Meghan Markle's huge billionaire plan wobbles

News.com.au

2 days ago

COMMENT
Shipping. Building supplies. Petrol stations. Roofing. Online gambling. Take a moment to peruse the list of the world's top five self-made female billionaires and how they have accrued their wondrous fortunes through quite the selection of heavy-on-the-rivets industries.
Can – or will – jam be added to that list?
This week Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex gave a new interview and crucially not to a mag intent on unpacking her trauma while shooting her in haute couture worth about the same price as a mid-range Kia RIO. Instead she spoke to the business title Fast Company and made no bones (nor broth) about her intent to make her mark in the commercial world.
Huzzah for ambition, truly, but … well, how's all that going exactly?
In March, a 'well-placed source' told the Telegraph that the duchess 'thinks she's going to be a billionaire' but the signs are, so far, that her joining the likes of women who can buy themselves ports in Panama for funsies won't be happening in the next hot minute.
2025 has been the year of Meghan Pty Ltd.
Within hours of the new year starting, she had returned to Instagram to provide the world with enough gardening and kitchen content to constitute an application for official tradwife membership.
Then came her Netflix series, With Love, Meghan, which debuted in March to teach the world how to make a frittata, decant popcorn into decorative thingames and to scatter flower sprinkles on every known human comestible. On April 2, the duchess finally gave the world the chance to spend $23 on said same desiccated petals for our own strewing delight. (But wouldn't your morning Weetbix bring you more joy if they had a few bits of decorative, dried nasturtium scattered on the top, hmmm?)
Still, the duchess' As Ever range of spreads (not jams), crepe and biscuit mixes, and herbal teas sold out in 45 minutes, guaranteeing a marketing win for the 43-year-old and her business partner, up and coming, bootstrapped enterprise Netflix.
Less than a week later, on April 8, Meghan's new podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder launched, giving rise to the spectral return of the girl boss trope.
However, how far has all this industry and all this newmaking gone towards reaching billionaire territory?
Nearly two months and even the most eager buyer with the sturdiest of platinum credit cards can't reorder any flower sprinkles with the As Ever range yet to be restocked.
More products on the As Ever shelves might not come until next year, according to the Fast Company piece. It reports that the duchess now 'wants to take a step back, gather data from the launch, and figure out exactly what As Ever could be. She says she's planning to announce new products in the first quarter of 2026.'
Which is clearly not good news if you had been a hankerin' to get your hands on some $43 limited edition honey with honeycomb and, I'm assuming, brunchy bragging rights.
'I want to really focus on the hospitality angle of As Ever, but as we take the learnings, we can understand what the customer's needs are seasonally,' Meghan has said, at which point we should all pause and consider how our spread and sprinkle 'needs' might change when winter officially hits next week.
As it is, Fast Company has reported that the duchess and As Ever team 'spent a year preparing the line and forecasting demand'.
Still, I'm sure there's a line here about hares and tortoises and so onwards we go, towards the Sussexes' most lucrative commercial ronde.
By far the biggest wodge of cash that Meghan and husband Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex have received has come from Netflix. In 2020 they signed what was reportedly a $USD100 million, five year deal, meaning the current contract is set to expire soon.
In February the Daily Mail 's Alison Boshoff raised the question of just how much of this massive sum the couple might have actually banked and she reported that, per 'well-placed sources with knowledge of the deal' the Sussexes ended up 'drawing a relatively meagre amount from the streamer — thought to amount to as little as $20 million ($AUD31 million) for them personally'.
Of this, Boshoff reported, $15 million ($AUD23 million) went 'directly to the couple, the rest being spent on making the series.'
While there has been much speculation that the steamer is getting set to delete the Sussexes' numbers and institute an official ban on anyone uttering the word 'polo', this week Boshoff provided a surprising update.
Another 'well-placed source' told her that CEO Ted Sarandos is 'a massive, massive fan of Meghan personally' and that 'he is all in'.
Which is spiffing news if you are the duke and duchess' bank manager but perhaps less so if considered in the cold light of an inflammatory- fighting ice bath.
When the Sussexes' signed their current, back in 2020, it was at the absolute apex of the global obsessions slash fascination with them, when their stock could not have been higher and they had not uttered a syllable about their royal story.
Oprah Winfrey was just a fellow Montecitan resident; 'unconscious bias' was still something that Harry couldn't quite spell and 'spare' was just how one described unused, junk-filled bedrooms.
A Netflix deal in 2025 could look very different and Boshoff has reported that what will reportedly be on the table going forward will be 'a much-reduced offer … focused entirely on
Meghan' and there will be no 'generous upfront payment.'
At least the duchess has not been shy about experimenting, her work ethic and willingness to try her hand at new ventures a genuinely, straight-faced impressive thing. (Doff your cap everyone.)
This year she has also launched a ShopMy account, which allows users to buy the chic things she wears, and stylish ambitions could stretch far beyond that. Speaking to Fast Company she said that 'fashion is something I will explore at a later date, because I do think that's an interesting space for me'.
Last year the New York Times revealed she had gotten into the investing game, including putting money into handbag brand Cesta Collective, along with a previous investment in vegan latte business Clevr.
There could also be a Meghany book in the works. She confirmed to friend Jamie Kern Lima, while appearing on the It Cosmetics founder's podcast, that she is open to turning author again after her children's title The Bench however it would be most likely connected to 'hospitality and home and entertaining and food and those sort of tips'.
However, potentially hair-raisingly for Buckingham Palace, she also said, 'people are often curious if I'm going to write a memoir, but I've got a lot more life to live before I'm there'.
It all sounds very promising – but can or will it be billionaire-making?
At least we can say for certain that should the duchess arrive at having ten figures in the bank, she won't feel bad about it.
While interviewing self-made billionaire Sara Blakely who founded Spanx on the final episode of Female Founder, Meghan said that women are 'taught to not even talk about money, and there's lots of guilt mentality surrounding having a lot'.
The good news is for the time being, while she might have tens of millions to not feel guilty about at least she doesn't have to battle billionaire-level guilt – yet.