Meghan struggles to pull off five year makeover

The Duchess of Sussex’s lifestyle company’s shelves are still empty with the future of the venture remaining a perplexing mystery.

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Imagine the possibilities if the US Food and Drug Administration were not such spoilsports.

Then Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex would be able to call what she sells ‘jam’ rather than a ‘spread’. Imagine the headlines options: ‘in a jam’ or ‘jam-packed’ or ‘jammin’’.

Boo.

But no matter what you call the fruity $13.90 (USD$9) jars of the sweet stuff from by the duchess’ As Ever label, never in history has not-jam (or even jam) made this much news.

This week’s update from the sugary, breakfast frontlines: Chaos. Or at least some topsy-turvy confusion and mixed messages about what is going on with the duchess’ lifestyle company.

It’s now been over 64 DAYS since Meghan’s first As Ever products went on sale with them selling out within 45 minutes, which is less time than it takes Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex to have a morose but therapeutic session with the power hose out the back.

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(The speed with which the shelves were left empty was a brilliant PR-able detail but one that failed to quite specify how big the run was. Or as the Telegraph put the first batch’s selling out so fast, “a common marketing ploy”.)

In the two months since then, eager jam heads and Sussex-stans have been forced to wait patiently for As Ever products to be restocked, resulting in oh so very many slices of toast left undolloped and unadorned by a bit of Meghan’s Matha-ish handiwork.

(It is by all accounts a very very good spread too.)

However, that is about to change at some point with something to be made available to buy at some point in the near future.

Still unclear? Don’t worry, we all are.

Meghan Markle makes homemade jam with her daughter, Lilibet, in their kitchen for Meghan's As Ever range. Picture: Supplied

Eager jam heads and Sussex-stans have been forced to wait patiently for As Ever products to be restocked. Picture: Supplied

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It can be hard to keep abreast of where things stand with the duchess’ move into the lifestyle space because it’s been a long, bumpy ride to even get to this point.

First up came an interview with Meghan in business publication Fast Company last week, which reported that she wanted “to take a step back, gather data from the launch, and figure out exactly what As Ever could be.”

The same piece reported that there would be new As Ever products coming but only in 2026.

It sounded like the duchess was singing from a similar songsheet when she released a bonus episode of her Confessions Of A Female Founder podcast with Tina Knowles, aka Beyoncé’s mum, in which she talked about ‘pausing’ the brand.

She explained that the “scarcity mentality at the beginning might be a hook for people”, but that “I don’t want you to eat that jam once every six months. I want that to be on your shelf all the time.”

Therefore, she said of her thinking: “I’m looking at it saying ‘just pause’ … Let’s wait until we are completely stable and we have everything we need.”

Meghan Markle's mother Doria Ragland and Beyonce's mum, Tina Knowles. Picture: Instagram

Only for then, hope you’re keeping up here, hours later, the As Ever Instagram account to announce that “favourite” items would be restocked this month “plus a few NEW things we can’t wait to show you … get excited!”

Quoi? If you are frowning at the screen trying to make sense of all of this, know you are not alone.

Nothing about As Ever has been simple. Err … ever.

As far as births go, the lifestyle brand’s has been a long and painful one without an epidural.

At some point in 2023 speculation started hub-bubbling away in the press that the duchess was cooking up some sort of clever clogs commercial project, a concept boosted when she and Harry hired a supposed top Hollywood deal-maker who works at “intersection of celebrity and venture investing”

Fast forward to March 2024 when the duchess released a painfully twee Instagram video announcing her new company American Riviera Orchard (ARO) followed by a splashy celebrity jam drop that saw stars briefly pretend to cosplay eating carbohydrates for the sake of bucking up her brand.

Then came months that saw ARO face regular, embarrassing headlines as attempts to trademark the name failed like floppy souffles and ARO soon disappeared into the business Bermuda Triangle.

Meghan Markle launched an Instagram shop selling products she endorses. Picture: ShopMy

The Duchess of Sussex unveiled her curated clothing and jewellery line on the US site ShopMy. Picture: ShopMy

(Last year the Daily Mail columnist Richard Eden, who is an ardently anti Sussex, claimed that the duchess had jumped the gun on launching ARO to prevent him getting the scoop.)

February finally saw ARO put out of its misery, when Harry manned the iPhone to film his wife oddly squatting In a garden bed to swap ARO with As Ever, a name which sounded like the title of a Hallmark Cinderella remake set in a perfect Vermont town and involving a lovelorn baker. Farewell ARO, we hardly knew ye.

Also setting As Ever apart – Netflix had gotten involved putting up money and sending their “consumer packaged goods team” to work closely with the duchess’ team.

On March 4 her Netflix series With Love Meghan finally dropped, with her achieving the previously impossible feat of cooking in white linen trousers and not ending up splattered in a simmering tomato sauce. Kudos.

Yet still, eager punters had to wait for Meghan’s products to finally hit online shelves – only for them to sell out in under an hour and for the Duchess of Sussex later to have to apologise for accidentally overselling $43 jars of honey.

Confusingly still, the duchess revealed during this week’s Confessions episode that even to get to this point she and her team had “planned for a year”.

There have been a lot of ups and downs and lawyers lately. Picture: Aaron Chown/PA Images via Getty Images

In short, in 15 months we’ve had more ups and downs and lawyers and jam data and Kris Jenners than even Leo Tolstoy on a dramatic tear could have come up with.

I’m sure there’s some trite Instagramy saying about things that are worth doing are never easy or simple but ARO and As Ever’s travails come after 30 months of career turmoil. Since the bang up success of Harry’s Spare, the couple has parted ways with Spotify, had Polo and Heart of Invictus flop majorly, have failed to produce any scripted content for Netflix, faced ongoing reports about high staff turnover, had Harry’s charities hit with controversies and PR crises, and had The Hollywood Reporter and Vanity Fair publish exposés offering deeply unflattering portraits of the duke and duchess as employers.

But here’s the thing – no matter Meghan’s track record, the reviews of her raspberry not-jam, including from the UK papers, were positive. The consensus from food critics and reviewers: It’s good stuff. Meghan has a winner on her hands even if her flower sprinkles might be the most useless culinary invention since someone came up with the idea of grape scissors.

So can or will the Duchess of Sussex segue out of the mayhem era and transform herself into a fighting fit CEO atop a successful lifestyle empire? The breakfast tables of America need her even if the royal family didn’t seem to. A comeuppance might never be so sweet.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

Originally published as Meghan struggles to pull off five year makeover