With Love, Meghan will drop on Netflix next week. I actually have every confidence that the show will be successful by any metric – fans are excited to support the Duchess of Sussex, and there’s a ton of casual interest in the show, especially with all of Meghan’s haters screaming about it since the trailer dropped. There is one open question though: what about American Riviera Orchard, Meghan’s long-gestating lifestyle brand? It was widely believed that Meghan would launch ARO alongside the Netflix show, but no one knows if ARO is anywhere near ready. Now Page Six claims that Netflix is getting in the lifestyle-branding business WITH Meghan. We’ve actually heard versions of this before, that Netflix wanted to own a piece of Meghan’s ARO and that they’re involved somehow.
Meghan Markle will hawk her lifestyle brand’s products directly to viewers with the help of Netflix, multiple sources tell Page Six. The Duchess of Sussex, 43, debuted American Riviera Orchard last March with a soft launch on social media that included her gifting jars of homemade jam to high-profile friends such as Mindy Kaling, Chrissy Teigen and Kris Jenner. But there have been many questions about who exactly is running the brand, who is funding it and what products it will include.
A source previously told Page Six that, despite rumors to the contrary, Markle is indeed the CEO of her lifestyle brand. And now we’re told that Netflix also has a role in distributing products that will tie in with Markle’s new lifestyle show, “With Love, Meghan,” which launches January 15 on the streamer.
It’s not the first time the streaming giant has released products alongside its content. When Netflix and Cupcake Vineyards launched a limited-edition Chardonnay called “Love Is Wine” last February — a companion piece for its reality TV hit “Love is Blind” — the wine sold out online within a matter of days. According to TMZ, Netflix also submitted a trademark application for the phrase “Love is Wine” on cake molds, glassware, napkin holders, plates, tea infusers, flasks and several types of drinking glasses.
“The more that Netflix is getting into live events, the more this kind of thing makes sense for their future,” a Hollywood source told Page Six. Netflix began offering an ad-supported subscription tier in November 2022 and, the source added, “They’re working with advertisers now, which gives them more opportunity to have mutually beneficial partnerships like this.”
A rep for the Sussexes declined to comment. Page Six has reached out to Netflix for comment.
This is interesting. I know it’s Page Six, blah blah blah, but they’ve actually had some positive coverage of Meghan and this whole ARO/Netflix situation for a while. Plus, I find this to be a reasonable explanation for how Meghan would launch ARO, doing it as more a collaboration with Netflix, with Netflix facilitating the distribution. I also sort of wonder if Meghan will keep the ARO branding or whether they’ll shift everything to “With Love, Meghan” branding. It could be “With Love, Jam” and “With Love, Biscuits” and “With Love, Spices.”
Photos courtesy of Netflix.
