have since pursued ventures such as Harry's 2023 memoir Spare, in which he was critical of his brother William, father King Charles and mother-in-law Camilla. The Sussexes also took part in a 2023 CBS interview with Oprah Winfrey, opening up on the tensions within the Royal Family and making allegations of racism.

Meghan's streaming Netflix series featured her cookery efforts and lifestyle range, As Ever, which sells $12 (£8.80) fruit spread jars including Raspberry & Lavender Honey Yogurt Parfait and Blackberry Spread. Since leaving for the US they have been living in Montecito, California, while also owning a holiday home in Portugal.

After returning to Britain, they are thought to have been living in a private, non-royal residence in the Cotswolds. King Charles was described as being taken aback when only learning of their comeback plans in August – having not been told when the Sussexes met him on their visit to the UK the previous month.

Sources told at the time how the terms of the 'Megxit' deal under which the Sussexes are not 'working royals' would be unchanged. The Sussexes' status remains the same, with the couple not being offered a 'half in, half out' option when it comes to their roles.

Harry and ex-Suits star Meghan, who wed at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, in May 2018, were once dubbed part of the 'Fab Four' with the then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge – now the Prince and Princess of Wales – William and Catherine. But in March 2019, Buckingham Palace announced Harry and Meghan would set up their own household, breaking from the joint operation they had with William and Kate, amid reports of rifts between the two couples.

In January 2020, the Duke and Duchess announced they intended to step back as 'senior' members of the Royal Family, become financially independent, still support Elizabeth II, but split their time between the UK and North America. By March that year they had set up a permanent home in California, officially stepped down as senior royals and stopped using their HRH styles.

The fallout worsened after accusations Harry publicly levelled at members of the Royal Family including his brother in his memoir Spare and his Netflix documentary. In his autobiography, released just months after Queen Elizabeth II died, Harry accused William of physically attacking him and pushing him into a dog bowl in a row over Meghan.

He also alleged it was William and Kate who encouraged him to wear a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress party in 2005 and 'howled' with laughter when they saw it. Harry and Meghan, in their Netflix series two months after the Queen's death, claimed Kensington Palace lied to protect William when it issued a statement denying a story he had bullied Harry out of the Royal Family.

Harry also wrote of how Charles pleaded with his two sons during a tense meeting at Windsor just after the funeral of Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh, saying: 'Please, boys.

Please do not make my final years a misery," Meghan reportedly pleaded during her recent trip back to the UK in July. She flew over with Archie and Lilibet to join Harry as he finished promoting next year's Invictus Games, an event running from July 10 to 17 that will see Birmingham host roughly 550 wounded, injured, and sick service personnel and veterans plus their families from 25 nations.

The Duke and Duchess visited the King at his Highgrove home for the first time in four years while they were there. Yet sources say they did not bring up a potential return to the UK during that meeting.

Meghan already has her sights set on getting more involved back home. Reports suggest she plans to "pick up with a lot of people" and ramp up charity work immediately upon returning permanently. One specific plan involves Smart Works, a group helping unemployed and vulnerable women find jobs. This was actually the only patronage she kept after stepping down as a working royal in 2018; before that, she held four other roles.

"She is thinking about plans for how she can get more involved and support the causes she was supporting and was passionate about again, and new causes too," The Sunday Times quoted a source earlier this month.

Her career outside the palace has been moving fast as well. Her first eight-episode Netflix series, With Love Meghan, dropped in February after teaser previews reached her 2.2 million Instagram followers. Trailers showed her cooking, baking cocktails, arranging flowers, and planning parties using kitchen tools like a £15,000 cooker, £600 pans, and £60 chopping boards across the property's stunning rooms, garden, and orchards.

She also rebranded her lifestyle company last February. The venture launched as American Riviera Orchard but became As Ever on February 18 because the old name limited her to locally produced goods.