Meghan Markle is facing pressure to deliver after soft-launching her lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard nearly six months ago without any product announcements, a new episode of Newsweek‘s The Royal Report podcast has discussed.
The duchess launched her American Riviera Brand with a slick website and Instagram page in March, and despite the successful deployment of a PR stunt where she sent 50 jars of branded homemade jam to celebrity friends who promoted it on social media, the brand still has yet to announce any product lines or services.
Trademark applications filed earlier this year sought to protect the American Riviera Orchard name against a number of goods and services, including jams, jellies and preserves, homeware, stationery and pet food.
Meghan Markle photographed in Colombia, August 15, 2024. And (inset) branding for American Riviera Orchard, 2024. The duchess’ lifestyle brand has yet to announce any product lines.
Diego Cuevas/Getty Images/American Riviera Orchard
In September, the trademark applications suffered a setback as they were partially denied due to concerns over the brand name’s close association to a geographical area. The “American Riviera” is a term commonly used to describe the Santa Barbara coastline.
The bump in the trademarking process is understood to be standard, but Meghan’s team will need to consider making changes to bring their application in line with United States Patent and Trademark Office regulations.
This could cause delays, something chief royal correspondent Jack Royston told Royal Report listeners could impact the success of American Riviera Orchard and inflate public expectations.
“She is at a bit of a crossroads currently,” Royston said of Meghan. “I have a slight fear that the lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard is starting to take quite a long time to get up and running.
“I have had PR experts say to me that they think that it’s better that she takes the time to get it right rather than rushing it and get it wrong, but I do also think the Spotify podcast suffered a little from the fact that it was such a long wait and then it just increases the pressure on the podcast to be this incredible thing when it arrives.”
Meghan’s podcast Archetypes debuted in the summer of 2022, nearly two years after the duchess signed an audio production deal alongside Prince Harry with streaming giant Spotify.
“I think the same thing arguably is happening with American Riviera Orchard, which is that if it is just jam, then everyone’s going to want it to be the best jam on planet Earth,” Royston said.
“But the other people making jam aren’t stupid, and they’re not bad at making jam, which means that I think the most likely outcome is that it probably is just going to be a jar of jam, and it might be nice jam, but it a jar of jam is a jar of jam. I mean, there’s only so nice that you can get…I don’t know what can you do? There’s only so much you can do with a jar of jam.”
So far, despite having released no products, Meghan has build considerable brand recognition for American Riviera Orchard simply through its soft-launch and the jam distribution.
The duchess is also building on her business interests outside the brand. In August she revealed in a New York Times interview that she had become a minority stakeholder in the handbag brand Cesta Collective.
Meghan said that “investing in them has helped me line up for this chapter where I’m investing in myself.”
Newsweek approached representatives of Meghan Markle via email for comment.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek‘s royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
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