As the Duchess of Sussex launches her new business American Riviera Orchard and makes a sensational return to social media, she’s entering a somewhat crowded field of lifestyle gurus.
Mother-of-two Meghan, 42, launched the website and Instagram account for her Montecito-based brand after months of speculation about what her new venture might be.
An insider told the Daily Mail that Meghan’s new business will be a ‘lifestyle and cooking brand’, centered around her passions.
It’s a topic Meghan has plenty of experience with, having run lifestyle blog The Tig from 2014 to 2017, when she got engaged to Prince Harry.
The hugely popular website, which the Duchess ran alongside her turn in legal drama Suits, documented her travels and featured food and fashion recommendations as well as guest posts from her celebrity friends.
The Duchess of Sussex has announced the launch of her new lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard
The Duchess, 42, intends her new company to be a “lifestyle and cooking brand”.
But as Meghan prepares to relaunch herself in the lifestyle sphere, she will face giants of the movement who have long been established in the field and have big names behind them.
So how will American Riviera Orchard compare to its rivals? FEMAIL checks out the competition…
Goop
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop launched in 2008 and has been successful in the 15 years it’s been in business – but there have been a few bumps in the road
Talking to Independent last year Omid Scobie briefly discussed Meghan’s plans to go back to lifestyle – but he stopped short of comparing the Duchess’ brand to Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop.
Instead, he said Meghan focused on being more ‘approachable’, which may be a nod to some of Goop’s hefty price tags.
The author said: ‘I’m not deliberately mysterious. My mind always goes to Goop, but when I suggested it to someone with some knowledge, they said, “Oh, no, this isn’t about selling products”. So who knows? The next Martha Stewart?’
Founded by Paltrow in 2008, Goop sells lifestyle and wellness products, has a clothing line and also offers a beauty and skin care range.
The prices aren’t cheap, though, with clothes on Goop selling for hundreds of dollars apiece.
Although Goop appears to have been very successful in the 15 years since it launched, it has attracted several controversies.
Shortly after the brand was founded, it agreed to pay $145,000 in civil damages after claiming that its rose quartz and jade eggs, made for vaginal insertion, could have health benefits.
The fine came after a task force investigation said some of Goop’s health claims were unsubstantiated.
Paltrow also faced criticism when she launched a candle called ‘This Smells Like My Vagina’ – however the product sold out quite quickly.
Compared to Goop, it looks like Meghan’s lifestyle brand will focus more on food and drink, and may well be more affordable, as Scobie revealed that she aims to produce something ‘accessible’ to people.
Martha Stewart
Long known as a lifestyle guru, Martha Stewart began her career in the field with a catering business in 1976
While Scobie resisted comparing Meghan’s brand to Paltrow’s, he instead drew comparisons to Martha Stewart, an American businesswoman whose brand began in 1976 when she launched a catering business.
What followed was a series of cookbooks, cooking shows and products that came together to create her eponymous brand, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.
The company is a diversified media and merchandising company and acts as an umbrella for all the business woman’s ventures.
Stewart has long been known as a lifestyle guru thanks to her content, which offers people recipes, DIY and craft tips, and wedding planning advice.
Her website includes a blog with shopping recommendations for kitchenware and clothing.
Stewart’s magazine, Martha Stewart Living, retains an editorial team of seven staff, led by Allie Giordano as general manager.
Martha’s lifestyle career began in the kitchen, a place close to Meghan’s heart as someone who used cooking to bond with survivors of the Grenfell Tower disaster when she was still a working royal.
She has also contributed recipes to charity cookbooks – and last year shared her lemon cake recipe with The World Central Kitchen Cookbook: Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope.
As the Duchess’s new lifestyle brand takes shape and Scobie suggests Meghan could be ‘the next Martha Stewart’, American Riviera Orchard may be taking notes from its lifestyle rival.
EDITORIAL
Tori Spelling (pictured in LA in June 2023) was another celebrity who launched a lifestyle blog in 2011
90210 actress Tori Spelling is another celebrity who jumped on the lifestyle blogging bandwagon back in 2011.
Speaking to Look to the Stars, Tori – who was pregnant with her third child at the time – outlined her plans for the website – which overlaps with many of Martha Stewart’s content columns.
She explained: ‘The idea for this site came from my desire to share ideas and inspiration to uplift your everyday life.
“From fashion, crafts, home decor, cooking, parenting to relationships, I’ll be sharing ideas, tips, advice and guides to living a more inspired life.”
Alongside this, Tori also launched a shopping site called InvenTORI – where readers could buy items that she had in her home.
Tori Spelling pictured with ex-husband Dean McDermott and their four children at Disney On Ice in December 2019
In the first year, Tori documented her fourth pregnancy on the blog – but later told People that she had glossed over some of the complications she faced when expecting her son Finn.
In 2012, Tori was diagnosed with placenta previa — a condition where the placenta covers the cervix and causes internal bleeding — at the 20-week mark.
The star was rushed to hospital where she spent 10 weeks receiving treatment followed by four months of bed rest and even came close to terminating her pregnancy to save her life.
She explained: ‘It was hard because (blogging is) such a personal thing and I’m so open to everyone.
‘I’m writing about Stella’s fourth birthday, but nobody knows I’m in a hospital bed.’
Although Tori was at the forefront of celebrity blogs, the editorship has declined significantly in the past few years.
There are currently no recipes available under ‘cooking’ and the ‘home’, ‘style’ and ‘entertaining’ sections have also been deleted.
Jessica’s world
Jessica Simpson (pictured in November 2023 in New York) launched a blog on her website in 2018
Alongside her singing and acting work, Jessica had made a name for herself in the hit MTV series Newlyweds – which also starred her ex-husband Nick Lachey.
However, Bloomberg credits her as the original ‘influencer’ as a result of her hugely popular fashion range in the noughties, which was the first celebrity line to earn $1 billion. on sale.
Describing how she knew they were on to a winning formula, Jessica said: ‘People would come in a shawl (like the one she wore in Newlyweds).
“And everyone was definitely wearing the Juicy sweaters.”
In 2018, Jessica Simpson took the plunge into lifestyle blogging when she added ‘Jessica’s World’ to her website – which hasn’t seen the same success as her fashion range.
The star’s posts included highlights from family gatherings and events she attended in her local area of Nashville.
Like Lauren Conrad before her, the singer also employed a team to write most of the blog’s content – including TV recommendations, gift guides and beauty posts.
Following Martha Stewart’s chef crown, the star also shared guest posts from food bloggers and has set up a shop for her readers to browse.
But unlike Martha and Gwyneth’s website, Jessica’s blog is updated on average once a month, and the star has made little effort to promote the posts, rather than focusing on her clothing range.
Chrissy Teigen
Cravings by Chrissy Teigen began as a cookbook—which turned into another cookbook, a cookware line, and now a loungewear line
Chrissy Teigen’s cooking brand, which has recently branched out into loungewear, began with the model and mother of four showing off her cooking skills on social media.
She also took on a food stylist role from 2015-2016 on Tyra Banks’ daytime show FABLife.
The businesswoman, who is married to John Legend, launched her first Cravings cookbook in 2016, which became a bestseller.
A few years later, she followed it up with her second Cravings book, Hungry For More, which also hit the bestseller lists.
That same year, in 2018, she launched her first ever line of Cravings cookware, which was stocked at Target.
The collaboration lasted for three years until 2021, when the store stopped selling Teigen’s products. Both the model and the store said it was a ‘mutual decision’.
The Cravings line lives on, however, with Teigen branching out into loungewear and robes last year.