Meghan Markle’s new As Ever products ‘won’t be ready’ until a few months after Netflix show launch – after Duchess rebranded her lifestyle business at the eleventh hour
Meghan Markle’s new As Ever lifestyle products are not set to be ready until a ‘few months’ after her upcoming Netflix cookery show is released.
The Duchess of Sussex, 43, last week rebranded American Riviera Orchard to the name ‘As Ever’, launching a website with a cover photo of her holding hands with her daughter Princess Lilibet, three, in the California sunshine.
In her announcement video, Meghan also confirmed that Netflix would be her new business partner – something she said was ‘huge’. This led people to believe that the new launch would coincide with the show coming out.
However, sources have now told PageSix that the highly anticipated lifestyle products – which will include jam, gardening and other homeware items – won’t be ready for sale until a few months after With Love, Meghan is released.
The cooking and entertaining show will be launched on Netflix on March 4, after it was postponed from January due to the LA wildfires.
Meghan, wearing a white linen shirt and blue jeans, told fans: ‘The cat’s out of the bag.
‘I’m shocked we’ve kept this a secret for so long. In two weeks my show is coming out, which I’m so excited for. And also my business, which I think there has been a lot of curiosity about.
‘Last year, I had thought, ‘American Riviera, that sounds like such a great name.’ It’s my neighborhood; it’s a nickname for Santa Barbara, but it limited me to things that were just manufactured and grown in this area.’
Meghan Markle’s new As Ever lifestyle products are not set to be ready until a ‘few months’ after her upcoming Netflix cookery show is released
‘Then Netflix came on, not just as my partner in the show, but as my partner in my business. which was huge.
‘So I thought about it, and I’ve been waiting for a moment to share a name that I had secured in 2022, and this is the moment, and it’s called As Ever.
‘Of course, there will be fruit preserves; I think we’re all clear at this point that jam is my jam. But there are so many more products that I I just love, and now it’s time to share them with you. So I just can’t wait for you to see it. Thanks guys!’
TV insiders also told PageSix that ‘nobody knows’ who the real Meghan is, and that the Duchess is just ‘having fun’ in her new show while ‘not claiming to be perfect’.
They added: ‘The show is really her being in her own space and doing her thing. It’s such a joyous show.’
FEMAIL has reached out to representatives for the Duchess of Sussex for comment.
It comes after Meghan shared a cryptic first look into her new lifestyle brand with unseen photos and messages.
She shared what appeared to be a vision board for her new business with never before seen pictures and handwritten notes.
Just weeks ahead of the launch of With Love, Meghan (pictured), the Duchess announced she was rebranding American Riviera Orchard to As Ever
She launched a website with a cover photo of her holding hands with her daughter Princess Lilibet, three, in the California sunshine
Taking to Instagram, she posted: ‘From memory lane to the memories I’m making today…’.
The post included a collage featuring inspirational quotes, paintings of herself and Harry and As Ever branded labels.
The labels appear to read ‘raspberry spread’, with the business set to sell jam – first trailed by Meghan and her famous friends last year – and is expected to be part of the huge homeware and gardening ranges in the US.
It also featured material cuttings embroidered with the As Ever logo in a hit that the business could also sell luxury napkins.
Four orange post-it notes are scattered across the board between the professional snaps and sketches.
One is titled ‘Signature Tig Cup’ and appears to list ingredients such as mint, cucumber, grapefruit, lime and ice.
Other creative shots show fruit, flowers, food dishes as well as some of black and white shots of Meghan herself.
One image shows her with Meghan and Harry’s late pooch Guy, who she previously shared a heartfelt tribute early last month after his passing.
Now she has posted what looks to be a vision board for her new business with never before seen pictures and handwritten notes
A paintings of herself and Harry with their late dog Guy, who she previously shared a heartfelt tribute early last month after his passing
It also featured As Ever branded labels appearing to read ‘raspberry spread’, with the business set to sell jam – first trailed by Meghan and her famous friends last year
One image is titled ‘Signature Tig Cup’ and appears to list ingredients such as mint, cucumber, grapefruit, lime and ice
‘Not to spoil the ending for you, but everything is going to be okay,’ reads on of the inspirational messages.
Another says: ‘Stay close to people who feel like sunshine’.
A third said: ‘I love you with all my butt. I would say heart but my butt is bigger.
‘You cannot make everyone happy, you are not a jar of Nutella,’ read another.
Also on the mood board is a smiley pancake face, a gift certificate to Chez Panisse Restaurant and Cafe in Berkley and a California 33 symbol.
Prior to Meghan’s announcement on Monday, internet sleuths had already discovered a Shopify website she’d set up for her As Ever products, featuring an unseen picture of the Duchess cooking.
The shot of the Duchess of Sussex using a mixing bowl is believed to have been taken during Meghan’s original American Riviera Orchard promo almost a year ago.
She is wearing the same white outfit and appears to be in the same kitchen filmed for the brief teaser trailer filmed when American Riviera Orchard existence was revealed last March 14.
The jam that Meghan shared with celebrity pals. Labelled with Meghan’s elegant calligraphy, topped with a delicate ribbon tied in a bow
Meghan officially rebranded American Riviera Orchard in an Instagram video released from LA overnight – and appeared to include a subtle dig at the Royal Family.
In what the Sussexes will hope will be a new money-spinner, products will include food such as ‘fruit preserves’, as Meghan grandly called them today, adding: ‘I think we’re all clear at this point that jam is my jam’.
The brand emerged last year when Meghan began sending jams in limited edition jars to her most famous friends to share on social media. But American Riviera Orchard, as a brand, hit a wall.
As Ever was launched in a close-up Instagram video in the Sussexes’ Montecito garden where Meghan gave a nod to the trademark row that saw her American Riviera Orchard application refused by the US trademark office. It featured a brief cameo from Harry, who tells Meghan, ‘It’s recording’, as he hands her the phone.
And in words that some have taken as a dig at the royals and the sacrifices Meghan felt she made when she fell in love with her husband, Meghan said she had not been able to share her passion for food and home for ‘years’ after she shut her lifestyle blog The Tig.
‘As Ever essentially means as it’s always been, and if you’ve followed me since 2014 with The Tig, you know I’ve always loved cooking and crafting and gardening — this is what I do,’ she said.
‘And I haven’t been able to share it with you in the same way for the past few years, but now I can, so as things are starting to trickle out there, I wanted you to hear it from me first’.
Trademark applications uncovered by MailOnline suggest that As Ever will also sell textiles such as tablecloths and napkins, skincare and haircare products and throws, blankets, bedspreads and household scents such as candles and reed diffusers.
There will also be gardening trowels, spades and pruning shears and inside the home there will be cutlery, knives and tableware.
The page also featured a new logo, consisting of a palm tree and two hummingbirds either side, with calligraphy in a similar style to Meghan’s lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard – which has faced numerous difficulties.
Jen, the owner of Arizona-based As Ever Photography, took to Instagram to direct a loaded remark to the Duchess of Sussex following the rebrand of American Riviera Orchard.
‘When one of the most famous people in the world starts using your biz name of 12+ years (that you named in honour of your grandmother), seems like they could throw me a lil bone? @meghan @netflix,’ she wrote – joking that she hoped to be enlisted as photographer for the brand.
The rebrand has impacted business owners with companies under the same name, including As Ever Photography and a New Jersey clothing company whose small family brand also holds the name.
Mark Kolski, the designer and owner of New York vintage clothing studio ‘As Ever NYC’ said he has been left ‘reeling’ from the news of the relaunch.
The independent clothing company – based in New York and New Jersey – sells one of a kind, reworked vintage clothing under the label ‘As Ever NYC’, which can be seen prominently displayed on its website and social media accounts.
Speaking to DailyMail.com in the wake of Meghan’s announcement, Kolski confirmed he is now ‘getting advice from as many professionals in the (legal) field’ as he could.
The American photographer took to Instagram to ask Meghan and Netflix to ‘throw’ her a ‘lil bone’
Spot the difference: Meghan’s logo for her rebranded As Ever luxury firm (left), and the coat of arms for the sleepy Mallorca town of Porreres (right)
Meghan’s rebrand hit another stumbling block after it triggered a plagiarism row in Spain.
Civic bosses in the sleepy Mallorca village of Porreres are reportedly considering legal action against the Duchess of Sussex, accusing her of copying its traditional coat of arms for the logo of her revamped luxury brand, As Ever.
Both images share striking similarities, each featuring a palm tree with two birds hovering on either side of it.
While the town’s coat of arms is splashed with colours – orange and green for the tree and sand, black for the birds, on a white background – Meghan’s logo uses just dark grey and white.
Mayor Francisca Mora told local newspaper Ara Balears the likeness is ‘surreal’, and that the town hall is deciding whether or not to take legal action against the Duchess.
Meghan Markle has also been barred from selling any clothing under her new ‘As Ever’ brand because of the name’s similarity to a cut-price Chinese clothing company.
The Mail on Sunday revealed that documents filed at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in October 2022 by Meghan’s high-powered lawyers applied for permission to sell aprons and other items of clothing – along with a long list of products including jams and dog biscuits – under the ‘As Ever’ name.
But USPTO issued a 145-page ‘partial rejection’ of Meghan’s trademark application in July 2023 saying she could not sell clothing because her company’s name was too similar to Chinese ‘fast fashion’ brand ASEVER.
