The truth about Meghan Markle’s millions and why a return to the UK could make perfect sense

As the Duchess of Sussex launches her first new product of the year and is rumoured to be returning to Britain in July, Lydia Spencer-Elliott takes a look at how successful she really is and what might come next

Meghan Markle’s brand – both personal and lifestyle – has always been a little confused. The latter, originally launched as American Riviera Orchard in 2024, became As Ever a little under a year later, with the Duchess claiming the moniker limited her to selling goods manufactured and grown in the Santa Barbara area in which she lives. Much like Markle, sorry, Sussex, her jam had an identity crisis.

Still, her products (flower sprinkles for £11, honey for an eye-watering £21) flew off the digital shelves upon release, with the Duchess even being forced to offer free gifts to customers who’d bought items after the initial inventory was, in fact, gone within the first 45 minutes. Markle announced she wouldn’t restock the products because of the toll the success of the business had taken on her, admitting she feared she might be “annoying” customers. “I don’t want you to eat that jam once every six months,” she acknowledged. “I want that to be on your shelf all the time.”

Cut to 2026, and she’s just released a new “unwind set” (£47), comprised of a black leather “fell asleep here” bookmark, a jar of sage honey and tin of peppermint tea. The bookmark is stamped with gold and is penned in Meghan’s own handwriting. A far cry from Santa Barbara, the product is produced in the UK, a nod back to the Duke and Duchess’s life before heading back to the US in 2020.

So how is business doing really?

After her jam with her jam at launch, miraculously, her As Ever products went on sale just over a fortnight later. “You guys are doing it again, we’re nearly sold out on everything and I can’t believe it,” Markle told fans on social media, in which she unveiled a new apricot spread in keepsake packaging (£10), as well as a limited edition orange blossom honey (£20), which sold out 10 minutes after release. “We spent so much time making sure we had so much more inventory,” Markle grinned, seemingly in disbelief.

Then came this month’s tech snafu, which appeared to expose exactly how many products As Ever had sold as well as had still available. Neither Markle nor her company have ever published sales figures, yet reports suggested that the brand’s online site displayed the precise number of each item left in stock. For example, The Times reported the As Ever website showed that 137,465 units were left of the signature fruit spread box, which contains three jams of jam for £31, per.

(Instagram/As Ever)

This inspired some quick maths among reporters. A source “close to the business” told The Sun that the figure for the jam represented the number left in stock after an original purchase order of one million. If this is true, it would mean Markle has sold 862, 535 boxes of signature fruit spread for a total of £26.7m. “It doesn’t take a genius to work out that 87 per cent of what has been ordered has been sold,” the insider said. The Duchess and As Ever did not comment.

Of course, these hypothetical figures don’t take into account overheads, operating costs, production, packaging, marketing and shipping before profit. Ballpark these expenditures and they amount to somewhere between £12-16m based on similar celebrity business models, which leaves Markle’s profits seemingly sitting somewhere between £10-£14m. An absolute killing for jars of jam.

But the problem remains of the brand image. Here, business is not so good. “She did a drop that sold out, then she said she wasn’t doing more, then she did another one, then she said there were no products and then there was a website glitch that showed there were thousands of jars of honey and jam left. It’s brand confusion,” diagnoses Renae Smith, founder of the PR and branding firm The Atticism.

“Meghan does have the potential to actually have a really good brand,” Smith acknowledges. “But she either has no understanding of what she wants the brand to be, or she has very poor advisors in that space,” she says. Or maybe she doesn’t want to listen. Notably, the Sussexes have lost 11 publicists in the space of five years, with the last, Meredith Maines, quitting after less than a year in the role.

Compared to other celebrity wellness brands, like Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, which launched in 2008 and is valued at around $250m (£185m), Smith predicts Markle’s business could struggle with longevity unless she hones her brand both as a business and a public figure.

“Goop had a plan from the beginning, it was neat, it was structured,” she says. “Meghan doesn’t stick to a lane; she’ll go and be an influencer for a bit, then she goes back on TV and does something weird, then she does a podcast, which was also weird,” she says, in reference to the maligned Archetypes.

“If you’re going to be the next Martha Stewart, just do that,” Smith advises. “Don’t take photos of yourself near the bridge where Diana died or even go to Paris for a Balenciaga show, commit! Hone [your image]: ‘My husband’s a prince and I love staying at home with my children,’ whether it’s true or not, who cares?

“But she won’t,” Smith concludes.

In her latest curveball move, Markle is reportedly preparing to return to the UK for the first time in four years to join her husband at an Invictus Games event in Birmingham this July. Could this return streamline her image at all? “Her diehard fans will buy what she’s selling wherever in the world she is,” Smith observes. “You love her or hate her with as much aggression as you do Trump.

Markle launched her lifestyle brand alongside the Netflix show ‘With Love, Meghan’ in 2025 (Netflix/As Ever)

“She could come back to the UK and try to somewhat recover a little bit of the aspirational Princess energy here, maybe get her brand into Fortnum & Mason – not somewhere like Soho House – that suits her followers who align with her girl boss, sort of vibe. But, from a monarchy standpoint, there are people who’ll never forgive her for what’s happened. They won’t be swayed whether she’s in the US or the UK. She’s permanently damaged her reputation here.”

When markle announced her latest “unwind” products, the standalone bookmark sold out in minutes with the whole “unwind” bundle not far behind. “For the chapters you want to savour most…” the teaser told fans ahead of the drop. “A quiet pause. thoughtfully bundled,” the announcement added. While it’s entirely unpredictable what direction the brand will veer into next, the expert advice is clear and simple: play it safe and think carefully about bookmarking your next chapter.