Meghan Markle has revealed she often gives her children frozen chicken nuggets for dinner, weeks after she told of being a ‘present parent’ and bragged about making fruit platters in her TV show.
The Duchess, 43, said she ‘often relies on chicken nuggets, veggie burgers and Tater Tots’ to feed Prince Archie, five, and Princess Lilibet, three.
Speaking to the New York Times ahead of the launch of her As Ever collection today, Meghan said that her freezer is ‘stuffed with’ convenience foods.
It again calls into question Meghan’s claims about both her lifestyle now and what she ate growing up.
In her recent Netflix show, With Love, Meghan, the Duchess revealed her children ‘love eating crudites’ and made fresh fruit platters for them for their breakfast.
Speaking to Mindy Kaling on the second episode the Duchess claimed she spent time on her own as a child because her parents were working; a so-called ‘latchkey kid’ who is on their own after school until their parents come home.
She tells Mindy: ‘I grew up with a lot of fast food and also a lot of TV tray dinners. It feels like such a different time but that was so normal with the microwaveable kids’ meals.’
The Duchess continued: ‘I grew up with that, watching Jeopardy! and having a lot of fast food.’
The Duchess of Sussex’s Netflix series With Love, Meghan, has raised some questions about Meghan’s upbringing and the stories she tells of her childhood. Pictured with Mindy Kaling
However, Meghan’s estranged father, Thomas Markle Sr, took issue with his daughter’s portrayal of her childhood and insisted her memory of how she ate as a youngster did not match his own account.
Mr Markle also said he would personally pick Meghan up every day from school – or send a car to fetch her if he was too busy.
And the Duchess’s father, 80, is not the only person to have questioned Meghan’s backstory as told in the series – with viewers suggesting the Duchess has previously spoken very differently about her upbringing.
Meghan’s stint as a judge on US children’s TV competition, Chopped Junior, saw her giving feedback to mini kitchen maestros as they tried to impress with their culinary skills
In one clip, that has begun circulating online after the Duchess’s Netflix show aired, Meghan tells a young cooking prodigy that her meal triggers memories of childhood.
The Duchess says of the dish: ‘This dish reminded me of the kind of food that I grew up eating in California, like that real… farm to table, sort of fresh, really simple ingredients.’ She then praised the girl, telling her she’d done a ‘good job’.
Meghan’s historic admission that she ate ‘farm-to-table’ food in California is a stark contrast to the image she projects on her Netflix series, as the child raised on TV dinners and fast food.
In perhaps a reference to the criticism, Meghan told the New York Times: ‘Don’t they know my life hasn’t always been like this?’ before gesturing at the sweeping views and sleeping dogs of Montecito.
Meghan Markle has given her Instagram followers a glimpse into her Montecito mansion in a new video where she makes banana pudding at home with her mother Doria
Meghan’s stint on Chopped Junior as a judge (pictured) saw her describe her diet in childhood as ‘farm to table’
Elsewhere in the interview, Meghan revealed she started the business because ”I need to work, and I love to work,’ and added she ‘hadn’t been without a job since she was 13’.
Her Instagram, she says, is a ‘way I can connect my home life and my work.’
Meghan, who has saidi she’s ‘not an influencer’, also added to Shop My Instagram store today – revealing the pots and pans she uses.
Among the things on sale is a $1,486 Mauviel Copper Saucepan set as well as various clothes.
She also admitted she has ‘a lot to learn,’ while her famously private mother Doria Ragland, 68, defended claims her daughter was out of touch and using things that are too expensive, by saying ‘everyone is coming in hot these days’.
In the interview, Meghan also revealed her grandmother Jeanette grew collard greens and tomatoes in her garden.
She added she loved to pick up Jack in the Box curly fries for dinner or would go to her grandmother’s house to eat ‘Kraft grilled cheese on white Wonder bread, with ‘all that butter’.
Meghan also claimed she started cooking for friends as an undergraduate at Northwestern University’.
‘At 20, in a tiny little apartment in Evanston, serving that sandwich and a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck — that was when Trader Joe’s was getting big — we all thought it was so fancy,’ she said.
Meghan’s historic admission that she ate ‘farm-to-table’ food in California is a stark contrast to the image she projects on her Netflix series, as the child raised on TV dinners and fast food.
And in her own series, the Duchess makes reference to her time spent in the garden as a child where she first fell in love with planting – another contrast to the Roald Dahl-style childhood she portrayed by discussing her ‘latchkey kid’ upbringing.
Speaking to Korean-American chef Roy Choi, she discusses her ‘love’ of gardening, which he admits he’s ‘horrible’ at.
Meghan says: ‘They had, in our science class, a lot of time in the garden. So I was probably about 10 or 11 – we learnt composting…’
She continued: ‘I loved, as a kid, I planted this thing and would sit there patiently waiting, and then suddenly you go, ‘it’s grown and I can eat this’ and it makes you so grateful for food.’
Meghan’s memory raises another image of her as a child who was nurtured through nature and who grew up appreciating organic produce, much like the ‘farm-to-table’ upbringing she references on Chopped Junior.
However, the Duchess’s comments on her Netflix series are not the first time accounts of her childhood have been called into question.
Back in 2021, mother-of-two Meghan penned a 1,000 word letter to the Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and majority leader of the Senate, Chuck Schumer, to consider her plea for paid parental leave.
In the open letter she described how she lived on the $5 Sizzler salad as a child, in a bid to point out how her childhood was something of a financial struggle.
She wrote: ‘I grew up on the $4.99 salad bar at Sizzler – it may have cost less back then (to be honest, I can’t remember) – but what I do remember was the feeling: I knew how hard my parents worked to afford this because even at five bucks, eating out was something special, and I felt lucky.
‘And as a Girl Scout, when my troop would go to dinner for a big celebration, it was back to that same salad bar or The Old Spaghetti Factory – because that’s what those families could afford.
‘I waited tables, babysat, and piecemealed jobs together to cover odds and ends,’ Meghan wrote. ‘I worked all my life and saved when and where I could – but even that was a luxury – because usually it was about making ends meet and having enough to pay my rent and put gas in my car.’
However, critics pointed out that Meghan was raised in middle class comfort in the suburb of Woodland Hills in a home Thomas Markle, an Emmy-award winning lighting director, bought shortly before Meghan was born in 1981.
After her parents Thomas and Doria divorced when Meghan was six, they remained amicable and whatever the state of their shattered relationship now, Meghan has enjoyed a close bond with her father in the past and owed much to the money he earned in Hollywood to her world class education.
He sent her to Hollywood’s private Little Red Schoolhouse, whose old students include Elizabeth Taylor and Judy Garland, where staff feed students six different types of organic vegetables from the school garden each week.
When Meghan was nine he won $750,000 in a lottery and the money helped send Meghan to the $16,000-a-year Immaculate Heart Catholic School, one of LA’s finest.
Every day after school she would visit her father on the set of Married… with Children where he worked as a lighting director and was believed to earn $200,000-a-year.
Later today, the former actress will launch As Ever, her lifestyle brand selling jams, honey and tea. The jams will be priced at $12-$15 (£9-£12).
Earlier today, she gave her Instagram followers a glimpse into her Montecito mansion in a new video where she makes banana pudding at home with her mother Doria.
The Duchess revealed she made a ‘Chantilly Lili’ – named after her daughter.
In a clip shared with her 2.6M followers, the former actress whipped up a banana pudding in cocktail glasses before adding cream, mint and raspberries.
‘Whipped up a special dessert with @nytcooking as we celebrate the launch of @aseverofficial today! Goodness is moments away,’ Meghan wrote.
‘In the meantime, enjoy the recipe for our ‘Chantilly Lili’ — a delicious dessert named after our darling daughter. So so so good. As special and sweet as she is’.
The recipe was also shared with the New York Times, who say it is based on a banana pudding recipe of Meghan’s grandmother.
‘In the Southern classic, vanilla pudding is layered with cookies and sliced banana;
‘Meghan’s version adds the sweet-tart sting of strawberries macerated with lemon.’.