The oven mitts are truly off as Meghan Markle and Martha Stewart battle it out for the title of the ultimate Queen of the kitchen.
Just weeks after she and Prince Harry made their much-anticipated return to the UK for a secret summit with King Charles and Queen Camilla at Highgrove House, it appears Meghan may have dipped her finger into one pie too many, as last week the domestic Duchess found herself in the clasp of, as rumour has it, some of the sharpest claws in Hollywood.
Since Meghan landed her own highly sought-after Netflix deal with her cooking show, With Love, Meghan, she has been widely pitted against Martha, who, meanwhile, appears to have done little to dampen the growing speculation of a feud.
And last week, the pinafored powerhouse appeared to hit out at Meghan during an interview with People, not-so-subtly hinting that she had been discussing her visit with Charles and Camilla. Yes, the very same visit that the monarch is reported to have wanted to remain completely private.
Martha, 85, told the magazine, ‘I had dinner with Meghan Markle the other night. We were both guests at a dinner party in California. And she had just gotten back from the palace. I didn’t talk to her really more than to say a couple of words, but I know she was talking about it.’
Then, making matters worse, she then went on to criticise Meghan’s decision to enter into the lifestyle/homemaking sphere – a world many in Hollywood, including the likes of A-listers Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Garner and Jessica Alba have battled to compete in.
© Getty Images
Martha, the all-time reigning Queen of the pantry, added, ‘If you’re an actress, it’s hard to then transition to a princess and then from a princess into a homemaking guru on a television show. It doesn’t sort of follow. So go from there.’
One thing Martha has never been, however, is subtle. She minces her meat, but not her words. Her scathing insults have included calling Blake Lively’s preserve company ‘stupid’ and said of GOOP founder Gwyneth Paltrow, ‘She just needs to be quiet. She’s a movie star. If she were confident in her acting, she wouldn’t be trying to be Martha Stewart’.
And now a source tells us that Meghan may have just become the latest victim of Martha’s tirades against her competitors.
An insider says, ‘The way she tells it, she was just innocently answering a question and telling the truth. She says she heard Meghan chatting about her time in the U.K., and she sees nothing wrong with saying as much.
‘But Martha is very territorial and very catty, of course, she knows that her words carry a lot of weight, so no one thinks it’s an accident that she managed to make Meghan look bad and get herself a load of attention in the process.’
They add, ‘Martha does not like other people coming into the lifestyle space. Just look at how vicious she’s been to Gwyneth over the years, and when she feels at all threatened, she goes on the attack.’
Martha’s claims that Meghan had been gossiping about her royal return will no doubt have landed badly with the Palace at a time where the upmost discretion and total secrecy over any interactions with the Royal Family is the order of the day.
© Getty Images
However, having seen a drop in popularity over recent months, both in the UK and the US, according to recent polls, what appears to have been a low blow from Martha may have actually helped boost Meghan’s acceptance in Hollywood, where even the biggest stars have fallen victim to Martha’s sharp tongue.
The source says, ‘She didn’t give any details or imply Meghan was being negative and says she finds it quite shocking that this has been turned into such a big deal. But it’s hard for most people to believe Martha is that naïve.
‘Martha has decades of playing these social games and manipulating the media. She’s acting as though she doesn’t see what all the fuss is about, as though she didn’t just drop a grenade.’
Meghan, however, appears to be brushing off the comments in the way only a Duchess can – with ice cream, a tiara, a birthday swim, holding a bunch of balloons and dancing around her kitchen, which appears to have undergone a swoon-worthy makeover with TWO islands, luxe Portuguese tiling and a dining area fit for a royal.
Showing off her gleaming new kitchen and whipping up homemade ice cream using jam from her own line also proves Meghan knows how to serve her own ice-cold revenge without saying a word. And the source says Meghan only plans to continue in the same vein and will hit Martha ‘where it matters most’ – in the kitchen.
‘Meghan will be fuming, but she’s not going to get into a public war of words with Martha; instead, she’s going to hit her where it matters most, by taking some of her market share,’ the insider says.
‘It may not happen tomorrow, but she’s vowing it will happen, no matter how long it takes, and Meghan plans to keep at it because, whether Martha believes it or not, she is sincere in all of this.
‘Cooking has always been a passion for her, and it still is; you can see that in her incredible state-of-the-art kitchen, it’s clearly something she’s invested in and takes seriously.’
Yet having built up her own lifestyle empire from scratch and being named as America’s first self-made female billionaire in 1999, we’re told Martha is adamant that no young upstart is going to eclipse her level of success – and isn’t afraid to tear down anyone who tries.
The source says, ‘The truth is that she [Martha] does not appreciate anyone that she views as trying to knock her off her perch in any way. She sees herself as the undisputed queen of the domestic lifestyle world, and all these newer personalities, with Meghan being the biggest name among them, really get under her skin.
‘Martha is clever enough to take her little swipes in a way that still allows for reasonable deniability. She plays dumb, but anyone that knows her, knows that she’s as wily as a fox, and, whether she wants to acknowledge it or not, her comments have fuelled another wave of negative headlines for Meghan.’
Yet we’re told there could also be another reason Martha appears to be so vehemently against Meghan’s bid for success as, alongside unexpectedly being BFFs with Snoop Dogg, she also revealed earlier this year how she calls King Charles ‘chuck’.
Ahead of her attendance at a charity gala hosted by the King at Christie’s New York in May, Martha told journalists, ‘I call him Chuck, and he looks great girls’, before going on to compliment Camilla, too.
Now we’re told, ‘She’s also a huge anglophile, she adores King Charles and was falling all over herself to impress him a few months ago, so it’s not hard to imagine that has something to do with this too.’
Understandably, then, the source says Meghan feels like she’s fighting an uphill battle, but is determined to play Martha at her own game.
‘It’s the last thing Meghan needs right now and so demoralising because she is adamant that this never happened,’ they tell us.
‘But what can she do to defend herself? Her only reasonable option is silence because anything she says will only draw more attention to it, so she simply has to swallow her feelings and use them as fuel to outdo Martha at her own game.’
