Meghan Markle has faced criticism for allegedly “staging” a FaceTime call with Prince Harry while on MasterChef Australia. Some have called her out for a “lack of authenticity”. The Duchess made an appearance on last week’s episode, which featured an apparent impromptu FaceTime call with her husband, Prince Harry, 41. But some viewers were not convinced by the video call, which started with a crew member passing Meghan a phone and telling her, “We had a phone call to the studio”.
Celebrity chef Jameson Stocks questioned the authenticity of the moment. Speaking to The News International, he said: “Firstly, if you’re on an open set, people generally don’t have their phones readily to hand. This was clearly staged and prearranged, much like her contrived television programme—there was no authenticity or genuine spontaneity, just something cold, calculated, and pathetic. Stuff like this I find extremely cringeworthy.”
He added: “Meghan seems to clash with people who, from an outsider’s perspective, make her feel unimportant.
“Based on how people close to her treated me, I understand the methods used and the way others can be made to feel. If Meghan felt that strongly about the situation, the producers would have edited it out.”
On the call, Meghan initially seemed unsure about the disruption before recognising Harry on the screen, she then beamed and addressed him saying, “Hi, my love!”, before he replied, “G’day”.
The couple then had a quick and lighthearted chat on the phone while the audience watched on.
Some viewers also enjoyed the sweet call, with one person writing on X, “Wow, these two are so in love”.
Speaking about the start of their relationship, Meghan has previously said: “I don’t think that I would call it a whirlwind in terms of our relationship, obviously, there have been layers attached to how public it has become after we had a good five, six months almost with just privacy, which was amazing.”
People reports that Harry said: “I fell in love with Meghan so incredibly quickly — it was a confirmation to me that all the stars were aligned.
“This beautiful woman literally tripped and fell into my life. I fell into her life, and the fact that she will be unbelievably good at the job part of it as well is obviously a huge relief to me because she’ll be able to deal with everything else that comes with it.”