His latest product “drop,” bearing the faux heraldic “ARO” crest of his yet-to-fully-launch American Riviera Orchard brand, comprised just two jars of raspberry jam and a fancy container of dog biscuits.
In a moment that seems reckless, Meghan’s close friend Nacho Figueras, who plays polo with Prince Harry, posted an image of his ARO gifts on Instagram last weekend… just as Princess Kate was wowing crowds on Trooping the Color in his first public appearance since his brave announcement that he is battling an unspecified cancer.
The jam, say sources close to the Duchess, will have been made with fruits grown in the gardens of the Montecito house that she shares with Prince Harry and her children Archie and Lilibet.
It makes infinite business sense that Meghan’s first product is a wine. She is following a path well trodden by other celebrities.
Only two jars? Maybe it wasn’t a great harvest.
But regardless of her raspberry crop, plans are afoot for Meghan’s “lifestyle brand”, which will be inspired by the couple’s enviable life in their £10million mansion on the California coast.
Front and center of the new brand will, of course, be Meghan herself. According to a source with intimate knowledge of the launch, it will sell Meghan as a beacon of inspiration, aspiration and attainability.
Her style will be sold as affordable and elegant, while her image will focus on her status as a “royal” and family-oriented figure; Don’t laugh from behind, please.
Customers will be urged to embrace their innate elegance and “elevate the everyday.”
We can reveal, however, that the much publicized never No be the first out of the traps as a money maker for Meghan Inc. In fact, they seem to be something of a red herring.
Rather, a source tells us that the priority is the launch of a… rosé wine.
It makes infinite business sense that Meghan’s first product is a wine. It’s following a well-trodden path, as many other celebrities have their own wine ranges, from Cameron Diaz to George Clooney, Kylie Minogue, Francis Ford Coppola and Brad Pitt. As a product, wines are far more aspirationally marketable – not to mention financially lucrative – than the humble jam.
The jam, sources close to the Duchess say, will have been made with fruits grown in the gardens of the house in Montecito, California.
A photograph published on Instagram by Nacho Figueras of the container of dog biscuits included in the latest novelty from American Riviera Orchard
The brand’s logo is written in fine gold lettering above the word Montecito, where Meghan lives.
Take the best-known celebrity wine, Armand de Brignac champagne, which was owned by rapper Jay-Z until he sold a 50 percent stake to Moët Hennessy, LVMH’s wine and spirits division, for $300 million. Dollars. Bottles of champagne, also known as Ace of Spades, can sell for around $800 each, thanks to a strictly limited production that guarantees its exclusivity.
Meanwhile, on a larger scale, Brad Pitt’s acclaimed Miraval rosé is flying off supermarket shelves at around £25 a bottle even without Angelina’s help, while Sting’s organic Tuscan red, made from grapes from his own vineyard, also sells well for around £30..
Even Idris Elba has his Porte Noir champagne, which is on the shelves of Harvey Nichols for £85 a bottle.
Another role model, without a doubt, could be Sarah Jessica Parker, whose range of New Zealand wines ‘Invivo X SJP’ is big in the United States. SJP is not only a shareholder, but has also participated in the design of the bottle labels and in the combination of the vintages to her liking.
Ever the businesswoman, Meghan has clearly detected a strong financial outlook in this, her latest potential source of income.
Bottom line aside, rosé has long been Meghan’s favorite daily drink, much more so than the elegant Italian red Tignanello, after which she named her former lifestyle website The Tig.
As a good Cali influencer, she loves a glass of rose, and is also a fan of every Instagrammer’s favorite drink, ‘frosé’, which is made by freezing rosé wine and mixing it in a granita with strawberries and a little icing sugar. , for added sweetness.
Pink also has emotional connotations: Back in 2016, on their initial dates at London’s Soho House, she and Harry reportedly drank several glasses.
It wasn’t just any rosé, though: They would have been drinking Lady A, the rosé made for Soho House executive Markus Anderson, and which the private club named after Anderson’s nickname.
The handsome and sophisticated Anderson is one of Meghan’s closest and oldest friends. Not only was he in her good seats at her wedding, but she also trusted him to host her small, super-private bridal shower at Soho Farmhouse.
Its bottle of rosé features Damien Hirst’s image of a butterfly and is made by giant Chateau de la Coste in France.
Could they be making Meghan’s rosé? Well, no one at that company confirmed or denied it this week, and a spokesperson for the duchess did not respond to requests for comment on anything to do with American Riviera Orchard.
To complement the reported wine launch, other products in the initial tranche of launches are expected to be drinking and serving items, bar essentials, and other hospitality and entertainment-related products. We can expect classic style items, but expensive.
Fortunately for Meghan, the launch of her lifestyle brand, which she has been planning for at least 18 months, has also positively electrified her relationship with streaming giant Netflix, which had been in the doldrums after the initial success of her Harry & Meghan. documentary in 2022.
At the time of Harry’s Heart Of Invictus documentary in August 2023, sources were calling the couple’s ‘$100 million deal’ with Netflix a ‘dead duck’ due to lack of production and apparent lack of production. of the couple’s ideas.
However, undeterred, the Sussexes got Netflix to buy them the rights to a romance novel, Meet Me At The Lake, in August last year. However, there is still no sign that there is a script or anything that will be in production.
Other possible ideas for filming are in “an early phase,” according to executive Bela Bajaria, who is tasked with making the partnership work.
Harry managed to film a couple of days of a polo documentary earlier this year. It’s hard to see that turning out to be a box office hit.
The expectation was that the agreement would be allowed to expire softly and not be renewed. Netflix would have been happy with that as a reasonable return on the roughly $50 million they would have paid.
But that was before the snort from Meghan’s lifestyle brand.
Sources say Netflix wasn’t initially involved in Meghan’s plans to launch American Riviera Orchard, but it certainly is now, as the duchess asked it to be involved in producing a cooking show.
The prospect of this has delighted the streaming service. Simply put, Netflix has now pushed Meghan’s plans, which she announced in a cleverly filmed social media video in April, and is jumping fully into the American Riviera Orchard business, taking on all executive roles, striking deals with wholesalers, designers, producers and retailers.
Meghan’s lawyer has applied to register the American Riviera Orchard trademark in the United States for several products, including cutlery, recipe books, tablecloths, napkins, jams, edible oils, vegetable-based spreads and dairy-based spreads. . All applications are still pending.
It seems that Meghan’s future business path is clear. Now that Netflix is understood to be on board, both sides seem to be thinking, forget about TV: a lifestyle brand could be where the real money is. The fact is that Netflix already markets hundreds of lines, from Bridgerton china sold at Primark to Bridgerton tea sets sold at Liberty of London.
There’s a Love Is Blind branded wine after the dating reality show and lines from Stranger Things that include pizza and ice cream.
Netflix says it is the favorite brand of Generation Alpha (that is, those under 14 years old) and, without a doubt, its influence is immense. Executives note that Netflix was the largest streamer in 49 of 52 weeks in 2023.
And there’s no doubt that Meghan would use a TV cooking show as a showcase for her brand.
The rewards could be enormous: just look at the riches Gwyneth Paltrow enjoys thanks to Goop, or Reese Witherspoon’s television production company, Hello Sunshine.
Sources confirm that Meghan began filming in April at a Montecito mansion that is not her own.
This is not without precedent. Some chefs, like Jamie Oliver and formerly Delia Smith, film at home. But others, like Nigella Lawson during the Charles Saatchi years, don’t appreciate intrusion or interruption, and may also not want to satisfy nosy viewers with peeks into their kitchen drawers. Lawson pretended to host dinner parties with actors in her “kitchen” and “garden”, which were actually set up in a television studio in west London.
What can we expect from the show? Netflix won’t comment, but it looks like it will follow the so-called ‘nibble and chat’ format, with the Duchess hosting her friends and conducting bright, cheerful interviews while they prepare food together.
You can expect some of Meghan’s always supportive friends to show up, perhaps tennis player Serena Williams or actress Abigail Spencer. It is unknown if her close friend and feminist Gloria Steinem will decide to navigate the ideological complexity of starting a career that she begins in the kitchen. She will certainly be fascinating if she does it.
The duchess has postponed until next year the recording of interviews for a new series of her podcast Archetypes on the Lemonada platform so that there are no conflicts, which could be a clue about the schedules.
In due time, we should be able to purchase pillows, soaps, home decor, fragrances, cookbooks, and cookie mixes from American Riviera Orchard. Eventually, if demand is enough, it appears there will be some sort of physical store, as their trademark application also appears to extend to a space where items could be sold.
Will the world buy what she sells? Of course. Who would bet against the determined duchess and the powerful Netflix?
