Prince Harry has sent the internet into a frenzy after making a surprise appearance- and cracking a few cheeky lines- in Meghan Markle’s Netflix holiday special.
The 41-year-old Duke of Sussex spoke on-camera for the very first time in his wife’s With Love, Meghan series, strolling into the kitchen as the 44-year-old lifestyle guru prepared gumbo and salad with New York restaurateur Will Guidara.
“Hi guys, I smell gumbo,” he announced brightly before kissing Meghan and shaking Guidara’s hand.
Meghan immediately declared, “I’m making my mum’s gumbo!” before quizzing Harry on the ingredients in the salad.
“It’s literally your favourite salad of all time- beets, black olives, fennel, anchovies,” she teased as Harry pulled a theatrical face.
“Oh wow, that’s like, the anti-salad,” he replied, prompting Meghan to crack up laughing.
Harry’s cameo in the final minutes of the hour-long special sparked an immediate reaction online, with many viewers stunned he spoke at all.
“Wow- she actually let the camera turn away from her for a few seconds? And allowed him a speaking part?” one user wrote, while another quipped: “Meghan allowed Harry to speak? Did he bark and sit up?”
Others took it further: “At least dear old Harry makes an appearance. He turns up five minutes from the end, let out of the pantry where he has been locked since the end of series one.”
Meanwhile, some felt the moment looked overly polished.
“This is too cringeworthy for words,” one said, while another wrote: “PR folks said ‘be endearing and playful’. Voila…”
After the salad banter, Meghan explained she’d used a spicy andouille sausage in the southern stew instead of the turkey sausage her mother, Doria Ragland, usually cooks “for him”.
Before serving the dish, she told Harry she would get him “a little towel because he’s going to sweat”, to which he replied with a dry “Wonderful.”
When he finally tasted the gumbo, Harry joked that he could “feel it puncturing through the top of my head right now.”
He then added, “It is delicious- I’m not so sure it’s as good as your mum’s, but it’s certainly close.”
Meghan spun around from the stove in exaggerated shock. “What?!” she exclaimed as Harry laughed.
“Oh my gosh. My mum will love you for that- you know what, what a good thing to say for your mother-in-law,” she added, before kissing him and thanking him for coming.
On Reddit, viewers debated the couple’s dynamic, with some calling the exchange awkward.
“She thanks H for showing up?! Then again why would he when the salad the guy makes has everything he hates as ingredients,” one user wrote.
“They are trying way too hard. Barf,” said another, while a third argued, “She needs to tone it down… He could barely get an introduction through without her yapping and flailing her hands.”
However, plenty of fans defended the episode, which also features Naomi Osaka, Will Guidara, and Meghan’s friends Kelly McKee Zajfen and Lindsay Jill Roth.
“Not cringeworthy at all. It’s real, it’s funny and relatable. Give it up!” one supporter wrote on X.
Another said, “Just finishing watching #WithLoveMeghan it was such a good feeling programme… Seeing Tom Colicchio and Harry, my heart is beating fast.”
Others praised Harry’s cameo, insisting the criticism was unfair.
“It’s only cringeworthy for those who have never seen a happily married couple. These two are great together,” one Redditor wrote.
Another added: “Not the first spouse rib their spouse’s cooking in praise of a parent’s in a clearly evident good good-natured way. Stop the proud, twisted, demonic, cruel fodder and weak-minded, toxic situation-bending nonsense!”
The special comes after the Sussexes signed a scaled-down, “first-look” deal with Netflix following the end of their initial USD $100 million five-year contract in August.