Meghan Markle’s new lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard is not the only business of its kind owned by an A-lister – as Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop and Martha Stewart’s empire are set to be the Duchess’s competition
As the Duchess of Sussex launches her new business American Riviera Orchard and makes a sensational return to social media, she is entering a somewhat crowded field of lifestyle gurus.
Mother-of-two Meghan, 42, launched the website and Instagram account for her Montecito-based brand following months of speculation about what her new venture might be.
An insider told the Daily Mail Meghan’s new business will be a ‘lifestyle and cooking brand’, centred around passions of hers.
It’s a subject Meghan has plenty of experience in, after running lifestyle blog The Tig from 2014 until 2017, when she got engaged to Prince Harry.
The hugely popular website, which the Duchess ran alongside her stint in legal drama Suits, documented her travels and featured food and fashion recommendations, plus guest posts from her celebrity friends.
The Duchess of Sussex has announced the launch of her new lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard
The Duchess, 42, intends for her new business to be a ‘lifestyle and cooking’ brand
However, as Meghan prepares to relaunch herself in the lifestyle sphere, she will come up against giants of the movement who have been long established in the field and have big names behind them.
So how will American Riviera Orchard compare to its rivals? FEMAIL checks out the competiton…
Goop
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop was launched in 2008 and has enjoyed success in the 15 years it has been operating – but there have been a few bumps in the road
Speaking to the Independent last year, Omid Scobie briefly discussed Meghan’s plans to move back into lifestyle – but he stopped short of comparing the Duchess’s brand to Gwyneth Paltrow‘s Goop.
Instead, he said Meghan was focusing on being more ‘accessible’, which may be a nod to some of Goop’s hefty price tags.
The author said: ‘I’m not being deliberately mysterious. My mind always goes to Goop, but when I suggested that to someone with some knowledge they said, “Oh, no, this isn’t going to be about selling products”. So who knows? The next Martha Stewart?’
Goop, which was founded by Paltrow in 2008, sells lifestyle and wellness products, has a clothing line and also offers a beauty and skincare range.
However, prices are not cheap, with items of clothing on Goop selling for hundreds of dollars apiece.
Although Goop appears to have been largely successful in the 15 years since it launched, it has attracted several controversies.
Shortly after the brand was founded, it agreed to pay $145,000 in civil damages after claiming its rose quartz and jade ‘eggs’, made for inserting into the vagina, could have health benefits.
The fine came after a task-force investigation said some of Goop’s health claims were unfounded.
Paltrow also faced criticism when she launched a candle called ‘This Smells Like My Vagina’ – however, the product sold out fairly quickly.
In comparison to Goop, it appears Meghan’s lifestyle brand will focus more on food and drink, and may well be more affordable, as Scobie revealed she aims to produce something ‘accessible’ for people.
Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart, who has long been known as a lifestyle guru, began her career in the field with a catering business in 1976
Where Scobie resisted likening Meghan’s brand to Paltrow’s, he instead drew comparisons with Martha Stewart, a US businesswoman whose brand began in 1976 when she launched a catering business.
What followed was a series of cookbooks, cooking shows and products that came together to create her eponymous brand, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.
The company is a diversified media and merchandising company and acts as an umbrella for all of the businesswoman’s ventures.
Stewart has long been known as a lifestyle guru thanks to her content, which offers people recipes, DIY and crafting tips, and wedding planning advice.
Her website contains a blog featuring shopping recommendations for kitchenware and clothing.
Stewart’s magazine, Martha Stewart Living, retains an editorial team with seven staff members, led by Allie Giordano as the general manager.
Martha’s lifestyle career began in the kitchen, a place close to Meghan’s heart as someone who used cooking to bond with survivors of the Grenfell Tower disaster when she was still a working royal.
She has also contributed recipes to charity cookbooks – and last year shared her lemon cake recipe with The World Central Kitchen Cookbook: Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope.
As the Duchess’s new lifestyle brand takes shape, and Scobie suggests Meghan could be ‘the next Martha Stewart’, perhaps American Riviera Orchard will take notes from her rival in the lifestyle sphere.
EdiTORIal
Tori Spelling (pictured in LA in June 2023) was another celebrity who launched a lifestyle blog in 2011
90210 actress Tori Spelling is another celebrity who jumped on the lifestyle blogging train back in 2011.
Speaking to Look to the Stars, Tori – who was pregnant with her third child at the time – outlined her plans for the website – which overlaps with a lot of Martha Stewart’s content pillars.
She explained: ‘The idea for this site came from my desire to share ideas and inspiration for elevating your everyday life.
‘From Fashion, Crafting, Home Decor, Cooking, Parenting, to Relationships I will be sharing ideas, tips, advice and how- to’s on living a more inspired life.’
Alongside this, Tori also launching a shopping site called InvenTORI – where readers could buy items that she had in her home.
Tori Spelling pictured with her ex-husband Dean McDermott and their four children at Disney On Ice in December 2019
In the first year, Tori documented her fourth pregnancy on the blog – but later told People that she had glossed over some of the complications she faced when expecting her son Finn.
In 2012, Tori was diagnosed with placenta previa – a a condition where the placenta covers the cervix and causes internal bleeding – at the 20 week mark.
The star was rushed to hospital, where she spent 10 weeks receiving treatment followed by four months of bed rest, and she was even close to having her pregnancy terminated to save her life.
She explained: ‘It was hard because [blogging is] such a personal thing and I’m so open with everybody.
‘I’m writing about Stella’s fourth birthday, but no one knows that I’m in a hospital bed.’
Although Tori was at the forefront of celebrity blogs, ediTORIal has wound down significantly in the past few years.
Currently, there are no recipes available under ‘cooking’ and the ‘home’, ‘style’ and ‘entertaining’ sections have also been wiped.
Jessica’s World
Jessica Simpson (pictured in November 2023 in New York) launched a blog on her website in 2018
Alongside her singing and acting work, Jessica had made a name for herself on the MTV hit series Newlyweds – which also starred her ex-husband Nick Lachey.
However, Bloomberg credits her as the original ‘influencer’ as a result of her hugely popular fashion range in the noughties, which was the first celebrity line to make $1bn in sales.
Describing how she knew they were on to a winning formula, Jessica said: ‘People would be coming in a shawl [like the one she wore in Newlyweds].
‘And everybody was definitely wearing the Juicy sweats.’
In 2018, Jessica Simpson made the leap into lifestyle blogging when she added ‘Jessica’s World’ to her website – which hasn’t reached the same success as her fashion range.
The star’s posts included highlights from family gatherings and events she attended in her local area of Nashville.
Like Lauren Conrad before her, the singer also employed a team to write most of the blog’s content – including TV recommendations, gift guides and beauty posts.
Coming after Martha Stewart’s cookery crown, the star also shared guest posts from food bloggers and has created a shop for her readers to browse.
But unlike Martha and Gwyneth’s website, Jessica’s blog is updated once a month on average and the star has made little effort to promote the posts, instead focussing on her clothing range.
Chrissy Teigen
Cravings by Chrissy Teigen begen as a cookbook – which turned into a second cookbook, a cookware line and now a loungewear range
Chrissy Teigen’s cooking brand, which has recently branched out into loungewear, began with the model and mother-of-four showing off her cooking skills on social media.
She also took on a food stylist role from 2015-2016 on Tyra Banks’s daytime show FABLife.
The businesswoman, who is married to John Legend, launched her first Cravings cookbook in 2016, which became a bestseller.
A few years later, she followed it up with her second Cravings book, Hungry For More, which also made the bestseller lists.
That same year, in 2018, she launched her first ever line of Cravings cookware, which was stocked at Target.
The collaboration lasted for three years until 2021 when the store stopped selling Teigen’s products. Both the model and the store said it was a ‘mutual decision’.
However, the Cravings line still lives on, with Teigen branching out into loungewear and robes in the last year.
