Meghan, Duchess of Sussex announced as co-host of Junior MasterChef Australia

The Duchess of Sussex has officially been announced as a host for the upcoming series of Junior MasterChef Australia.

Meghan said she “can’t wait” to return to the programme after featuring as a guest judge on MasterChef Australia this summer.

“I had an incredible time with the whole team at MasterChef this past April, so when they approached me to come back and work with this young group of talent, it was an easy yes,” she said in a statement.

“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.

“I can’t wait to see what they cook up.”

Meghan’s return to Australian TV was announced by Paramount Australia on Tuesday, which said the programme will air next year on Network Ten.

She will host alongside Australian chef and TV presenter Poh Ling Yeow.

Meghan, 45, appeared as a guest judge on the 18th season of MasterChef Australia, where contestants were challenged to transform a staple ingredient into a dish “fit for a duchess”.

Paramount said her appearance drew the programme’s largest Sunday audience since 2023.

A statement from the company said: “With Poh’s culinary expertise and Meghan’s enthusiasm for cooking and nurturing young talent, Junior MasterChef Australia promises to serve up plenty of inspiration as the next generation of Australian cooks steps into the kitchen.”

Meghan is set to be based Down Under for the duration of filming, which is likely to take place over weeks in early to mid-2027, Australian outlet News.com.au said.

And she may even be visited by her husband the Duke of Sussex and their children Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, though no decision has yet been made, an insider told the publication.

Production for the show is expected to take place in Melbourne, News.com.au said.

It comes days after Meghan’s half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr, told The Sun he found a stash of child sex abuse images belonging to their father at his former home in the Philippines and reported it to local police and the FBI.

Thomas Markle Sr has admitted to paying for sex in the south-east Asian country but denies ever possessing a hoard of such material.

The Duchess of Sussex sent a final letter to her father while he was recovering there from a leg amputation last year, according to reports in the Sun on Sunday.

She wrote to say she knows he is an abuser and that he will never see his grandchildren, the newspaper said.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed that in 2019 it had passed a letter “containing a number of claims about alleged offending outside the United Kingdom” to Meghan and Harry, but did not share details with other law enforcement agencies.

The BBC and other media including The Telegraph, which said it had seen a copy, reported the note was written by Mr Markle Sr’s ex-wife, Roslyn Loveless, who has since died.

She is the mother of Mr Markle Jr and Meghan’s other half-sibling, Samantha Markle, who has defended their father, telling the Mail on Sunday: “I believe this is a set-up.”

Meghan is “upset and really frustrated” by the Met’s handling of the investigation, The Telegraph reported.

She said that she was shown a letter sent to Scotland Yard making “troubling” allegations against Mr Markle Sr and was assured that these were being investigated.

The Met is now “reviewing the handling of this matter”, including whether it needs to be referred to the police watchdog.

Harry and Meghan set up home back in England in August, six years after sparking the Megxit crisis and quitting the working monarchy for a new life in the US.

Earlier this month, a source told The Telegraph that Meghan is “reading a lot of scripts”, and will focus on her family, lifestyle brand and rebooting her acting career rather than pseudo-royal visits.

They added that if Meghan had time left, she would do “some charity work”, adding “she’s not a working royal” but a full-time mother and entrepreneur.

There had been speculation over Meghan’s next move, including reports the former Suits star was in talks for a role in Netflix’s The Gentlemen.