'Authentic?' Netflix, not Meghan Markle, makes her jam, report says

The Star

2 days ago

For all of Meghan Markle's talk about being 'authentic' by publicising her viral pregnancy twerking video or demanding that people 'tell the truth' about her, a recent report raises questions about whether she's being straightforward about what's going on with her embattled As Ever lifestyle brand and whether she's selling jam, tea and other food products that align with current culinary ideas about what's 'authentic.'
Speaking of those products, the Montecito-based Duchess of Sussex has announced that 'favourite' items and 'surprises' would go on sale again after she saw the first collection quickly sell out in early April. But potential customers might be interested to learn from a new report on who's actually responsible for creating Meghan's 'faux-country' As Ever's products — and it's not Meghan.
Puck business writer Rachel Strugatz reported earlier this month that Netflix, the global, US$500bil company that streams movies, sports, games and TV shows — including Meghan's With Love, Meghan lifestyle show — oversees the manufacture of her US$14 jars of 'raspberry spread,' as well as of her honey, tea, cookie mixes and edible, dried-flower sprinkles.
Of course, most people who managed to score some of Meghan's raspberry spread probably didn't think that the raspberries actually came from her and Prince Harry's Montecito garden. They also probably expect that Meghan, like other celebrity entrepreneurs, hires others to produce the goods carrying her brand name. The marketing copy on the As Ever website admitted as much, though the copy also tried to make it sound as though Meghan remained intimately involved with making her 'signature' berry spread, with its 'hint of lemon.'
The copy said the product being sold was 'inspired' by a recipe that Meghan 'crafted in her home kitchen,' while the former TV actor told Fast Company in late May that she has a 'team' that works closely with 'a team' at Netflix.
As Strugatz noted, this Netflix 'team' also is responsible for mass-producing packaged consumer goods that are tied to some of the streamer's other shows, including Bridgerton, Stranger Things and Squid Game . The sale of these goods through Netflix's online shop represents the streamer's 'opportunistic attempt' to cash in on these shows' popularity, Strugatz said,
Meghan told Fast Company that her 'team' is 'on calls daily, working through product development, SKUs, and inventory.' She also said: 'We have a field trip tomorrow to look at different manufacturers and suppliers as we expand the brand.'
But Strugatz's reporting told a somewhat different story. Bottom line: As Ever would not exist without Netflix, if only because Netflix is funding Meghan's venture, as the duchess herself told Fast Company. But Strugatz also said that Meghan doesn't employ her own team to develop her 'sad mix of white-label products.'
'She's not building a lifestyle empire,' an insider told Strugatz. 'There's no one that works for the brand. She's outsourced the entire brand to Netflix. They send samples and she picks what she likes.'
Another insider, familiar with the partnership, countered that Meghan is trying to build 'a dedicated internal team' to support As Ever's growth, Strugatz reported. Still, whether or not Meghan actually meets with suppliers or works closely on developing the recipes and managing inventory, her attempts to attach a home-grown authenticity to her products aren't entirely convincing.
The news that a Netflix team may be sourcing the ingredients or directing a factory to make Meghan's jam or her brand's US$18 honey tends to erode any sense of authenticity. It's also not likely that Meghan and As Ever could ever say that their ingredients are 'locally sourced,' something consumers can count on if they buy more affordable and fresh-tasting jam from a stand at their hometown farmers market. In the culinary context, authenticity usually refers to food that's not processed but 'real' and 'natural' and associated with a designated place and made with ingredients from that place.
Moreover, it's curious that Meghan's raspberry spread, as presented on the website, comes with a familiar product label that purports to list 'ingredients.' But this label in fact lists no ingredients — just information about calories and percentages of fat, sodium or sugar per serving. With no ingredients listed, it's impossible to know whether the spread was made with actual, fresh raspberries, much less whether it contains certain kinds of sugar or preservatives. Similarly, the 'ingredients' labels for the As Ever crepe and shortbread-cookie mixes lack information about actual ingredients.
In her report, Strugatz cited other issues bedeviling Meghan's brand. For one thing, Meghan's future plans for As Ever 'remain unclear.' Up until now, she offered conflicting stories about when new products would be available again. On her podcast, Confessions Of A Female Founder, she said her company was on 'pause' and she told Fast Company that she would not announce the release of new products until the first quarter of 2026, as she said she was shifting her focus to 'the hospitality angle.'
One person who knows Meghan 'intimately' told Strugatz that 'the haphazard' rollout of the As Ever brand was simply 'the Sussex way.' And while Meghan and her fans claimed that her products were so popular that they sold out within 45 minutes of going on sale, Strugatz said she was told that creating a product 'scarcity' was always part of the plan; Meghan wanted everything to sell out within a day 'to create the illusion of demand.'
Either that, or too few units were produced. Strugatz questions whether the products were hastily created to capitalise on the March premiere of the first season of Meghan's eight-episode Netflix series. It's also well known that Meghan ran into copyright problems with the original name for her brand — American Riviera Orchard — and seemed to come up with As Ever at the last minute.
Everything about As Ever 'reads like a lazy, short-term solution to get something out there and into customers' hands,' Strugatz said. 'It includes little of the vision or personality of Goop, or Martha Stewart, or the other lifestyle brands that Meghan had delusions of building. Indeed, it maps the Sussex way — not fully thought out, hastily executed, prone to pivot.' – The Mercury News/Tribune News Service