Meghan Markle's desperate attempt to find herself shouldn't begin with jam - opinion

Meghan Markle is in her jam era. The royal has unveiled the first product from her shiny new lifestyle brand, despite fans not being able...
Rebecca Carter
By Rebecca Carter

Meghan Markle is in her jam era. The royal has unveiled the first product from her shiny new lifestyle brand, despite fans not being able to purchase anything from her website. Experts have said her new venture is an attempt from the Duchess to ‘make her own empire’, but the first few days haven’t bowed well – and I can’t see it happening.

Meghan Markle seems to be clinging tight to this idea she can bring cash rolling in, as much as she’s hugging her title, the Duchess of Sussex. The former TV star has been speculated to be working on a lifestyle brand for some time. First there were whispers she wanted to rival Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop empire, and recently she was tapped to be the new ‘Martha Stewart’ with her upcoming Netflix project in the works.

But now the Suits actress has unveiled her first product – jam made by Meghan Markle herself – and she’s already missed an opportunity at the first hurdle.

Meghan Markle’s sends jars of jam to her influencer friends

The 42-year-old’s jar has been propping up into influencer feeds over the past few days. She gifted the limited-edition jars – 50 of them – to promote her new business, American Riviera Orchard. We sincerely hope it gets a nickname to make it easier to pronounce.

Meghan, wife to Prince Harry, had teased her brand last month with the new website.

She included a vintage-style video that saw her placing flowers in a vase, cooking and standing at the end of the hall.

We had an idea of what Meghan Markle was selling thanks to documents Orchard filed, and foods like jam, dining ware and all those alike, were revealed.

Now fans have the chance to see it, with the jam jars being sent to influencers like Tracy Robbins, who have been plugging it on their Instagram profiles. Others included Argentine socialite Delfina Balquier, who said she had ‘loved it’.

But the key point of launching a product, is to sell it. Let’s be clear, this is Meghan’s intention, otherwise she would have done all the work through her charity with the Duke of Sussex if it wasn’t for profit. However, if you head over to the site, there’s still nothing to gaze upon. No information, no products, no way for fans to excitedly hand over their credit card details.

With all this hype she’s building, unless she’s going to be sending out jam every single week to keep up the momentum, it’s going to plummet faster than the Sussexes’ popularity in the polls.

Nostalgia or clinging to the past?

If we cast our minds back to pre-Harry, Meghan was enjoying life between Toronto and LA as she recorded her scenes for Suits – which recently had a Netflix comeback years later.

The celebrity had a lifestyle blog, called The Tig, which was popular with her fans, but wasn’t the most visited site of the year. It was her comfort and passion though, writing about food, her opinions and travels.

When she began dating the Duke in 2017, before Meghan Markle became his blushing bride the following year, she gave it up. At the time, she was going to jump head first into royal duties, owning her patronages handed to her from the late Queen Elizabeth II, and make change in the world she desperately wanted.

If you’ve read about Meghan before, you would know she likes to tell the story of her writing to a cleaning company over their sexist commercial. She got them to change it. And this spurred her on throughout the next few decades.

But now the pair have flown across the Atlantic and found their forever home in their Montecito mansion in California, she has freedom to continue these efforts now.

After a bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview, six-part documentary on Netflix, and a failed Spotify podcast, Meghan Markle has chosen… jam? The issue is, is she trying to tap into what she likes to do as a hobby or thinks it’ll be successful now she has more attention, media coverage and a camera crew following her around?

Since leaving The Firm, she and Harry have aired the royal family’s dirty laundry – twice – but lifestyle and food hasn’t been mentioned. So it seems out of place.

‘Trying to build an empire’

Royal commentator Kinsey Schofield believes “Meghan [Markle] is trying to build an empire,” and the Duchess herself thinks it starts with jam.

Kinsey has said: “I don’t think it was originally what she was going to do when she left the British Royal Family, when she said she was going to be doing a life of service.

“Did they have to go down this path? She’s using Netflix to build this empire and giving them what they want with the reality show element.

“This is her dipping her toes in the reality TV element but also having cameras in her face and being able to push her own products.”

But the mom-of-two isn’t going to have orders rushing out the door, if first, fans can’t actually buy the products, and two, her image doesn’t shape up. It’s no secret Harry and Meghan’s popularity took a dive after they ditched the Crown Jewels, and it’s said to be at an all-time low now.

And at home in the US, they saw a quick rise after their Netflix docu-series, but it slowly declined after. At the beginning of last year, Harry’s approval rating was a -7, and Meghan -13. Now, after several projects, a Newsweek poll saw Harry score +29 and the Duchess +15. The survey revealed millennials and Gen-Z found the celebrity most favorable. If that’s the case, who is Meghan Markle catering for with her jam?

These two generations are in despair over house prices, rising inflation and whether they can afford their bills each month, not a jar of strawberry sugar that has the label peeling off.

The royals‘ projects away from talking about their links to The Firm have proven to be a dud. Their Oprah and Netflix series did well, so did the Duke’s memoir – again, which all revolved around the royal family. But Meghan’s children’s book and podcast didn’t make it to a sequel, because it wasn’t what people wanted.

And I don’t think jam is, either.

Meghan Markle may need to sit down and really think about whether her goals match up with public perception, and it’s a tough pill to swallow – luckily, she has a jar of jam to make it go down sweeter.