Meghan Markle is getting called out as “Salmonella Sussex.”
The duchess’ Thanksgiving video was always going to be a target — especially since most of her critics do not celebrate the holiday as we know it.
But critics are pointing out a glaring hygiene issue in her food prep.
Did she earn her “Salmonella Sussex” title?
Is Meghan Markle the ‘Salmonella Sussex’ that social media is calling her?
Last week, Meghan Markle took to her Instagram Story to share a video of part of her Thanksgiving preparations.
A clip showed her mixing seasonings into a bowl and then rubbing the mixture onto the turkey.
“Let the ‘game’ begin,” Meghan quipped, utilizing a painful pun.
The music for the video was “Turkey Chase” by Bob Dylan.
While Meghan’s self-acknowledged “mom jokes” induced cringing, that was not the cause of the outcry.
Serious question, did Meghan Markle wash her hands between rubbing spice on a raw turkey and grabbing the salt/pepper shaker?😳 Also, guess she’s making up for last year when she order out for Thanksgiving. It could be a fake turkey though, that is a distinct possibility.… pic.twitter.com/8gddk4B3tl
— Royal News Network (@RNN_RoyalNews) November 26, 2025
In the video, Meghan applied the rub with her bare hands.
This is normal, if not universal, for people making food in their own kitchens at home rather than in an industrial setting.
However, Meghan appeared to still be wearing her gold bracelet and ring during the process.
Jewelry can sometimes create little “traps” where germs can avoid water, abrasion, and soap.
Though some only learned this at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, proper handwashing involves removing jewelry and separately sanitizing it.
Criticisms range from targeting her hygiene to complaining about normal ways of preparing a turkey
A now-viral Reddit thread, “Salmonella Sussex,” highlights the outrage that Meghan Markle critics are feeling.
“She has the worst kitchen hygiene. The ‘domestic’ goddess is clueless,” griped one redditor.
“The more she pretends to be a cook, the more fake she shows herself to be,” the critic then claimed. “Jewelry rubbing up against the meat, hair shedding, and her grubby paws stroking the poor dead bird,”
Another weighed in: “I don’t even put on my jewellery when applying makeup, and I remove them when cooking. Jewelry are known fomites for infections.”
An additional Reddit denizen wrote: “I’ve cooked multiple turkeys and never put my hand in one like this ffs. She’s a blithering idiot in the kitchen.”
Meghan Markle is teaching how to make a turkey camera-ready by glazing a turkey with honey. Just don’t expect it to taste good or keep its crisp skin. pic.twitter.com/85gHcMXZp1
— e-beth (@ebeth360) November 30, 2025
“Lordy, she so obviously knows absolutely nothing about cooking or how to work in a kitchen. For the safety of humanity, keep her out of the kitchen,” an extremely hyperbolic critic worte.
“Aside from the hair, jewelry, and bare hands all over that turkey, it’s astonishing how she also had her damn forearms laying across the body of the turkey at times,” marveled another.
That critic continued: “She might have well been naked and rubbing the darn thing all over herself. What an idiot! It’s such a treat she is getting called out like this.”
As you can tell from a number of these comments, some critics simply seem unfamiliar with traditional preparations for a Thanksgiving turkey.
That fits with several diction choices that would indicate that the writer is more likely from the UK than from the US.
Let’s be honest: she can never ‘win’ with most of these people
To be clear, raw turkey can contain various germs — of which salmonella is merely the most famous.
Raw poultry can easily contaminate kitchens and cooks. People may be less cautious than they are with pork or beef. They will touch aprons, those nasty cloth hand towels (please use paper towels in the kitchen), tools, and countertops.
And yes, wearing jewelry while cooking is often unwise. Especially if there could be sanitation concerns.
But, as we alluded earlier, some critics didn’t seem to understand extremely normal ways of preparing a turkey. That is because they’re not culinary snobs — but simply dislike the duchess.
To be blunt, Meghan Markle could have followed every single hygiene concern stated, and most of these same people would likely have taken another issue.
Meghan can do no right in many people’s eyes. Which is likely why she (wisely) doesn’t seem to try. Just for the record, it’s likely that she removed and sanitized her jewelry while washing her hands. Because that’s just common sense.