We finally know more details about when Meghan Markle’s lifestyle brand will hard launch.
The Duchess of Sussex, 42, announced her new lifestyle enterprise, American Riviera Orchard, back in March without any information on when her wares would be publicly available for purchase.
But now, a new report suggests that Markle’s lifestyle line will officially launch later this year. Though an exact date has not yet been revealed, a source told People that the former “Suits” star has “been busy working behind the scenes to prepare”
As for rumors that the launch has been delayed because of Markle’s alleged difficulties finding a CEO for American Riviera Orchard amid reports of high staff turnover — the Sussexes have lost at least six staff members since leaving the U.K. and moving to the US, including the recent exit of her and husband Prince Harry’s chief of staff Josh Kettler, who resigned after only three months on the job — the insider insisted that such claims are untrue.
American Riviera Orchard, named at least in part for Meghan and Harry’s adopted home in Montecito nestled on the Santa Barbara coastline, which is sometimes referred to as the “American Riviera,” will sell tableware, drinkware, kitchen linens, jellies, jams, marmalade, spreads, cookbooks and other products, according to a trademark application filed by Markle’s lawyers.
The Duchess has worked in the lifestyle space before, having created a lifestyle blog, “The Tig” (named for her favorite wine), back in 2014. She shut the site down in 2017 after getting engaged to Prince Harry.
Since exiting their posts as seniors working members of the Royal Family in January 2020, Markle has dabbled in a handful of business ventures, taking an interest in brands she personally likes and whose values align with her own.
“I spend a lot of time just Googling, looking for brands,” Meghan told The New York Times in an interview following her recent quasi-royal tour of Colombia.
“When people are online looking for things or reading things, I’m trying to find great new designers, especially in different territories,” she explained.
The California native went on to say that she began to believe her support of lifestyle brands could have a positive impact when a bag she wore made by Scottish company Strathberry at an official outing with Prince Harry in 2017 sold out online in 11 minutes.
The influx in Strathberry’s sales reportedly helped the brand expand their workforce.
That moment “changed everything in terms of how I then looked at putting an outfit together,” Markle said.
“Times where I know there is a global spotlight, and attention will be given to each detail of what I may or may not be wearing, then I support designers that I have really great friendships with, and smaller, up-and-coming brands that haven’t gotten the attention that they should be getting,” she added. “That’s one of the most powerful things that I’m able to do, and that’s simply wearing, like, an earring.”
The Duchess recently invested in a brand called Cesta Collective, which sells bags handwoven by a collective of women in Rwanda that are then finished in Italy.
“Investing in them has helped me line up for this chapter where I’m investing in myself,” she said of her minority stake in the company.
She described her venture-capital work as “dolphin tank” rather than “Shark Tank.”
“These are friendly waters,” she shared.
