On the four-year anniversary of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s “Freedom Flight” to California, the Duchess of Sussex launched her new lifestyle label/brand. Meghan has a new Instagram and everything. The brand: American Riviera Orchard. I would guess that “American Riviera” is a reference to the Montecito/Santa Barbara/Napa Valley area. Orchard is just… I don’t know, lifestyle branding 101. You can see the Instagram here and it reads “by Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex.” What an incredible week to launch her lifestyle brand, huh? I imagine this was always the plan (launch after the Oscars), but wow.
Meghan Markle is back on Instagram with a surprise new project. On Thursday, a new website and Instagram page for what appears to be a lifestyle brand called American Riviera Orchard went live. The bio for the Instagram page simply reads, “By Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. Established 2024.”
The first Instagram Story shows Meghan, 42, picking flowers and cooking in a kitchen set to the song “I Wish You Love” by Nancy Wilson.
American Riviera Orchard’s name seems to be a nod to Santa Barbara, the California town where Meghan lives with Prince Harry and their two children, 4-year-old son Prince Archie and 2-year-old daughter Princess Lilibet. According to Travel & Leisure, Santa Barbara has been known as the “American Riviera” for more than 100 years “because of its temperate climate and lush landscapes, as well as its robust food and wine culture.”
A trademark application, currently awaiting examination, for American Riviera Orchard reveals the brand plans to sell tableware, drinkware including decanters, kitchen linens and edible treats such as jellies, jams, marmalade and spreads. The trademark application is also seeking approval for cookbooks.
In addition, the waitlist signup advertises a way to stay in the know about “products, availability and updates,” promising something similar to The Tig, the lifestyle blog Meghan created in 2014 before shutting it down in 2017. Meghan used her blog as a place to share her favorite food and travel discoveries, along with personal reflections. The name was inspired by Tignanello, a full-bodied red wine, and she told Tory Daily that trying it was her first time understanding how people speak about wine, so she developed “the tig” into her own word for “getting it” about “not just wine, but everything.”
I’m into it. Aren’t you? This is basically everything I hoped for, if she was committed to building a lifestyle/homeware brand. Just cute things, kitchen things, cookware probably, and some food items. Definitely cookbooks. What if this whole time, she’s been testing recipes and she’s about to drop Meghan’s American Riviera Kitchen: A Montecito Cookbook??? What if she does a cooking show??? BRO, I CANNOT WAIT.
Going back to the timing… like, there’s part of me that hates the timing specifically because Meghan is inadvertently taking some of the heat off of the Waleses’ situation. Now all of the royal reporters are going to spend the next week screaming into the void about HOW DARE MEGHAN SELL GLASSWARE WHILE KATE IS ILL, instead of keeping the heat on the clownshow at Kensington Palace. What’s also funny about the timing is that Meghan’s launch will get so much attention, Huevo and Buttons will get super-jealous and they’ll pull some big stunt to get the attention back on them.
I’m ready pic.twitter.com/POuvtHo3c6
— celebitchy (@celebitchy) March 14, 2024
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.