Meghan Markle has launched a new lifestyle business called American Riviera Orchard. The company will focus on selling jams, cutlery and nut butters.
The business’ website launched on Thursday with an Instagram page inviting fans to join a waiting list to stay up-to-date on “products, availability and the latest”.
Specifically, an Instagram profile was created with the name, @americanrivieraorchard, a gold logo, with decorative initials A and R, and states that the page is “from Meghanthe Duchess of Sussex.”
In the short video for Nancy Wilson’s I Wish You Love, we see the Duchess of Sussex arranging flowers, baking in a kitchen and posing in a doorway of what appears to be her Montecito home in a gown.
As the Telegraph notes, the application for the American Riviera Orchard trademark was filed on February 2 and is awaiting approval.
Jellies, jars and jams
It will also sell a range of preserves, jellies, jams and various vegetable-based spreads, nut butters and fruit.
The name of the business appears to be based on the location of the Sussexes. Their home in Montecito has an orchard of orange, lemon and almond trees, while Santa Barbara is known as the “American Riviera” for its climate, food and wine culture.
The launch follows claims that the Duchess is planning to “take on America’s most famous lifestyle queens” such as Ina Garten, Martha Stewart and Joanna Gaines and even plans to launch a “lifestyle/food show” on Netflix .
There was much speculation that it would be a version of Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow’s multimillion-dollar lifestyle business, but aides said otherwise.
The initiative is considered highly personal and “genuine to who she is.” The new website was designed by Canadian-based digital agency Article, who Megan has previously used to build The Tig, Archewell and Sussex.com websites.
The Duchess hinted at her plans in a 2022 interview with The Cut magazine, in which she said: “Want to know a secret? I’ll be back… on Instagram.”
So it seems that the Duchess intends to manufacture a range of household items, from tableware and cutlery to cookbooks and wallpaper.
In 2017, the Duchess was forced to shut down The Tig, the successful lifestyle blog she ran before she met prince harry. She described the blog as “a hub for discerning palates – those with a thirst for food, travel, fashion and beauty”.
It closed shortly before the announcement of her engagement to Prince Harry, but the Duchess has long wanted to create something in a similar vein. “It wasn’t just a hobby, it became a really successful business,” he told the Netflix series Harry & Meghan.
The Sussexes made it clear when they retired from public duty to move abroad that they wanted to become financially independent. Since then, they have signed various lucrative trade deals, many of which have not been as successful as they would have hoped.
According to bovary, the pair’s five-year deal with Netflix is due to expire at the end of 2025, with a contract renewal looking increasingly unlikely, while the deal with Spotify ended early last summer.
The Duchess’s first solo venture after moving to the US was an investment in Clevr Blends, a small California startup that makes “wellness lattes”.
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