Meghan Markle Launches Surprise New Venture

The Duchess of Sussex, better known as Meghan Markle, on Thursday launched a surprise new venture that appears to be a lifestyle brand. Meghan returned to Instagram with an account dubbed American Riviera Orchard, which currently features very little other than its name, a logo, Meghan's byline, and "Montecito," the name of the California town where she and Prince Harry live (and which has been dubbed part of the "American Riviera"). There's also a brief video featuring snippets like Meghan in a kitchen stirring something, and hands arranging flowers. A website is similarly mysterious, but also allows people to sign up for a "waitlist."

People reports American Riviera Orchard appears to be a lifestyle brand, and notes that a trademark application for the name indicates it plans to sell tableware, drinkware, linens, cookbooks, and foods including jellies, jams, and other spreads. Yahoo News reports it appears to be thematically similar to The Tig, a lifestyle website focused on food and travel that Meghan launched in 2014 but shut down three years later after she and Prince Harry got engaged. Neither Meghan nor Harry have been active on social media since 2020 after they stepped away from their roles as working members of the royal family. (More Meghan Markle stories.)