Mayor ‘considering legal action’ over Meghan Markle’s brand relaunch

The Duchess of Sussex is done with her old lifestyle business without ever selling a single item – and her new one is already in crisis.

I bet the mayor of the Mallorcan town of Porreres didn’t wake up yesterday and expect to find herself potentially locked in a legal war with a member of the British royal family.

But such are the times we live in.

Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex is back today with a new business venture – yes, another one – relaunching herself again like the ever-chic So-Cal human equivalent of one of SpaceX’s booster rockets.

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But would it be a Meghan Moment if, within hours of the grand unveiling of her new baby – a new lifestyle business called As Ever, tied to her upcoming new show With Love, Meghan – things were not already in hottish water? If there was not some possible issue with boring paperwork details and the possibility of courtroom action and the duchess taking the opportunity to obliquely remind the world about how a certain family tried to clip her creative wings?

So, let us begin with the fact that the duchess might end up needing the Spanish language skills she picked up in her 2024 trip to Colombia – because the As Ever logo? Well, Porreres’ coat of arms looks unnervingly similar, with reports mayor Francisca Mora Veny is now considering legal action.

The coat of arms of the Mallorcan town of Porreres.

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And the name? There is already an American clothing brand called As Ever, which boasts an earthy, minimal aesthetic, love of a relaxed white shirt and has a similar URL (asever.com versus asevernyc.com).

And the royal family? Today’s video of Meghan filmed in what looks like a vegetable garden, with Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex having manfully done his part and hit record, did not fail to include something of a jab at her in-laws back in Unmerry Windsor.

Even though it’s been five years since the Sussexes absconded from the palace pen to mainline freedom, there was, you see, something that had been holding her back for “the past few years”. The way Meghan tells it to us, she “hasn’t been able to share” her great love of pie-making and bouquet prinking and meticulously folding napkins into ornamental swans before Prince Harry is allowed to tuck into his morning quinoa bowl.

The As Ever logo. Familiar, no?

“If you followed me since 2014 with The Tig, you’ll know, I’ve always loved cooking and crafting and gardening,” she says, which is sweet in a way, because outside of dedicated Suits fans, I’m not how much of the world was tuned into Meghan before that Aitch chappie came into her life.

Of As Ever, she says, “This is what I do and I haven’t been able to share it with you in the same way for the past few years, but now I can”.

What’s that you say, Meghan? What great force or institution or situation might have constrained her such?

Oh. Them.

Them with the crowns and the castles and their Eggs Drumkilbo and no one ever mentioning what great, great Uncle David got up to during the war.

Of the grand unveiling of As Ever, If you’re currently feeling an overwhelming sense of deja vu, you are not alone. I know the US is the land of reinvention and the great second or third act, but how many relaunches can one person have?

Meghan has announced yet another relaunch. Picture: Instagram

Will it stick this time? Picture: Instagram

We have had the ditching of the fusty UK for the wide open spaces of the US relaunch and the valiantly sharing her truth about the royal family relaunch and then that sideways occasional assuming of feminist warrior mantle (somehow the Equal Rights Amendment is still not ratified) and the more than two years of teasing her Instagram relaunch. (The duchess first talked about it in an interview in August 2022, when the late Queen was still alive, which tells you how long ago that was).

Then last year came the American Riviera Orchard (ARO) relaunch of Meghan-as-designer-domestic-deity, with the business meant to be some sort of entertaining slash lifestyle thingamy.

Here we are. Again. Another relaunch, only this time with the added possibility of meditation accessories. According to the Telegraph, the As Ever trademark application shows it could sell everything from branded bird seed to “edible flower petals” to cocktail mixes to meditation blankets. (Imagine using a regular blanket for Zen-related purposes? Quelle horreur!)

Meghan has also undergone something of an image makeover with the As Ever video.

While the ARO teaser last year lent heavily into tradwife territory, less Simone de Beauvoir and more Suzy Homemaker, including Meghan appearing to feed chickens in a ball gown (the duchess really knows how to make herself relatable, no?) we now have So Cal Gal. Makeup-free, in a white linen shirt, stunning and completely natural.

With Love, Meghan will hit Netflix in March. Picture: Netflix

This is a woman who presses her own almond milk, goes to sleep reading her food dehydrator manual to make her kids’ organic fruit roll-ups, and refuses to let a single surface in her home not feature an ever-flickering, jasmine-scented soy candle.

Also separating ARO from As Ever is that the duchess is only one half of the operation. No, not him behind the camera who has taken a break from Assassins Creed, but Netflix which, Meghan explains, “came on, not just as my partner in the show but as my partner in my business, which was huge”.

So … same, same but different, but you can now actually use your credit card too.

While an As Ever online store seems an obvious next step, last week the Daily Mail reported that the first Meghan products will soon be available for purchase at the Netflix House retail stores in mega malls in Philadelphia and Dallas. Eager shoppers will have to look out for the duchess’ “stands” among the Squid Game and Stranger Things merch also on sale inside the shops.

It’s been five years since the Sussexes absconded from the palace pen to mainline freedom. Picture: Samir Hussein/WireImage

With the birth of As Ever, I wonder, will this be the iteration and the business that finally sticks?

In all fairness, it would be a major mistake to write off As Ever, because Meghan has more natural good taste in one causally pillow-strewn nook than most people could achieve with a dedicated team of design professionals and one of those credit cards made out of solid adamantium. If you asked someone in Silicon Valley about these transitions and professional shapeshifting, they would just say it all shows an admirable fluidity and dynamism and willingness to pivot.

Within weeks, it will be up to Netflix subscribers and shoppers to decide though when they can vote with their remotes and wallets and willingness to meditate sans a specific blanket.

In the caption on Insta alongside the video, Meghan explained of the name, “‘As Ever’ essentially means as it’s always been”.

Exactly. As ever, it’s all a bit messy and as ever, she looks wonderful and as ever, she’s trying something new and as ever, there is never a dull day in Sussex Land.

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

Originally published as Mayor ‘considering legal action’ over Meghan Markle’s brand relaunch