The one hour ‘Holiday Celebration’ episode focuses on seasonal crafts, from wrapping presents to decorating plates and creating advent calendars
Prince Harry has finally been given a speaking role in Meghan Markle ’s Netflix series With Love, Meghan, although his brief appearance has raised eyebrows after he used the moment to criticise his wife’s cooking. His almost complete absence throughout the first two seasons had led viewers to question why he was barely involved.
In the newly released festive special, the Duke is invited on set to try dishes prepared by Meghan and guest chef Tom Colicchio. If a third series is ordered, his candid comments might not earn him a return. After tasting their beetroot salad, he described it as “the anti-salad” and later admitted that Meghan’s gumbo was not as good as her mother’s version.
The one hour “Holiday Celebration” episode focuses on seasonal crafts, from wrapping presents to decorating plates and creating advent calendars, wreaths and crackers.
Throughout the show, the Duchess enthusiastically praises her guests. She tells hospitality expert Will Guidara that she is “obsessed” with his book while meanwhile attempting to “play it cool” when meeting Colicchio for the first time, although quickly confesses, “What a fan I am of you, I’m so happy you’re here.”
US tennis champion Naomi Osaka appears to help decorate plates and mugs, though with minimal enthusiasm, while Meghan’s close friends Kelly McKee Zajfen and Lindsay Jill Roth bring more energy as they create wreaths in matching festive pyjamas.
The episode, which includes Meghan’s rescue dog Guy who died in January, was reportedly filmed last autumn alongside the first two seasons.
Harry joins Meghan near the end as she prepares the gumbo traditionally made by her mother, Doria Ragland, on Christmas Eve. She uses spicy andouille sausage instead of the turkey sausage Doria normally uses for Harry, gleefully warning that “he’s gonna sweat.”
“Wonderful,” Harry replies with a grimace, before saying the heat made him “feel it puncturing through the top of my head.”
Meghan reacts with disbelief when he concludes, “I’m not so sure it’s as good as your mum’s but it’s certainly close.”
She also reveals that the salad includes “the top things my husband hates to eat,” such as fennel, black olives, pickled vegetables and “beetroot as they say in England.”
Harry eyes the dish suspiciously. “Oh wow, that’s like the anti-salad,” he says, later adding that “there are not many things in the world that I don’t like. And they’re all in that one bowl.”
Although Archie and Lilibet do not appear on screen, they are central to the holiday theme as Meghan prepares personalised advent calendars and crackers, noting that “Lili really likes trying to be a grown up lady at the moment,” while Archie loves burgers and the colour red.
Harry receives “a little love letter, a chocolate” and “a little hat.”
Meghan then shares decorating advice, saying that Christmas trees should be “lit from within” and that ornaments help capture “your family story” through time.
She explains the British tradition of crackers to her American guests, calling the ritual “really connective and sweet.”
Netflix has yet to confirm a third season. Meghan acknowledged in October that the show requires “a lot of work.”
The first season, released in March, drew 2.6 million viewers in its first week, scraping into Netflix’s global top 10. The second, released in August, was less successful, missing the top 10 and attracting at least half a million fewer viewers.
It was also revealed in August that the Sussexes had agreed a new multi-year Netflix deal on reduced terms.
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