by Most of us probably know people we’d rather not be in the same room with, but it takes a special kind of brotherly antipathy when you can’t be in the same room when your brother is on a TV screen.
But that seems to be the case with Princes William and Harry, a mutual estrangement that is rare in public life. Not even the fact that the two were supposed to be “together” at the Diana Awards in honor of their late mother was enough to ease the transatlantic tension. By the time Harry appeared via video link from California, his brother was out the door. No reconciliation on the cards, then.
In that context, the launch of a new commercial venture with Meghan Markle, which threatened to overshadow the award ceremony, could hardly have been much worse. The Duchess (a title that’s becoming inappropriate given her balance) has been off social media since 2020, but chose to take an inopportune moment to tell the world on Instagram about something called American Riviera Orchard.
As it happens, the video came up on my feed Twitter / X and it is the soft focus, grainy texture of the images that I could hardly make out what it was all about. It looked like an ad for shampoo. It certainly didn’t “connect” with my own lifestyle, separated from the wealthier neighborhoods of, well, the American Riviera.
Funnily enough, there was once an orchard behind my place, but it has been taken over. That’s as close, I’m afraid, as I’ll come to emulating Harry and Meghan’s lifestyle. Apparently, Meghan will be marketing cookbooks, tableware, linens, a wide range and preserves including Harry’s jellies, jams and nut butters – a delicious meal that is very interesting.
Also on sale, in due course, will be some very tasteful place card holders, which are solemnly said not to be precious metal. I can’t help but notice that the whole enterprise is not precious metal. Perhaps because they didn’t want to “take advantage” of their residual royal status, there’s only a gold logo and crest to adorn the product range – and it looks more fake than aristocratic (not to mention royal); with some elaborate calligraphy from Meghan herself.
It’s basically the kind of corporate style you’d see in a hotel at, well, American Riviera. It’s not vulgar, exactly – it’s just a little unreal and odd, because they have a really great army, and they’re being deployed with good taste on their other official website, sussex.com.
Of course, Meghan’s first return to the lifestyle lark since she closed The Tig for her engagement to Harry raises other questions. Does it indicate that they are getting a little hard up? What is the market for California plum jam vaguely related to the King’s second son, not known until now for his prowess with fertilizers?
Are they going to block marmalades? Tartare sauce? Lemon curd? At least they weren’t really funny and called them “Duchy Originals”. And, more urgently, does it mean the two are in trouble with the palace for violating the Sandringham Agreement reached during “Megxit” in 2020?
Well, I had a flick through this document, and the short answer is that it doesn’t. You might think it’s all tawdry, but it’s not overdone.
Unusually, for something related to their private lives, the text of the Sandringham Agreement is in the public eye, and it says little about commercial activities. He recognizes that the Sussexes “would be privately funded members of the royal family and allowed to earn their own income”, and that is exactly what they are doing.
If they called it Riviera Royal American Orchard they would be in the organic gravy; but they are not that stupid. The reality is that Meghan, by marrying Harry, cannot completely extricate herself from an implied royal connection – and that would be the case even if she divorced him (cf Sarah, Duchess of York or the late Lord Snowdon ).
Even if, as is sometimes claimed, the Sussexes abandoned their titles and changed their names to Mr and Mrs Smith, the royal connection, if not aura, would cling to them. Celebrities would follow them and some people would want to buy their branded gear because of that, like Lloyd Grossman’s pasta sauces or Victoria Beckham’s lipsticks.
For better or worse, Harry and Meghan can’t be “private citizens”, even if they wanted to be – and that certainly causes a lot of problems. This kind of semi-royal/ex-royal territory hasn’t had to be navigated since the days of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, when the family solved any money problems by sending enough money to the former Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson. keep them out of trouble.
Apart from that expensive solution, the palace will just have to get used to them as they enter the retail trade.
