When Meghan Markle announced her intention to invite her fans into the kitchen with a Netflix cooking show to polish her newly launched lifestyle brand, she never said whose kitchen it would be.
Now, as DailyMail.com can reveal, viewers can expect an “at home with Meghan Markle” experience as they learn about all things American Riviera Orchard.
Just don’t expect the house to be yours.
Instead, as seen in these exclusive images from DailyMail.com, the Duchess of Domesticity set up shop on a sprawling property two miles from the Montecito mansion that she and Prince Harry, 39, share with their sons Archie , 4, and Lilibet, 2. and their rotating cast of staff.
Just days after she meticulously numbered jars of homemade strawberry jam from one to fifty and sent them to dozens of her closest influencers, filming on Meghan, 42,’s latest adventure 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 $5 million property located on eight acres of avocado and lemon groves in a gated community in Montecito to film “interior and exterior dialogue scenes.”
DailyMail.com can reveal that Meghan is not using her own mansion in Montecito, but the kitchen of philanthropists Tom and Sherrie Cipolla. Production trucks and tents are seen on the property.
The owners have organized fundraisers for the center in the same house where Meghan currently plays house.
Exclusive photos show several SUVs arriving at the property as production began.
A filming permit application obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com shows filming taking place at two separate locations.
On Tuesday, Meghan, who recently teased the launch of American Riviera Orchard with out-of-focus images of herself arranging pink flowers and stirring something in a bowl, spent the day surrounded by flowers from Florabundance, a florist a 10-minute drive from Montecito in the coastal town of Carpinteria, in California.
On Wednesday, production trucks lined the driveway of a $5 million property located on eight acres of avocado and lemon trees in a gated community in Montecito to film “interior and exterior dialogue scenes,” which began on Sunday and are scheduled to continue late. June.
Tom and Sherrie Cipolla lent their home to Meghan for her cooking show. The couple are fixtures in the Montecito bougie society scene and generous donors to several good causes locally.
Security vehicles guarded both entrances to the 4,500-square-foot home.
The property is the home of Tom and Sherrie Cipolla, both members of the Montecito bougie society scene and generous donors to several good causes locally, including the Storyteller Center, a therapeutic preschool for children facing adversity.
They have organized fundraisers for the center in the same house where Meghan currently plays house.
Tom, 75, and his wife Sherrie, 69, parents of two adult children, have a property portfolio valued at more than $20 million, spanning two dozen buildings in Los Angeles County and Santa Barbara. The couple also runs a physical therapy practice that last year reported sales of more than $1.3 million.
When approached by DailyMail.com, Sherrie Cipolla declined to comment on the purpose of the film crew currently camping at her home.
The family room and kitchen with its French doors opening onto a patio, lawn and mountains, Caesartone countertops and 48-inch Thermador stove are, appropriately enough, the centerpiece of the Montecito property where the Duchess of Sussex will hone her image carefully curated. of domestic goddess.
Here, from the comfort of someone else’s home, you’ll share “the pleasures of cooking, gardening, entertaining and friendship” as well as chasing ratings.
Meghan announced her new business, American Riviera Orchard, with a clip showing the duchess cooking in a kitchen with copper pots hanging above her head as she whisked.
On Tuesday, Meghan spent the day surrounded by flowers from Florabundance, a florist a 10-minute drive from Montecito in the coastal town of Carpinteria, California.
A filming permit application obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com shows filming in two separate locations.
Last month, DailyMail.com revealed the astonishing array of products Meghan intends to sell as founder of American Riviera Orchard, so named because the coastal enclave of Montecito is known to its wealthy residents as America’s riviera.
Apparently in a bid to one-up Martha Stewart and Gwyneth Paltrow, Meghan will be selling everything from garden palettes to tea towels, scented candles, makeup, skincare products and pet shampoo.
If you can dream it, Meghan will probably sell it.
In recent days, Harry and Meghan have embarked on another relaunch, this time closely linked to their upcoming Netflix projects.
Harry is ready to bring polo to the masses, while his wife seems ready to bring cooking to everyone’s kitchen but her own.
Last week, the couple traveled to Florida, where he was a guest of honor at a fundraising dinner for his charity, Sentebale, in Miami on Thursday night before playing in the Royal Salute Polo Challenge in Wellington later in the day. following.
Meghan, stunning in a $515 ivory Heidi Merrick peekaboo dress, proudly planted a kiss on her husband as she presented him with the trophy after her team won.
Followed by the Netflix team, Harry returned to the polo field for more filming on Saturday.
According to the streaming platform’s advertising, the prince hopes his new show will “raise the curtain on the courage and passion of the sport, capturing the players and everything 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 football documentary Welcome to Wrexham, a show that, along with his co-ownership with Always Sunny in Philadelphia actor Rob McElhenny, has catapulted the small Welsh team up. a league and international fame.
Fashion designer Tracy Robbins posted a photo of Meghan’s jam, which had the American Riviera Orchard logo and ‘Montecito’ underneath. The label also had the words “17 of 50”, indicating that it was number 17 of only 50 jars in the first batch.
Meanwhile, Meghan’s show will also have some great talent behind it. It will be directed by Michael Steed, who worked on Anthony Bourdain’s Emmy-winning Parts Unknown, and the behind-the-camera crew includes Leah Hariton, showrunner of Selena Gomez’s HBO cooking show, ‘Selena + Chef.’
Filming permission obtained by DailyMail.com reveals that Alex Dandino, the production manager for that same show, is also involved in Meghan’s entry into the culinary world, raising the possibility that she may also be joined by professional chefs to cook together. .
All of the shows are part of the couple’s attempt to fulfill the $100 million Netflix deal they signed in 2020.
At the time they issued a statement saying: ‘Our lives, both independently and as a couple, have allowed us to understand the power of the human spirit: courage, resilience and the need for connection. Through our work with diverse communities and their environments, to shine a light on people and causes around the world, we will focus on creating content that informs but also gives hope.’
So far they have produced a documentary about themselves.