Meghan to Co-Host Junior MasterChef Australia in 2027, Ending a Six-Year Hiatus for the Show

The Duchess of Sussex is heading back to Australian television, with Network 10 confirming she will front the 2027 season of Junior MasterChef Australia alongside Poh Ling Yeow. The announcement, made on 27 October, gives Meghan her first confirmed on-screen project since her Netflix partnership wound down, and it arrives at a delicate moment in her personal life.

What Network 10 has confirmed

According to the broadcaster, Meghan will take part as a “special guest” co-host, while Yeow, a current judge on the adult MasterChef Australia, will keep that role in 2027 as well. Contestants on the children’s spin-off are aged between nine and 13. Production will take place at Melbourne Showgrounds, though no date has been set. Deadline reports the format is returning to Ten after six years off air, and that Banijay’s Endemol Shine Australia is producing it, with Banijay Rights handling international distribution.

“I love cooking with my own kids, so seeing what these young stars create in the kitchen is going to be a lot of fun,” Meghan said in a statement, adding that returning to work with the MasterChef team was “an easy yes.” Yeow said a reunion would be “a real treat” and promised “plenty of delicious surprises and a little mischief, too.”

Why the network wanted her back

The casting follows a guest appearance on the flagship show, filmed during the Sussexes’ four-day Australian visit in April and broadcast in July. Network 10 said the episode drew its largest Sunday audience since 2023. For a broadcaster relaunching a dormant children’s brand, a proven ratings draw is an obvious asset.

The BBC notes that Meghan was not paid for her earlier appearance. Network 10 did not say whether she will be paid for the junior series. The Guardian adds that it is unclear whether filming will mean a temporary move to Australia for the family, who relocated to the UK in August after six years in California.

A career in transition

The deal fits a pattern of Meghan rebuilding her media profile around food and family. Her Netflix series With Love, Meghan ran for two seasons and a Christmas special. The BBC reports it did not perform well with audiences, though the Guardian notes Netflix said it was viewed 5.3 million times globally in the first half of 2025. The show is widely reported not to be returning, and her As Ever lifestyle brand, which includes a food range, ended its partnership with Netflix in March.

There is also a commercial thread. The BBC says her trademark was registered last year in more than a dozen product categories in Australia, including cookware and table linen. A prominent family-friendly cooking show in that market would sit comfortably alongside those interests, although none of the sources suggest a link between the two.

Timing amid serious allegations

The announcement lands in the same week as allegations involving her father, Thomas Markle Sr. The Guardian reports that her half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr, made a report to authorities in the Philippines alleging he found child sexual abuse images at their father’s former home there. A human trafficking and child sexual exploitation taskforce in Cebu is investigating. Markle Sr denies the claims, calling them “sick” and “a bunch of lies.”

Meghan said through a spokesperson that she was “deeply distressed” and that her thoughts were with any children who may have been harmed. Accounts differ on the detail of her contact with her father. The Guardian says the Met made her aware of allegations in 2019, Deadline says she has had no contact with him since 2018, and the BBC understands she cut off contact last year. None of the reports indicates the television announcement is connected to the allegations.

What the sources do show is a high-visibility children’s programme being built around a figure under intense public attention. Whether Junior MasterChef Australia benefits from that attention, or has to navigate it, will become clearer once a production schedule is confirmed.

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File photo: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.jpg by Office of the Governor-General, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.