When Meghan Markle stepped on stage at the Time100 Summit earlier this month, I don’t think anyone – least of all Meghan – expected that the subject of edible flower petals would dominate the conversation. Yet here we are, somehow debating, dissecting, and deriding her decision to toss a few dried blossoms on her scrambled eggs. (Aside, I’m not going to lie, I don’t think I’ll ever make time in my life for putting flowers on my eggs, but I appreciate it looks very pretty).
“It’s like a little fairy,” Meghan said, describing how she started casually sprinkling the petals on everything – salads, yogurt parfaits, even eggs. “The level of charm that you find people have when they see these tiny little dried petals is something I can’t wrap my head around, but I appreciate that there is a love for the detail and the small level of delight that can be added.”
A reminder, Meghan said, that tiny, effortless gestures can add a bit of magic to our daily lives – and who among us, she asked the crowd, isn’t craving that right now?
The internet, as it so often does, didn’t seem to get as much joy from the idea of petals on eggs.
Within hours, social media was flooded with images of sad takeout containers and cheap cocktails “elevated” with piles of wilted daisies or neon sugar flowers. One post featuring a fish and chips platter decked out in petals had half a million views, asking “Who needs ketchup when you can have a handful of potpourri?”
Of course, some of this was funny. Some of it was mean. Most of it was predictable. By now, it’s almost a given that anything Meghan says – whether it’s about politics, parenting, or produce – will provoke a reaction. It comes with the territory.
But still, I keep coming back to a basic question: Why does the image of Meghan Markle tossing flower petals make people so mad?
There’s an argument to be made that flower sprinkles are a little silly. Sure. They are Instagram shorthand for a curated life, one where even your ice cubes need to be beautiful. Meghan’s show With Love, Meghan, a dreamy Netflix series that meanders through garden parties and sleepovers, fits neatly into that glossy, highly aestheticised space. It’s supposed to be aspirational. That’s the whole point of it.
But if Gwyneth Paltrow can sell us $200 vibrators and Martha Stewart can teach us how to fold napkins into swans without mass outrage, why does Meghan’s dried petal moment ignite this particular fury?
Maybe it’s because, as Meghan herself acknowledged at Time100, the petals aren’t just about food. They are about finding “tiny moments of joy” and adding “a splash of magic” to otherwise ordinary experiences. That’s a message that – depending on your feelings about Meghan – either feels charmingly earnest or insufferably out-of-touch.
The backlash to Meghan’s petals has less to do with culinary technique and more to do with the complicated, polarising figure she has become. It’s the same reason a simple announcement about a jam line (As Ever, her newly rebranded lifestyle brand) becomes international news, or why a softly filmed cooking show draws such as intense reaction from viewers. As an aside, Meghan’s $30 As Ever petals have sold out, so she’s clearly not the only one putting petals on eggs.
Meghan, to her credit, seemed unbothered. And perhaps, that’s the real source of the irritation. Meghan Markle continues to live, to create, to sprinkle petals, without crumbling under the pressure to either disappear or apologise for existing. She won’t become less ambitious, less joyful, less extra.
As for the flower sprinkles? I’m not personally racing out to cover my eggs in dried nasturtiums. But if a few edible petals make someone’s morning feel more magical, who am I – or anyone else – to begrudge them that?
