With Love, Meghan Episode Thirteen: Spice Up Your Life

WITH LOVE, MEGHAN: SPICE UP YOUR LIFE

Original Airdate: August 26, 2025

Special Guests: Jay Shetty and Radhi Devlukia, with cameos from Jim Lind Arlon, Phil Asquith and Jamie Kern Lima 

Mentions of "Joy": 2

Mentions of Edible Flower Sprinkles: Yes

Passive-Aggressive Moments: 0

Gushing Praise for Markel: "We really feel like we've got memories to take away with us, which is really beautiful". 

"Colors of the world, Spice Up Your Life! Every boy and every girl, Spice Up Your Life! People of the world, Spice Up Your Life! AHH!" So sang the Spice Girls in Spice Up Your Life, which I think is a fun pop song from an unfairly bashed musical act. It might have been a Netflix meltdown if Meghan, Duchess of Sussex had shared the screen with Victoria, Lady Beckham on Spice Up Your Life, the thirteenth With Love, Meghan episode. Alas, we will not see them chew the fat here. Instead, we will get vegan and soap delights as well as questions on who exactly these people are. 

Mrs. Sussex is hosting "author and podcaster" Jay Shetty and his wife, "plant-based cook and author" Radhi Devlukia for crafts and food. Mr. and Mrs. Shetty are vegans, so Meghan Saxe-Coburg & Gotha has to cater to their specific food requirements. As such, it is the perfect time for a quick visit to the Ojai Olive Oil Company with "entrepreneur and friend" Jamie Kern Lima. Both grove manager Jim Lind Arlon and owner Phil Asquith guide our gal pals through the olive oil process. Once Meghan finishes marveling at the wonders of olive oil making, she welcomes Jay and Radhi. 

Some of that olive oil will be used for making soap. Radhi is delighted to be in the craft barn. Jay is less so, constantly belittling his skills at soap making. This Eeyore-like manner from the life coach continues into the kitchen. Radhi has no problem making meals for up to 40 people, which is something that amazes Meghan Markle.

One can only wonder what her reaction would be had she attended a state banquet at Windsor Castle which can have more than a 100 people. At the recent state dinner for President Donald Trump, there were 160 guests in attendance. More than likely, Her Royal Highness Meghan, Duchess of Sussex would have thrown her organic Norfolk chicken ballotine at the President and started screaming at him about how he's putting people in literal concentration camps and is literally the New/Worse Than Hitler. Yet, I digress.

Once the joy of handmade soap is done, Radhi Devlukia will guide the royal hand through potato & green bean curry and naan bread. Jay continues to put down his abilities to do anything. He is chided about this by Meghan and Radhi, the former pointing out that his whole podcast is about positivity. We get a tutorial on How to Make Coconut Macaroons from Meghan. "There's something very satisfying watching you do that", With Love, Meghan's director Michael Steed remarks off camera as she spreads her beloved edible flower sprinkles on said macaroons. They check in on the soap, which turned out great and will make for great, personal gifts. With the cooking done, out trio can enjoy the fruits of their labor, satisfied in all the joyful memories that they have made today.

I confess to having absolutely no idea who Jay Shetty is, let alone who his wife is. Actually, I'm going to walk that back just a touch. I am vaguely familiar with Shetty thanks to seeing the cover of his book Think Like a Monk, his admittedly pretty eyes but somewhat frightening grin staring back at me. Actually, both Shetty and Devlukia have very arresting eyes, yet I digress. Granted, I've no idea what a monk thinks like or why Shetty specifically has such insight into those matters. I also was unaware that monks of any faith were tatted up, but times have changed.

Spice Up Your Life is a showcase for Radhi Devlukia. She is a mistress of cooking and really of all that she surveys. Devlukia is confident in her cooking skills, able to wax rhapsodic about both the dishes and her family background. It almost makes one yearn for a With Love, Radhi. I wouldn't watch as I am a devout carnivore. Still, Spice Up Your Life does what With Love, Meghan occasionally stumbles onto: entertaining and educating viewers. You do still have to use the QR Code to get details on the dishes. However, Devlukia demonstrated a confidence and self-assurance that past professional chefs have done on With Love, Meghan. When professionals are allowed to take center stage, the results are positive.

Unfortunately, Spice Up Your Life is pretty much a disaster for Jay Shetty. His whole brand, per my understanding, is built on overcoming negativity and stopping overthinking. Yet, that is exactly what Shetty does throughout Spice Up Your Life. He looks lost, befuddled and persistently insists that everything that he does will turn out wrong. Shetty looks and sounds totally incompetent and sometimes bored throughout Spice Up Your Life. It does not help that he sounds like a less confident Eeyore during Spice Up Your Life. It got to a point where Meghan herself told him that he was doing the exact opposite of what his podcast was all about. In his light brown cardigan, he looked like a meek librarian suddenly thrust in front of a television crew and trying to not get noticed.

That did not stop him from unleashing one of the most oddball gushing praises for Her Royal Highness that With Love, Meghan has given us. "You've been so wonderful today. Honestly, this has been such a joy. We really feel like we've got memories to take away with us, which is really beautiful. Thank you so much. I mean that. Thank you. Such a sweet day to spend with you. Such a special day" (emphasis mine). I wonder if these declarations seemed a bit grandiose for our ex-monk. At least Shetty gave us a rare moment when Markle wasn't the one bringing up "joy". When you add "honestly" and "I mean that", my mind thinks that you are not sincere.

I have the sense that Spice Up Your Life was originally going to be titled Herb Your Enthusiasm. This is based on the chalkboard message that Meghan, Duchess of Sussex wrote out in her grandiose handwriting. Whatever this With Love, Meghan episode was meant to be called, Spice Up Your Life hardly did that. It felt curiously disengaging and uninteresting, not to mention haphazard. 

We start with her visit to the Ojai Olive Oil Company fields. Meghan has her friend Jamie Kern Lima by her side, marveling at olive oil production. Unlike in the last go-round, we were told whom the Duchess was speaking to at the olive oil grove. Still, while Lima was there, she played no part in the overall part of Spice Up Your Life. Why was Lima accompanying Markle to the olive oil grove? What part did she have to play in any of this? Mrs. Sussex could not bring "her husband" to walk among the olive trees? Was she unable to even bring the mysterious Hawthorn Markle to join her? 

At this early point in Spice Up Your Life, I thought about how With Love, Meghan could have been good. Granted, a documentary about olive oil production could have made for dry viewing (no pun intended). However, a good hostess will make any subject interesting. Perhaps there is the problem. Meghan is not a good hostess. I think that she attempts to look interested in her guests. She might actually even be interested in her guests and what they say. She just struggles to truly engage her guests.

Markle certainly struggles to engage her viewers. She still will not look directly into the camera. If one looks at all other television show hosts, whether for chat or cooking shows, they will look at us. Markle never does. She will look at the camera crew. However, her inability or refusal to look directly at us always suggests that Markle really does not acknowledge her viewers. Worse, it suggests that she really does not want us to be there. This runs counter to With Love, Meghan's efforts to be warm and engaging. You cannot be a hostess if you refuse to acknowledge your guests. 

I sincerely doubt that With Love, Meghan will be renewed for a second/third series. Were it to be renewed, the best piece of direction that Steed could have given Her Royal Highness was "look directly into the camera". Markle simultaneously wants to welcome viewers in and keep them at a distance. It is very odd how she wants this "fly on the wall" manner when with guests but also wants to be teacher with her viewers. In the kitchen and craft barn, Markle can be chatty when with others, sometimes excessively so. When alone, such as in the How to Make Coconut Macaroons segment, she never looks at us. She will talk to Michael Steed or perhaps another crew member. However, she appears to attempt to speak to her viewers.

It makes for curious television. Meghan Markle wants to be both friend and teacher with her viewers. She, however, cannot or will not engage with them, except perhaps to lecture them.

As for the overall program, Spice Up Your Life seems rather dull. Making hand soap seems such a strange thing to have your guests do. I should figure that Markle genuinely believes that having your guests participate in these joyful activities is wonderful. I personally would find it tedious, dull and uninteresting. It does not help that Meghan constantly tells us how much of an amateur she is. "This is my first time. We're learning this together", she tells Shetty and Devlukia when making the soap. That does not inspire confidence. It also becomes a bit schizophrenic, to be a guide on crafting while openly stating that you have no experience in what you are guiding others in doing. 

Perhaps that is why when With Love, Meghan features professional chefs like Roy Choi, Ramon Velasquez, Samin Nosrat and now Radhi Devlukia, the show does better. You know that they know what they are doing. More importantly, THEY know that they know what they are doing. You are in competent and confident hands. Meghan Markle consistently shows that she barely has any idea what she is doing. She persistently protests both her culinary acumen and her total lack of experience. It makes for torturous viewing. 

Spice Up Your Life is interesting in certain ways. It does not make a case for why carnivores should go vegetarian or vegan. It makes the case for how Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Jay Shetty have no business being considered experts on whatever they claim to have knowledge of. It showcases Radhi Devlukia as someone to watch. 

"We're not going for perfect. We're going for real", Meghan Markle states in Spice Up Your Life. Color Me Dubious that she is truthful on both counts.

To think, here is Meghan Markle, living her best life in Montecito with the mysterious "Aitch" by her side. To be preparing coconut macaroons with edible flower sprinkles must be a step up from having to wear tiaras and be served on golden plates. 

Why have this when you can have edible flower sprinkles? 

4/10

Next Episode: Just for the Halibut