Meghan Markle is joining Junior MasterChef Australia, but as a special guest rather than the host, as many reports predicted. The reality cooking competition for young chefs returns to Australian screens on Network 10. Kitchens are hardly new territory for the Duchess of Sussex, who judged Food Network’s Chopped Junior in 2016 and filled her Netflix series With Love, Meghan with recipes. A fresh batch of pint-sized cooks now awaits her.

While fans pictured Meghan Markle running the show, producers handed her a different apron, and her April visit explains exactly why.

Meghan Markle will sit alongside host Poh Ling Yeow for the new season of Junior MasterChef Australia. The two will help guide the next generation of young culinary talent, according to the producers.

“I had an incredible time with the whole team at MasterChef this past April,” Markle said in a press release, according to PEOPLE.

She added, “So when they approached me to come back and work with this young group of talent, it was an easy yes.”

PEOPLE reports that Meghan Markle will film in Australia for just a few weeks in 2027. Her husband, Prince Harry, and their children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, are not relocating there. Markle already appeared on MasterChef Australia in April as a surprise guest judge, mentoring cooks beside Yeow, Sofia Levin and Jean-Christophe Novelli. Yeow told 10 News the surprise left contestants in total shock, exactly as planned.

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While Markle prepares to trade the red carpet for Australian kitchen benches, her recent documentary venture with Prince Harry met a box office far colder than any walk-in freezer.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle watched their documentary Cookie Queens open to $354,262 (£261k) on opening weekend, according to Box Office Mojo. CatVideoFest 2026, a fan-made collection of cat videos, reportedly earned more than the film about four children selling Girl Scout cookies. Royal commentator Kinsey Schofield told Fox News Digital that their names once guaranteed enormous curiosity, and she doubts that still holds. Clicks rarely become tickets, she noted.

Commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told Fox News that the biggest hits for Markle and Prince Harry came from projects detailing their estrangement from the Royal Family, including the Oprah Winfrey interview, the Netflix docuseries, and the memoir Spare. With Love, Meghan and Polo drew less interest. Fitzwilliams concluded that curiosity about the couple stays tied to the monarchy. The monarchy may keep the world curious about her, but for now, the only thing Markle is stirring on screen is a pot of young talent as a guest, not the host.

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What are your thoughts on Meghan Markle’s guest turn on Junior MasterChef Australia? Let us know in the comments.