There’s a surprising amount of positive coverage of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex this week. Is this a post-Colombian-tour bounce? Is this the American media finally coming to their senses and understanding that they don’t have to follow the British media’s slanderous, vile lead? Or is this the result of a new, more open communications strategy from Archewell? I think it’s a combination of everything. In any case, Meghan has heard our whining about wanting to buy some American Riviera Orchard jam with magical monarchy-destroying properties. She’s also heard all of the British media’s snide commentary about her “CEO hunt” and her Netflix show. So People Magazine had some housekeeping on everything:
Meghan Markle is gearing up for the launch of her new lifestyle brand. A source tells PEOPLE that the Duchess of Sussex has been busy working behind the scenes to prepare for the launch of American Riviera Orchard, slated for later this year.
The source also dismisses claims that Meghan, 42, has been struggling to find a CEO for her brand, leading to delays in its launch, clarifying that these reports are untrue.
An insider previously told PEOPLE that Meghan’s new venture “will reflect everything that she loves — family, cooking, entertaining and home décor.”
The insider added that the Duchess of Sussex “is excited about her latest, personal venture.”
“This is something she’s been wanting to do for a while. She is excited to share her style and things that she loves,” they added.
Potentially further expanding her lifestyle empire, American Riviera Orchard could align with a cooking show set for release by Netflix that is being curated and executive produced by Meghan. The series will “celebrate the joys of cooking and gardening, entertaining and friendship” and is directed by Michael Steed, who worked on Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. The as-of-yet untitled series’ showrunner is Leah Hariton, who was a producer on Selena Gomez’s Selena + Chef cooking show on HBO.
If it happens, then it’s much smarter to launch ARO by the end of the year – Sussex Squad peeps will want to buy ARO stuff for Christmas gifts and, generally speaking, people simply buy and consume more in November and December. There’s been a lot of talk about the Netflix series and ARO launching together – while that might happen, it’s sounding more like ARO will launch by December and the Netflix show will stream early next year? That’s just my vibe from most of the gossip/reporting. I’m also curious about the CEO issue. It’s more than possible that Meghan has already assembled her ARO team and the British media simply hasn’t figured out their identities yet. Interesting.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Archewell.
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- Bogota, COLOMBIA – Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, during a meeting with Vice President Francia Marquez and her partner Rafael Yerney Pinillo in Bogota, on the first day of their 4 day visit to Colombia – Poolphoto by Courtesy of the Vice President’s Office for DPPA. Pictured: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Francia Márquez BACKGRID USA 15 AUGUST 2024 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Bogota, COLOMBIA – Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, during a meeting with Vice President Francia Marquez and her partner Rafael Yerney Pinillo in Bogota, on the first day of their 4 day visit to Colombia – Poolphoto by Courtesy of the Vice President’s Office for DPPA. Pictured: Meghan Markle BACKGRID USA 15 AUGUST 2024 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Bogota, COLOMBIA – Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, Vice President Francia Marquez during a summit in alliance with The Archewell Foundaiton and Luminate in Bogota, on the first day of their 4 day visit to Colombia. Pictured: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex BACKGRID USA 15 AUGUST 2024 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Bogota, COLOMBIA – Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, Vice President Francia Marquez during a summit in alliance with The Archewell Foundaiton and Luminate in Bogota, on the first day of their 4 day visit to Colombia. Pictured: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex BACKGRID USA 15 AUGUST 2024 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Bogota, COLOMBIA – Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, Vice President Francia Marquez during a summit in alliance with The Archewell Foundaiton and Luminate in Bogota, on the first day of their 4 day visit to Colombia. Pictured: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex BACKGRID USA 15 AUGUST 2024 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
Taking too long, im losing my coooool!!!
I can’t wait!!!!
oh some cozy ARO products for fall and winter……I’m here for it. Plaids! Pumpkins! Mistletoe! I feel like Meghan probably leans very hard into holidays and seasonal decorating (in a classy way of course, LOL) so I’m looking forward to this.
I hope the offerings come in more colours than beige.
I’m excited to see ARO products and am happy for Meghan.
Our girl doesn’t rest on her laurels. She gets things DONE. #WomenAreDoingItForThemselves.
Late October launch for Holiday sales is brilliant!
I’ve kind of lost interest in ARO and wouldn’t be upset if she scrapped the project. Starting this type of a company isn’t for everyone. I do want that Netflix cooking show though, asap!
I’m a little surprised by this direction. It seems like a saturated market but I am hoping that she comes up with something original and fun.
I mean if you’ve followed Meghan since before she started dating Harry then this is not a surprising direction at all. I do think that the roll out of ARO is poorly executed simply because i don’t understand why you would do promo for a product while it’s not on sale for months. But she did have a lifestyle blog where food was featured heavily. It feels very much like this is The Tig come to life as it were.
It seems saturated and yet new product lines with celebs at the head can be hugely successful even in such a saturated market. I think if she ties it into her cooking show its going to be hugely successful.
Honestly – this is a weird comparison – but I see her kind of following the Pioneer Woman’s strategy. PW sells a brand, a lifestyle – when she shoots her cooking shows from “the Lodge” that’s not her real house, that’s a lodge on the property designed specifically to look like what people think a ranch house kitchen should look like (if you see pics of her real kitchen, its more modern and streamlined, lots of white, etc.) She uses her products on her cooking show – her pans, her slow cookers, she wears clothes from her line, etc. And everything is very carefully curated to showcase the “ranching wife” image.
Barefoot Contessa is similar in image projection but doesn’t lean as heavy on the products and she’s not trying to get people to visit her house and spend money in her small town, lol.
So I can see Meghan sort of following PW’s strategy but with more of a West Coast Barefoot Contessa feel if that makes sense. She’ll use pans from her line, her tableware, napkins, tablecloths, etc will all be from ARO, I’m sure the house they use was carefully chosen to project a certain image, etc.
It sounds like a saturated market but I mean….people will buy it.
“I do think that the roll out of ARO is poorly executed simply because i don’t understand why you would do promo for a product while it’s not on sale for months.”
I shouldn’t think it’s poorly executed in this case. M has an entire country utilizing its government, media and familial ties to threaten her life and try to sabotage her projects internationally. Seeing how they move while she’s still organizing her brand behind the scenes is prudent. Training the non-British and American media to stop carrying the anti H&M UK propaganda -like that business with the Archewell cheque that even the actual governor of California had to push back on. Watching to see if the usual suspects started attacking the jam recipients, monitoring who follows the SM account and mailing list -all this lead time may look cryptic but I have to think it makes sense to her business model, a “business model of one”. M is entirely in her own space, different to just about anyone else in the public eye and has to act accordingly.
Looking forward to purchase from ARO.
I am ready. Come on ARO!
I said this before but I feel like September through January is always their season every year since 2021. And if the show will stream in December/ January it does make sense to release the products in November /December so you can have the products already when you watch the show and try to recreate whatever she’s making. Also it’s probably likely that they have staff in place already they just haven’t released it, or the people haven’t left their old jobs yet but they have a contract. The British media is wrong 9 out of 10 times about what they’re doing, or who is working for them. Even the stuff that they consider ” snubs” they are always on the back foot reporting about it, they never break the story. More often than not though, they will say someone doesn’t work for them, some company isn’t happy with them, some person hates them, and then you’ll see that person in another country with them a couple months later, the company will announce that they are making a movie and two other TV shows, and you’ll see them on vacation or in the background of a photo at that person’s house.
Oooh I can totally imagine an updated page with “and todays episode featured” and then showing all the things you can buy…
I am so looking forward to the launching of ARO, Meghan has lovely taste ❤ I will definitely be buying, I have bought quite a few things that I have seen her with 😍
Food related stuff is always in autumn. That’s not even rocket science, it’s laughably obvious. It’ll be September onwards.
Personally, I think December is too late to make the most of Christmas buying and November is going to be swamped with the US election, so I still think an early October launch is likely, especially with the in-depth piece in US Weekly
I will totally buy ARO for Christmas gifts! Can’t wait!!
Same.. I’m looking forward to an ARO 🎄 Christmas 🎅🏼
I think Meghan’s the CEO. That’s how most new ventures start off anyway. When she had the tig she was the CEO.
I generally don’t pay attention to any mainstream media coverage of the Sussexes. Why would? So much of it so dishonest. But if you’re looking for answers about why recent coverage has been positive, I think it’s because American media is seeing the truth for themselves. They are seeing the Sussexes showing up and doing good, while the leftovers are doing nothing.
Oh Kaiser you are so funny!! I cracked up at “magical monarchy destroying properties” LMAO!!
I wonder if that will be listed under ‘allergens’ in some way.
Warning, contains nuts, may lead to choking, could bring about the downfall of the British monarchy.
HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Thank you for making me laugh SarahCS
@SarahCS….epic. Simply epic. We need to create a warning label meme to add to all of the inane “ Sussex did x and stole thunder of wee Willie and chuckles” articles.
How funny. Contains nuts. Kudos.
Aw I’m excited. I can’t wait to see it all take shape. Trying to save or you know win the lottery before everything launches😂
C’mon already Duchess. Also, what has happened to the podcasts? So ready to buy merch and listen to the podcasts.
Lemonada said a few months ago that the podcast would come out next year. Which makes sense. If she was filming the Netflix show this spring now it’s in post-production, she’s getting ready to roll out the tie in product line, then she’s probably going to start recording the interviews or whatever else she’s doing research-wise for the podcast later in the fall so that they can be released in the spring. She did the same thing for archetypes she wasn’t recording each episode the week before.
What happened to the podcast? Meghan had to prepare for the visit to Nigeria and the visit to Columbia. The visits were not a wave and a smile. She wrapped up filming for the cooking show and overseen ARO productions. And also checking in on other Netflix projects. All the while showing up every day as a wife and mother. How many of us can do all that? Oh, let’s not forget also looking after her financial portfolio.
Well she inspired me to learn how to make my own jam and I bought cute jars and have been giving them out to friends. Maybe ARO jam was actually the friends we made along the way?
ahhh!! Same I have a little bread maker that can make jam too. I plan on making some for the holidays and giving out to a few friends and family!
100% inspired by Meghan with her cute jam jars and baskets.
I am excited to see what kinds of products she sells though depending on price point, I may just casually window shop online. I do wonder if there were plans to launch earlier given all the promo for the jam earlier this year and some things did happen behind the scenes to delay the launch? Not unheard of when launching a company of course, stuff crops up all the time. To me, it doesn’t make much sense to launch the jam social media campaign early 2024 if ARO wasn’t going to launch until early 2025 officially. Maybe it’ll launch towards the end of 2024, who knows. But I have been a bit confused by the promotion, the execution has seemed a little lacking. I suppose Meghan was too excited to keep it to herself and wanted to give the world a hint of what she was working on but it confuses people if that company doesn’t officially launch for months.
Speaking of lifestyle brands (not to compare, I got a catalog in the mail!), I always forget Sundance catalog was launched by Robert Redford. He launched so many things in association with the word Sundance, it’s kind of mind boggling.
But think of how much free publicity she has gotten for ARO with the gifts to friends who then posted about it.
Not one single dollar spent on advertising money, yet months of anticipation and gossip about when, how, if, what?!?
Plus, if it were me, I’d enjoy torturing ALL of the Salty Island press & Leftovers with the waiting to see what she’ll actually do and when — but of course Princess Meghan is a much nicer person than I am!
Also, the Highgrove Farm shop already tried to ride her coat tails and then that died down, so if they do it again during the actual launch it will fall much flatter.
I frankly think it’s been brilliantly handled so far.
By the time she’s ready to launch products, I expect her team will be fully prepared for the Meghan Effect, so the site won’t go down due to unexpected traffic, the brand is already well known to a large segment of the public, they’ve had plenty of time to see reactions and adjust accordingly.
She’s a smart, capable woman. We all know that. I trust that she knows exactly what she’s doing.
I think the products will be sustainable, culturally diverse and beautiful and serve many purposes. Meghan will not just make a store to promote herself like the Londoners, but she will find many ways to promote others and their cultural diversity.
How do you get that from baskets of lemons and strawberry jam? Seems very mainstream California culture to me.
It’s smart to keep the fruit local. She would get pushback if it was imported fruit.
But I definitely think the manufactured products will contain some global options.
I don’t look at the jam, I look at the person and what they stand for. You can draw keys from that.
I am hoping her show idebuts on November 14 as a very special birthday gift for Charles! Along with a limited edition jame at Target just in time for Thanksgiving. Imagine the “stealing their thunder” meltdown stories! As delicious as the jame.
No matter when it officially launches, I’ll be scanning the website for gifts.
My guess ARO will be launching mid October to compliment her Netflix Cooking Show just in time of Halloween, American Thanksgiving, Christmas,New Year’s Eve. Just in time of the most family cooking that people do in the year. Cannot wait.
May wait for the election results?
September is Harry’s birthday and his mum’s anniversary date and now another funeral for his uncle. Also the September New York events may well see Meghan attend even though they have said it is a solo for Harry. October is the Spare paperback release.
They have had a very busy time and with the Presidential stuff it may be wise to keep heads down and rest, consolidate and be ready for November fireworks.