From Buckingham Palace to hawking beverageware.
Meghan Markle announced her new lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard, on Thursday, sharing some cryptic posts on a new Instagram account with a teaser video and launching a cryptic website.
The Duchess of Sussex, 42, is returning to her pre-royal roots, launching an extension of her old lifestyle blog, “The Tig,” with an insider telling Pvnew Style that it will focus on home, garden, food and general lifestyle wares.
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An industry source tells Pvnew Style, “She’s been working on this for over a year and it’s all the things that are close to her heart — all the things she’s passionate about.”
A trademark application obtained by Pvnew Style reveals American Riviera Orchard will sell a wide range of home goods including edible treats like jellies, jams and spreads and tableware staples such as cutlery, table linens and drinkware. Cookbooks are also covered in the filing.
A representative for Markle was not available for comment.
The logo for the brand features a script-like font that resembles Meghan’s calligraphy — a side hustle the duchess used to do for weddings in her pre-royal days.
Its website has no information for royal fans to grasp on to, save for the brand’s logo, other than a space to sign up for a “waitlist.”
However, a video posted on the brand’s Instagram Story shows the Prince Harry’s wife arranging flowers, cooking in a kitchen and wearing a large black gown in the hallway of what appears to be the couple’s Montecito, Calif. home.
The California-based royal is also expected to launch a lifestyle/food show with Netflix in hopes of becoming the next Martha Stewart, as Pvnew exclusively reported last month — and the forthcoming brand certainly fits the bill.
Her newest move doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise for royal watchers as rumors surfaced in 2020 that Markle was looking to take on Gwyneth Paltrow’s famed Goop brand with a relaunch of her old blog, which she shuttered in 2017 before marrying Harry.
While “The Tig” covered everything from fashion to beauty and even her thoughts on sister-in-law Kate Middleton, decrying in 2014 the “pomp and circumstance surrounding the royal wedding and endless conversation about Princess Kate.”
It’s certainly an interesting time for the duchess to announce her new venture considering the rampant conspiracy theories about the health and whereabouts of Middleton after her family photo Photoshop fail amid her recovery from abdominal surgery.
As for American Riviera Orchard’s next move, watch this space.
