Meghan Markle takes a leaf out of fellow Montecito resident Gwyneth Paltrow’s book to send a very specific message with £2,500 necklace
As Ever, Meghan is taking a leaf out of that other well-known and extremely successful lifestyle brand creator Gwyneth Paltrow – and there is an awful lot of Gwyneth about her relaunch Instagram picture.
With her scrubbed, clean, fresh Montecito woman appearance including a crisp white shirt and blue jeans, great teeth and minimal make up, Meghan and Gwyneth are clearly opting for the same message.
As Meghan posted a video yesterday announcing the launch of her new brand, As Ever, nestled in the open neck of her white shirt was a $3,200 (£2,535) 14-carat ‘Heart of Gold’ pendant necklace, decorated with red enamel and 83 round-cut diamonds, by LA-based designer The Gold Album.
Gwyneth owns one and now Meghan does too – seeming to separate themselves from the everyday multi-millionaires and claiming the higher ground by wearing a necklace with a message.
Meghan’s BFF Kelly McKee Zafjen – who is also pals with Gwyneth – co-designed the Heart of Gold necklace as a means of raising money for charity (15 per cent of the sales goes to the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles).
The matching necklaces symbolise the efforts of the two Montecito women to show themselves bestowing their favours on their friend’s endeavours.
Meghan has previously been said to be ‘obsessed’ with her neighbour Paltrow’s business – taking inspiration from her brand Goop as she worked on her old lifestyle website, The Tig.
Meghan and the actress are known to be close friends, even going for dinner together at a Montecito sushi restaurant with Prince Harry and Cameron Diaz in 2023.
Meghan issued a heartfelt tribute to her best friend by wearing the red ‘Heart of Gold’ pendant in a video announcing her brand, As Ever
Meghan is taking a leaf out of that other well-known and extremely successful lifestyle brand creator Gwyneth Paltrow
Only today, Meghan revealed her rebrand of American Riviera Orchard in an Instagram video that appears to include a subtle dig at the Royal Family.
Eagle-eyed fans could help but spot that Meghan was sporting a $3,200 (£2,535) sentimental necklace designed by her best friend.
The bespoke red ‘Heart of Gold’ pendant was designed by The Gold Album in collaboration with her best friend and co-founder of Alliance of Moms charity, Kelly McKee Zafjen, 44.
The duchess isn’t the only A-Lister to have worn the 14k solid gold heart pendant, which features 83 round-cut diamonds across the border, as Paltrow also donning the design and dubbing it ‘special’ on Instagram.
The Children’s Hospital Los Angeles receives 15 per cent of the necklace sales, a charity close to Kelly, whose late son George died aged just nine in July 2022 after being found unresponsive in their family home.
Meghan and Kelly first met through the Duchess’ ex-husband, Trevor Engelson, who is friends with the former model’s entertainment lawyer husband.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex formed a vital part of Kelly and her husband Julian’s support network, with the pair attending a tennis tournament the day before Harry’s 40th birthday in remembrance of George towards the end of last year.
‘Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is nothing short of extraordinary,’ Kelly said, according to The Gold Album.
The Duchess of Sussex has renamed her luxury lifestyle brand ‘As Ever’ and launched a website with a cover photo of her holding hands with her daughter Lilibet, three, in the California sunshine.
Meghan’s isn’t the only celebrity sporting the design, with Gwyneth Paltrow also owning the $3,200 (£2,535) necklace
Meghan and Kelly (seen at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Gala in October last year) met through the Duchess’ ex-husband, Trevor Engelson
The bespoke ‘Red Heart of Gold Pendant’ is made of 14K solid gold and features 83 round-cut diamonds
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’.
American Riviera Orchard emerged last year when Meghan began sending jams in limited edition jars to her most famous friends to share on social media. But ARO, as a brand, hit a wall. Its logo has also gone, replaced with a palm tree and two hummingbirds.
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 features a brief cameo from Harry, who tells Meghan, ‘It’s recording’, as he hands her the phone.
‘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’, she said.
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.
Meghan’s new branding features a palm tree, alongside two hummingbirds
The Duchess posed in a ‘love like a mother’ T-shirt, with proceeds from the sale of the shirts going towards ‘essential services, education, and advocacy so that young parents in foster care and their children can heal and thrive’, Zajfen said
Kelly’s nine-year-old son George passed away after being found ‘unresponsive’ at his family home in 2022
Meghan Markle (left) at Powder Mountain in Utah with Heather Dorak (centre) and best friend Kelly McKee Zajfen (right), in a photo posted on Instagram by both Dorak and Zajfen in March last year
Meghan hugged her close friend Kelly at a charity tennis tournament one day before Prince Harry’s 40th birthday
There will also be gardening trowels, spades and pruning shears and inside the home there will be cutlery, knives and tableware.
Prior to Meghan’s announcement, 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 is believed to have been taken during Meghan’s original ARO promo a year ago.
However, it appears she made a last-minute change about the branding and the previous URL as-ever-store.myshopify.com now takes shoppers to her new website asever.com, which features a picture of Meghan and her daughter Lilibet.
The rebrand was confirmed with a short Instagram video overnight.
In the photo, the Duchess is seen cooking up a storm in her Montecito kitchen, adding the text: ‘Save Your Seat At The Table’.
The page also features 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.
According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, a trademark application is still pending for the name As Ever.
The application – which also features the stylish scrawl – was first filed in 2022 and lists items including spreads, jewellery and candles.
The saying has become one of Meghan’s favourites in recent months and is used frequently by the Duchess, who ended her Valentine’s post to Prince Harry last week with: ‘As ever, Meghan’.
Pictured: Meghan in the trailer for her upcoming lifestyle show on Netflix – With Love, Meghan
Meghan announced her business rebrand on Instagram today
As well as ending a vast majority of her Instagram posts, including her Netflix trailer, tribute to her late dog Guy, and account of helping a wildfires victim, Meghan also signed off episodes of her Archetypes podcast with the closing message.
FEMAIL has reached out to representatives for the Sussexes for comment.
It has been widely anticipated that Meghan would time the launch of American Riviera Orchard – which is only so far known to have produced jam – with her new Netflix series.
It is understood that the show will plug several new products from the range.
While the Duchess soft-launched the brand in April by sending jars of strawberry jam to 50 of her famous friends, including Chrissy Teigen, Mindy Kaling, Kris Jenner, and former Suits co-star Abigail Spencer, the activation was followed by a long lull period.
The brand has also been bogged down by regulatory hiccups, with Meghan asking American authorities for more time to get American Riviera Orchard off the ground last November.
At the time, it was reported her legal team had sought an extension in her attempt to secure a trademark for the company.
She first applied for the trademark for her jams and homemade goods in the summer of 2024 – but the bid was rejected in August due to issues with the filing.
Meghan was then given three months to address errors and challenges to the application.
Meghan’s highly anticipated Netflix series With Love, Meghan is due to begin streaming on March 4
Last November, she asked for another three months to complete this. If the deadline is missed, the application will need to be started again.
Meghan first lodged documents with the US Patent and Trademark Office earlier this year but suffered an embarrassing blow when the forms were not filled in correctly.
Her bid to secure a trademark for American Riviera Orchard has also been contested by rival lifestyle brand Harry & David, who own the ‘Royal Riviera’ trademark and allege it’s too similar to the name for Meghan’s lifestyle company.
Meghan’s legal team, led by top US attorney Marjorie Witter Norman, applied to the Patent and Trademark Office in the States in March for legal protection to exclusively trade using the name American Riviera Orchard.
The duchess has also been told that she cannot have exclusive rights to American Riviera because it is a commonly used place name to describe the California coast where she and Harry live.
Representatives for the Sussexes have previously said such hurdles were ‘routine and expected when filing for trademarks’.
