Several tabloids called emergency sessions to deal with the Duchess of Sussex’s big As Ever announcement. Those same tabloids have spent the past year squealing about “American Riviera Orchard” and trademarks and “flop launches,” as if they could just mak Meghan’s brand fail through the power of their sheer hatred. As it turns out, ARO was a decoy and As Ever will launch in the next month, probably. It’s a relief, because I was genuinely worried that Meghan’s brand would never get launched. In any case, those tabloid emergency sessions have resulted in a new “thing.” Apparently, there’s a “problem” with As Ever’s logo, which features a palm tree and two hummingbirds. First, here’s how People Mag explained the significance:

Meghan Markle’s refreshed lifestyle brand has a logo with a meaningful symbol. On Feb. 18, the Duchess of Sussex announced that she was rebranding her lifestyle venture previously known as American Riviera Orchard to As Ever and dropped a coordinating crest on its new website. The elegant graphic in a square shape shows a palm tree flanked by two hummingbirds and is featured prominently at the top of the As Ever page, which features a new picture of Meghan and her daughter Princess Lilibet.

The logo’s palm tree is symbolic of Santa Barbara, where Meghan and Prince Harry call home with their kids Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3. Meanwhile, hummingbirds hold a special significance in the Duke of Sussex’s memoir, Spare.

At the end of the book, published in January 2023, Prince Harry reflected on a visit from a hummingbird to his Montecito home after the death of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, noting how the bird is interpreted as a symbol of spirits in some cultures.

“Soon after our return, a hummingbird got into the house,” Harry wrote in Spare. “I had a devil of a time guiding it out, and the thought occurred that maybe we should start shutting the doors, despite those heavenly ocean breezes. Then a mate said: Could be a sign, you know? … Visitors, as it were. Aztecs thought them reincarnated warriors. Spanish explorers called them ‘resurrection birds.'”

Harry wrote in Spare that “naturally” when the hummingbird emerged and flew around the kitchen, soaring over “the sacred airspace we call Lili Land, where we’ve set the baby’s playpen with all her toys and stuffed animals, I thought hopefully, greedily, foolishly: Is our house a detour — or a destination?”

[From People]

Something I learned about Harry from Spare is that he seems especially in tune with nature and animals, and he often uses nature and animals for quasi-religious guidance. The hummingbirds absolutely feel like Meghan adopting something from Harry’s interests and mindset, because he is a dedicated bird watcher. There was that infamous moment in their Netflix series where Harry is super-excited about the hummingbirds coming to the feeders on their patio, and Archie DGAF. Archie was more concerned about blaming his mama for his dirty foot (“I got a dirty foot, mama, because I was with you”).

Now for the dumbass controversy. Someone paid a Spanish politician to make some noise about how Meghan “plagiarized” the logo from the coat of arms from the Mallorcan town, Porreres. The Porreres coat of arms IS similar – it features a centered palm tree with two birds on either side, but the coat of arms is in black, green and brown. Porreres’ mayor Xisca Mora is “studying the case with the legal services of the Consistory to see what course of action should be taken from the municipal level.” Deep sigh… I don’t mean any disrespect, but the two images are not identical and this is one of the dumbest controversies anyone has ever cooked up.

Photos courtesy of As Ever site, Meghan’s IG, Avalon Red.