When Meghan Markle announced her intention to invite fans into the kitchen with a Netflix cooking show to burnish her newly launched lifestyle brand she never said whose kitchen it would be.
Now, DailyMail.com can reveal, viewers can indeed look forward to an ‘at home with Meghan Markle’ experience as they learn about everything American Riviera Orchard.
Just don’t expect the home to be hers.
Instead, as seen in these exclusive DailyMail.com pictures, the Duchess of domesticity has set up her stall in a sprawling property two miles from the Montecito mansion she and Prince Harry, 39, share with children Archie, 4, and Lilibet, 2, and their revolving cast of staff.
Just days after she meticulously numbered one-through-fifty pots of homemade strawberry jam and sent them to dozens of her closest influencers, filming for 42-year-old Meghan’s latest venture has begun in earnest.
Meghan Markle is filming a new Netflix cooking show to share the ‘joys of cooking, gardening, entertaining and friendship’
Production trucks and tents lined the driveway of a $5million property set in eight acres of avocado and lemon groves in a gated community in Montecito for filming of ‘interior and exterior dialogue scenes’
DailyMail.com can reveal Meghan is not using her own Montecito mansion, but instead using the kitchen of philanthropists Tom and Sherrie Cipolla. Production trucks and tents are seen at the property
The homeowners have hosted fundraisers for the center at the same home in which Meghan is currently playing house
Exclusive photos show several SUVs arriving at the property as production begun
A film permit application exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com shows filming is taking place in two separate locations.
On Tuesday Meghan, who recently teased the launch of American Riviera Orchard with soft-focus footage of herself arranging pink flowers and stirring something in a bowl, spent the day surrounded by the blooms of Florabundance, a florist 10-minutes drive from Montecito in the coastal California town of Carpinteria.
On Wednesday production trucks lined the driveway of a $5million property set in eight acres of avocado trees and lemon groves in a gated community in Montecito for filming of ‘interior and exterior dialogue scenes,’ that began on Sunday and is slated to continue until late June.
Tom and Sherrie Cipolla have lent their home to Meghan for her cooking show. The couple are fixtures on the bougie Montecito society scene and generous donors to several good causes locally
Security vehicles guarded both of the 4,500 square feet home’s entrances.
The property is the home of Tom and Sherrie Cipolla – both fixtures on the bougie Montecito society scene and generous donors to several good causes locally including the Storyteller Center – a therapeutic preschool for children facing adversities.
They have hosted fundraisers for the center at the same home in which Meghan is currently playing house.
Tom, 75, and wife Sherrie, 69, parents to two adult children, have a property portfolio worth more than $20million, encompassing two dozen buildings in Los Angeles County and Santa Barbara. The couple also runs a physical therapy practice that last year boasted sales in excess of $1.3million.
When approached by DailyMail.com Sherrie Cipolla declined to comment on the purpose of the film crew currently camped out in her home.
The family room and kitchen with its French doors opening to a patio, lawn and mountains, Caesartone countertops and 48-inch Thermador range are, appropriately enough, the center piece of the Montecito property in which the Duchess of Sussex will hone her carefully curated image of domestic goddess.
Here, from the comfort of somebody else’s home, she will share ‘the joys of cooking, gardening, entertaining and friendship,’ – as well as chasing ratings.
Meghan announced her new business venture, American Riviera Orchard, with a clip which showed the Duchess cooking in a kitchen with copper pans hanging over her head as she whisked
On Tuesday Meghan spent the day surrounded by the blooms of Florabundance, a florist 10-minutes drive from Montecito in the coastal California town of Carpinteria
A film permit application exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com shows filming in two separate locations
Last month DailyMail.com revealed the staggering scope of products that Meghan intends to sell as founder of American Riviera Orchard – named because the coastal enclave of Montecito is known to its wealthy inhabitants as America’s riviera.
Apparently in a bid to out-brand both Martha Stewart and Gwyneth Paltrow, Meghan will sell everything from gardening trowels, to tea towels, scented candles, make-up, skin care products and pet shampoo.
If you can dream it chances are Meghan will sell it.
In recent days Harry and Meghan have embarked on yet another relaunch, this time closely married to their upcoming Netflix projects.
Harry is set to bring polo to the masses while his wife appears set to bring cooking to everyone’s kitchen but her own.
Last week the pair traveled to Florida where he was guest of honor at a fundraising dinner for his charity, Sentebale, in Miami Thursday night ahead of playing in the Royal Salute Polo Challenge in Wellington the following day.
Meghan, stunning in a $515 Heidi Merrick ivory peekaboo cutout dress, proudly planted a kiss on her husband as she handed him the trophy after his team won.
Followed around by the Netflix crew, Harry was back at the polo ground for more filming on Saturday.
According to the streaming platform publicity the prince is hoping his new show ‘will pull the curtain back on the grit and passion of the sport, capturing players and all it takes to compete at the highest level.’
It will be produced by Milos Balac, the Emmy-winning filmmaker behind Hollywood actor Ryan Reynold’s soccer documentary Welcome to Wrexham – a show that, along with his joint ownership with Always Sunny in Philadelphia actor, Rob McElhenny, has catapulted the tiny Welsh team up a league and to international fame.
Fashion designer Tracy Robbins posted a picture of Meghan’s jam, which had the logo for American Riviera Orchard and ‘Montecito’ underneath. The label also had the words ’17 of 50′, indication it was the 17th of only 50 jars in the first batch
Meanwhile Meghan’s show will also have some serious talent behind it. It will be directed by Michael Steed who worked on Anthony Bourdain’s Emmy-wnning Parts Unknown, and among the behind-the-camera staff is Leah Hariton, the showrunner for Selena Gomez’s HBO cooking show, ‘Selena + Chef.’
The film permit obtained by DailyMail.com reveals that Alex Dandino, the production manager of that same show is also involved in Meghan’s entry into the culinary world, raising the possibility that she too will be joined by professional chefs for a cook-a-long.
The shows are all part of the couple’s bid to fulfill the $100million Netflix deal that they signed back in 2020.
At the time they released a statement saying, ‘Our lives, both independent of each other and as a couple, have allowed us to understand the power of the human spirit: of courage, resilience, and the need for connection. Through our work with diverse communities and their environments, to shining a light on people and causes around the world, our focus will be on creating content that informs but also gives hope.’
So far, they have produced a documentary about themselves.
