Meghan Markle is to join the judging panel on MasterChef Australia for its 18th season. You can catch her on Sunday, April 19, 2026, at 7:00 PM on Network 10. This TV appearance is one of her high-profile four-day tours of Australia with Prince Harry, which includes several charitable engagements.

She’ll be joining the usual crew, Andy Allen, Poh Ling Yeow, Sofia Levin, and Jean-Christophe Novelli. When she walked out, judge Poh Ling Yeow introduced her by saying: “We’ve had MasterChef royalty in the kitchen before, but nothing like this… please welcome the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle!”

She was styled in a structured black Matteau long-sleeve silk shirt and a high-waisted Camilla and Marc “Caius” corset-waist midi skirt. For shoes, she stuck with the classics: black suede Manolo Blahnik ‘BB’ pumps.

The filming of this season’s episode will take place at the MasterChef studios in Melbourne. 

Photo: Instagram

Meanwhile, this news has sparked mixed reactions on social media. While Network 10 is definitely looking at a massive ratings boost, some long-time fans have been skeptical on social media, wondering if she has the credentials to be a guest chef. Even with the backlash, the network confirmed the episode via Instagram to lock in that April premiere date.

The producers are calling her a “passionate foodie with global influence” who is there to mentor the contestants. This actually makes a lot of sense since this season is focusing more on mentorship and collaboration, which the Aussie version is known for.

Part of the visits includes a lunch service at McAuley Community Services for Women and a visit to the Australian National Veterans Arts Museum. It’s a smart move to link her charitable media and charitable engagement.

Kloé Kardashian revealed in a recent episode of The Morgan Stewart Show podcast that she was “conned” into joining “Keeping Up with the Kardashian,” which caught widespread of viewer’s attention because the show became one of the longest-running and most commercially successful reality franchises, so it’s hard to imagine anyone feeling misled about being part of it.

According to Kloé, she and her sister Kourtney Kardashian were not interested in pursuing fame or appearing on television. The idea of having cameras follow their everyday lives wasn’t something they wanted.

Photo: Instagram @The Kardashians

“I never was like, ‘Gosh, I gotta be famous. I need to be on TV. Kourt and I, when we were approached to do the show by my mom and Kim, we said, ‘No, we’re not doing this show.”

Kloé hinted how the show was initially presented in a different direction, something that was centered around their Dash business at that time, rather than a full look into their personal lives.

Photo: Instagram @The Kardashians

“How my mom conned us into doing it was, she said, ‘Think of it as a commercial for the store. Cause all we wanted to do was focus on the store, we had no employees. It was just me and Kourt. We had a kids’ store and the women’s store, and she was at the kids’ store; I was at the women’s store. Kloé recalled.

We did everything, the cleaning, the taxes, the steaming of the clothes. We had not one employee. We didn’t know what we were doing.”

Keeping Up with the Kardashians  premiered in October 2007. It went on to document the family’s everyday lives and ran for 20 seasons before coming to an end in 2021. The family returned to screens with their Hulu series, The Kardashians.

Photo: Instagram @The Kardashians

Speaking about the journey with Vanity Fair on the red carpet of their Oscars party in March, Kris Jenner in awe said “We thought we would do it and see what happens and before we even finished half of the first season, they picked up for season two, so we got so lucky and we loved doing it. We’re filming, right now, season 28, if you add them all up, the best one was the first one, and the other best one is the one we’re doing right now. Everything in the middle is just a blessing.”