The last thing we heard about the Duchess of Sussex’s American Riviera Orchard brand, they were still fighting over the ARO trademark and Meghan recently filed for a three-month extension. It definitely feels like ARO is nowhere near ready, and we still don’t have a release date for Meghan’s Netflix cooking show either. For months now, whenever anyone from Team Sussex mentions ARO, it’s just vague “it’s coming at some point” filler statements. The one thing I’ll say in Meghan’s defense is that she prefers to launch fully developed projects, and the idea that she’s meticulously working on ARO could be an explanation for why she’s been so quiet this year. That’s what “sources” tell Page Six as well – that she’s been hard at work, and that ARO will launch in early 2025.
Meghan Markle will make her return to public life with a bang in the New Year, Page Six can reveal. The Duchess of Sussex has barely been seen over the past few months as she readied her new products, but she will launch her Netflix show centered around “cooking, gardening and entertaining” in “early 2025”. Alongside that will – finally – come the launch of her much-anticipated lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard.
The brand was announced amid great fanfare back in March, but as Page Six revealed, Markle, 43, has not worked with local factories or jam makers near her home in Southern California on her products, prompting questions of who exactly is on the team behind the products.
One Hollywood insider told us they even heard rumors the brand had become a “s–t show” behind the scenes, but one source in the know told us, “She’s been keeping her cards close to her chest. But I can tell you that she is the CEO of American Riviera Orchard, so all these rumors about her having a hard time finding a CEO are false.”
Markle has been working with people outside of the Archewell Foundation, which she and husband Prince Harry created, to get the brand up and running — although some Archewell staffers are involved, sources said.
“As far as Meghan being quiet, she’s been in the background working on her entrepreneurial efforts,” said an industry insider, “both the Netflix project and her brand will come out within the same timeline in the New Year. It’s going to be a good year for Meghan specifically, she’s spent the majority of the year doing work behind the scenes to launch a project in the first few months of 2025.”
While it’s Page Six, caveat, etc, I actually believe this and hope it’s true. I hope that there’s been a lot of ARO work happening behind the scenes and I can’t wait to see what the product launch will look like. I genuinely want her to release her own cookbook, plus… whatever, entertaining or cooking products. Dishware, jam, dog bowls, what have you. It’s interesting that this source is saying that Meghan is absolutely the CEO too – I hoped that would be the case.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Instar.