The last thing we heard about the Duchess of Sussex’s American Riviera Orchard brand, they were still fighting over the ARO trademark and Meghan recently filed for a three-month extension. It definitely feels like ARO is nowhere near ready, and we still don’t have a release date for Meghan’s Netflix cooking show either. For months now, whenever anyone from Team Sussex mentions ARO, it’s just vague “it’s coming at some point” filler statements. The one thing I’ll say in Meghan’s defense is that she prefers to launch fully developed projects, and the idea that she’s meticulously working on ARO could be an explanation for why she’s been so quiet this year. That’s what “sources” tell Page Six as well – that she’s been hard at work, and that ARO will launch in early 2025.
Meghan Markle will make her return to public life with a bang in the New Year, Page Six can reveal. The Duchess of Sussex has barely been seen over the past few months as she readied her new products, but she will launch her Netflix show centered around “cooking, gardening and entertaining” in “early 2025”. Alongside that will – finally – come the launch of her much-anticipated lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard.
The brand was announced amid great fanfare back in March, but as Page Six revealed, Markle, 43, has not worked with local factories or jam makers near her home in Southern California on her products, prompting questions of who exactly is on the team behind the products.
One Hollywood insider told us they even heard rumors the brand had become a “s–t show” behind the scenes, but one source in the know told us, “She’s been keeping her cards close to her chest. But I can tell you that she is the CEO of American Riviera Orchard, so all these rumors about her having a hard time finding a CEO are false.”
Markle has been working with people outside of the Archewell Foundation, which she and husband Prince Harry created, to get the brand up and running — although some Archewell staffers are involved, sources said.
“As far as Meghan being quiet, she’s been in the background working on her entrepreneurial efforts,” said an industry insider, “both the Netflix project and her brand will come out within the same timeline in the New Year. It’s going to be a good year for Meghan specifically, she’s spent the majority of the year doing work behind the scenes to launch a project in the first few months of 2025.”
While it’s Page Six, caveat, etc, I actually believe this and hope it’s true. I hope that there’s been a lot of ARO work happening behind the scenes and I can’t wait to see what the product launch will look like. I genuinely want her to release her own cookbook, plus… whatever, entertaining or cooking products. Dishware, jam, dog bowls, what have you. It’s interesting that this source is saying that Meghan is absolutely the CEO too – I hoped that would be the case.
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One thing Meghan Markle has proven over the years is that she KNOWS how to get the backend logistics on point & she KNOWS how to consistently present THE GOOD GOOD! I figured all of this is just the calm before the storm because when she DOES release ARO & her cooking show…it will…be…INSANE!
I agree!! She does things on her time and terms and when they are exactly as she wants them then she puts it out there. It will be insane when she launches it! Heads on salt isle will explode and we will probably get more appearances of Can’t because I’m sure during negotiations they put in emergency appearances when Meg does something clause lol.
I don’t understand why anyone bought into British media narratives about this entity in the first place. How has Meghan typically behaved in her professional life? Sloppily, without research, rushed, with no plan for follow through? No? So why would she start with this? The British media are literally trolling public records for every single thing that they do, which I think is why she had to announce it earlier than she probably intended to last year, and use the jam roll out with her friends to make it less of a sting. It also tracks that she would be the CEO because they have directors for Archewell, so why wouldn’t she want to be in complete control of her business? She’s not lazy or uninvolved. However this just goes to show that the media is always lying and twisting stuff, because they were literally reporting how she hadn’t found a CEO when she wasn’t looking for one. Of course it was distraction from the Wales’, just like the can’t keep staff, aren’t doing events together, can’t hold public interest stories are all about them too.
I know. Wasn’t the whole “bullying” story about how Meghan was a workaholic and overinvolved? And was nitpicky and wanted everything to be right?
The BM, just like all the other media, knows that most people never read past the headline and maybe the first paragraph, if they’re curious. So, it doesn’t really matter what the rest of the article says.
I’ll buy a dog bowl and I don’t even have a dog.
It would be very cute as a coin/key holder on a side table.😃
My cat would love an ARO dog bowl!
First good laugh I’ve had all morning. Thank you 🙂
Duchess Meghan will release a fully formed, enviable company all at once when it’s finally ready. Wishing her every success! I cannot wait to try some of her jam and I will buy any and all cookbooks she creates. When ARO launches, it will be an unquestionable success!
I wonder why the whole world media seem to be waiting on hands and knees for ARO arrival 😂😂
someone here dubbed it The Riv and I am ready for it. I will definitely be up in these pet bowls, jelly, whatever
“The Riv” is perfect!! It connects to The Tig in such a nice way! I hope that Meghan or one of her staff sees this and says “bingo”!!
I like “The Riv” better than ARO, that’s for sure. Twilight-mania has dulled some, but any time I read ARO, I think Aro the vampire. Ugh.
She was pushed into an early announcement by a DM writer who was going to do a whole piece about ARO despite the fact he knew nothing and she hadn’t set a launch date.
You guys this is a bit of an aside but I wonder if Martha will have something to say when it launches. It seems like it could be pretty similar to her brand. Will she take full credit for its success or will she be full of “advice”? The only surprise would be if she says nothing.
It’s Martha. I’d be surprised if she said something snark-free. That’s kind of her thing so it wouldn’t be something to take to heart.
I think she is following more in the Goop playbook. A lifestyle website (if she relaunches The Tig) then venturing into cookbooks then an online store. Gwynth Paltrow is also listed as the CEO.
But Paltrow had the luxury of years and years to build it up slowly. While the media is expecting Meghan to be a one woman Target store in a short timespan.
Page Six may or may not be true.
I’m holding on to a few coins to support the launch whenever it happens. While waiting for the launch the less time we give to these pretend insider scoops the better off we will be and PS will get fewer clicks ($).
I do wish she had waited to launch the website/Instagram for ARO until everything was ready to launch. There were definitely behind the scenes delays with launching it which isn’t weird. Most big projects like this go through logistics delays and I’m guessing the trademark patent thing was one of the issues and Netflix wants to launch the show when the business is officially ready to launch. Maybe the delay is because she’s renaming it to something else and having to relabel everything. I remember when Kim Kardashian had to rename Skims because she initially launched her company as Kimono and everyone rightfully pointed out the cultural appropriation/tone deafness of that name (Skims is a much better name anyways!). I forget how long it took her to implement the change but I don’t think it was immediate.
I wouldn’t be mad if the American Riviera Orchard name got changed. It isn’t that great of a name and a bit too long.
I would have expected Meghan to be CEO so the reports coming out the UK always rang false to me. The CEO of the Tig was Meghan so it’s obvious that she would be the CEO of American Riviera Orchard as well. I’m still holding out hope that she also relaunches the Tig.
As for Meghan being CEO of ARO – that’s old news. Months ago she (per her spokesperson) debunked the false accusation that she “can’t find a CEO”). And she also said that she runs ARO herself.
The rest of what’s in this PS piece we also already knew:
that is, launching ARO alongside her Netflix cooking show, which is a finished project waiting for Netflix to announce its 2025 launch.
So guys, don’t give PS credit for sharing new tea, they didn’t.