It’s official: Meghan Markle is reinventing herself as a lifestyle influencer. This week saw the big unveiling of her new venture, American Riviera Orchard, with a slick logo unveiled in nine tiles on Instagram. An accompanying video provides a little more information, with the Duchess of Sussex artfully arranging white roses and hydrangeas in one shot, while in another shot she cooks on a beautiful kitchen island in what we assume is her Montecito home. So far so ambitious. Those who sign up for updates are promised news about “products, availability and updates,” while the trademark for the brand, filed in February, lists carafes, kitchen linens, pet accessories, table card holders, nut butters, spreads, preserves. and jellies.
Since her 2022 interview with The cut, where she dropped hints that she would return to Instagram, there has been intense speculation about Meghan’s next move. Before marrying into the royal family, the former To take actress was also an aspiring lifestyle influencer, with her own blog, The Tig, where she posted stories about her favorite recipes and home decor hacks, shared yoga workouts and told you how to set your table for Christmas. After almost four years, she was forced to close it down when she got engaged to Prince Harry in 2017 as it was deemed inappropriate for a future royal bride, but there has always been a feeling that the idea never really left her.
Naturally, with the launch of American Riviera Orchard, many have drawn comparisons between Meghan and her fellow Hollywood A-listers turned lifestyle gurus. It is suggested that the Duchess hopes to emulate the success of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, or be the ‘new’ Martha Stewart – with a certain snarkiness in the commentary. And while few details are available at this time about American Riviera Orchard, Meghan did put one thing on the Instagram page: her royal title. The biography simply states: ‘By Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Set in 2024” – which will no doubt irritate some corners of the internet, with the tired implication that she is somehow capitalizing on her marital status. But in many ways, Meghan’s career is not at all unusual for a royal family: They have been lifestyle influencers for centuries, popularizing trends, promoting their favorite products and selling their own wares.
After all, what Meghan does with American Riviera Orchard is no different from what her father-in-law does: King Charles III, did it with his Duchy Originals brand – and not just because they both sell jam. Launched in 1990 as a passion project for the then Prince of Wales, it championed his belief in organic farming practices, using milk from cows fed an organic diet and eggs from chickens given plenty of space to roam and forage. Derided for years for what were seen as somewhat ‘extraordinary’ views on farming, Charles led the way, as did Waitrose, which partnered exclusively with the brand in 1992. Fast forward 30 years and Duchy Originals has raised over £30 million ($38 million) for The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund, which promotes the building of sustainable communities, with a reported profit of £3.6 million ($4.6 million) for Waitrose in 2021 alone.
