Meghan Markle officially opened orders yesterday for As Ever’s first holiday collection, featuring $200 wicker hampers and a luxury advent calendar.
In an Instagram post celebrating the launch, the 45-year-old Duchess of Sussex reflected on the “entrepreneurial spirit” she discovered as an eight-year-old while selling lemonade and handmade scrunchies.
She also paid tribute to her now-defunct lifestyle blog, The Tig, and honoured her mother, Doria Ragland, in a video montage set to The Cranberries’ hit song Dreams, which she shared on Instagram on Tuesday.
The montage featured nostalgic photographs from Meghan’s childhood alongside footage of her daughter, Princess Lilibet, five, enthusiastically stirring a bowl of jelly and spending an afternoon beekeeping.
The video also offered a subtle reference to her Netflix series, With Love, Meghan, which ran for two seasons before being cancelled, as well as a fresh glimpse inside Prince Harry and Meghan’s lavish Montecito mansion.
However, Meghan’s video journal appeared to contain an apparent cooking mishap as she looked back on the progress made by her domestic lifestyle brand, As Ever, since its launch last year.
Lili’s love of beekeeping…and Meghan’s stove mystery
The young princess may have developed an interest in cooking by watching Meghan in the kitchen. In the clip, Lili is seen stirring a pot of what appears to be orange jelly.
Lilibet makes a brief, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance wearing a white beekeeper’s suit.
Yet the gas beneath the pot of jam Meghan is stirring on the stove does not appear to be switched on.
Prince Harry and Meghan’s five-year-old daughter, Lilibet, appears to be following in her mother’s footsteps.
The little girl may have picked up her interest in cooking from watching Meghan, with the footage showing Lili stirring a pot of what seems to be orange jelly.
Meghan, apparently simmering berries to make one of her jams, asks in the brief Instagram clip: “What do you think, Lili?”
“I think it’s beautiful,” the youngster responds in an American accent.
There was, however, one curious detail: the gas beneath the saucepan Meghan was stirring did not appear to be turned on.
Lilibet is not only showing signs of becoming a young cook but is also learning the family’s beekeeping hobby. In a fleeting moment, she appears in a white apiarist’s suit and netted hat in the garden of the £11million Montecito mansion the family called home for six years.
Clearly fascinated, Meghan inspects one of her hives and says, “It’s so full,” before turning and adding, “Do you see Lili?”
The Duchess’s master beekeeper, Branden Aroyan, helped establish her hives, maintain the colony and collect honey. He previously told the Daily Mail that beekeeping had become a “family affair”.
“Harry loves it, and Archie and Lilibet are into it too. It’s a whole family affair. They all have their own beekeeper suits. They’re just all super-fascinated by it.”
Montecito hallway
The picture shows Prince Harry, dressed casually in shorts and a t-shirt, admiring the contents of one of her newly launched festive wicker hampers
The Duchess also gave fans a view of her and Prince Harry’s sprawling Montecito mansion in one of the stills of her Instagram video.
The picture shows Prince Harry, dressed casually in shorts and a t-shirt, admiring the contents of one of her newly launched festive wicker hampers.
Meghan, wearing black trousers and a matching tank top, is seated by an early sample of one of her Christmas hampers placed before a large French window – with the home’s pale pink walls visible beyond the glass.
A message to her ‘squad’
In addition to thanking her ‘Tiglets’ for keeping the blog alive on Instagram, Meghan credited her ‘squad of support’ in what some X users felt was a thinly-veiled reference to the Sussex Squad – her army of online fans.
The caption read: ‘As I shared years ago on The Tig (PS, love you ladies The Tiglets): “Behind every successful woman is herself” – and that’s true… but there’s more: a community of love, a squad of support, an amazing team.’
It comes after the Daily Mail reported that the Sussex Squad had ‘terrorised’ a group of British clergymen after they criticised her new advent calendar.
Meghan unveiled the £112 ($148) gourmet chocolate calendar in an online advert at the weekend while wearing a reported £75,000 worth of clothing and jewellery.
One British vicar who politely criticised the product has been forced to lock his X account after being branded a ‘demon’ and a ‘disgrace to the cloth’ by supporters – known colloquially as the Sussex Squad.
A new family portrait
The picture shows Harry and Meghan lying on the ground and laughing, as one of their children’s hands rests on the Duchess’ face
The Duchess gave followers a quick peek at a black-and-white family portrait while showing off her As Ever scented candles.
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The picture shows Harry and Meghan lying on the ground and laughing, as one of their children’s hands rests on the Duchess’ face.
It is displayed in a simple white frame on a dresser in what looks like the Sussexes’ Californian abode.
The candles are a recent addition to As Ever’s range; they include two candles inspired by Archie and Lilibet that the Duchess released as part of a Mother’s Day Edit earlier this year.
Signature Candle No. 506 references ‘Prince Archie of Sussex’s birthdate’, May 6, and Signature Candle No. 604 is an homage to Princess Lilibet’s June 4 birthday.
Nod to Netflix
One of the pictures in Meghan’s video journal showed her popping open a bottle of champagne in the first episode of series two of ‘With Love, Meghan’
Meghan also acknowledged her lifestyle series on Netflix, which was not renewed when the Sussexes’s $10million deal with the streamer ended last year.
One of the pictures in Meghan’s video journal showed her popping open a bottle of champagne in the first episode of series two of ‘With Love, Meghan’ that featured celebrated cookbook author Samin Nosrat.
For the episode, Meghan dressed in a Carolina Herrera sundress, worth $2,490, and paired it with her Lorraine Schwartz emerald-cut pinky ring and gold stud earrings.
Elizabeth Knapp’s poem
A page featuring American poet Elizabeth Knapp’s work
Meghan’s post also paid tribute to American poet Elizabeth Knapp by including an excerpt from one of her ‘Did I Tell You’ books.
She reflected on a passage that declared ‘there is growth and satisfaction in being part of something larger than yourself’ on the page that was clipped with one of her As Ever leather bookmarks.
The navy blue accessory is inscribed with the words ‘It only gets better’ in Meghan’s distinct penmanship and was launched last month.
The Tig nostalgia
She included a video from the time she was still running The Tig that showed Meghan eating 10 raspberries off her fingers in quick succession
Meghan’s post was steeped in nostalgia for The Tig, the lifestyle blog she founded in 2014 and ran for almost three years.
A ‘passion project’ she developed while starring in the US drama series Suits, The Tig became a well-known platform where Meghan shared personal insights alongside content on travel, food, fashion and dining recommendations.
Meghan shut down The Tig in April 2017, but the website continues to inspire her brand As Ever, she said in the caption of her latest post.
The Duchess thanked the community of readers, dubbed ‘The Tiglets’, and reflected on an early message on her blog that read ‘Behind every successful woman is herself’.
She included a video from the time she was still running The Tig that showed Meghan eating 10 raspberries off her fingers in quick succession.
Meghan’s blog, which closed nine years ago, was named after her favourite Tignanello wine.
Embracing the role of editor-in-chief, she used the website to share her views on topics ranging from feminism to her passion for philanthropy.
She also shared recipes, make-up and beauty tips, travel advice, and interviews with celebrity friends, including Serena Williams and Priyanka Chopra.
Childhood pictures
In the ode to her ‘entrepreneurship’ journey – from selling scrunchies and lemonade during her younger years to running her As Ever – the Duchess included a number of new childhood photos in the montag
Prince Harry’s wife reminisced about her early experiences selling Girl Scout biscuits as a child that also inspired her to produce a documentary about the historic American tradition, Cookie Queens
In the ode to her ‘entrepreneurship’ journey – from selling scrunchies and lemonade during her younger years to running her As Ever – the Duchess included a number of new childhood photos in the montage.
One of them appeared to have been taken on a skiing holiday, with Meghan bundled up in a lilac windcheater and wearing pink faux fur ear muffs, a bright purple scarf and thick gloves.
Meghan also subtly honoured her mother, Doria Ragland, with a sweet picture of the pair that she first shared on International Women’s Day last April.
The black-and-white snap showed the mother-daughter duo enjoying a snack together, as baby Meghan reached for the bag of treats in Doria’s arms.
Prince Harry’s wife reminisced about her early experiences selling Girl Scout biscuits as a child that also inspired her to produce a documentary about the historic American tradition, Cookie Queens.
The Duchess took the opportunity to reshare a childhood image of herself, smiling as she pokes her head around Doria – who was a Girl Scout troop leader – with an arm around a friend as they posed with the rest of her group in Los Angeles.