Meghan Markle reportedly launched her shiny new lifestyle brand in a “PR blitz” that overshadowed Prince William’s tribute ceremony to late mom Princess Diana.
“Nothing happens by accident with Harry and Meghan,” royal biographer and commentator Phil Dampier told the Daily Mail on Friday.
The Prince of Wales, 41, attended the Princess Diana Legacy Awards in London on Thursday night where he gave a speech and presented awards to 20 recipients. The Duke of Sussex, 39, then made a virtual appearance after his estranged brother departed from the event.
“Harry probably felt he wasn’t getting the exposure he deserved as William was actually at the event and he wasn’t,” Dampier said.
The royal expert also touched on Markle’s decision to launch her lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard, just hours before the annual event honoring Diana’s legacy.
“As for American Riviera Orchard I’ve always thought Meghan would end up doing some sort of Gwyneth Paltrow style lifestyle range and this has clearly been planned for many months,” he said.
Dampier added, “If it means she concentrates on making money and not on attacking the royal family I’m all for it.”
The day in which the former “Suits” actress announced the new brand is seemingly no coincidence as it happens to be the four-year anniversary of the Sussexes’ official move to the United States after their resignation from royal life.
In March 2020, Harry famously filmed himself on a flight with Markle, 42, to their new life in Montecito, Calif., dubbing the excursion their “freedom flight.”
Since leaving their royal duties in the dust, the Sussexes have repeatedly bashed the royal family in interviews as well as in their 2022 Netflix docuseries “Harry & Meghan,” and in Harry’s scathing 2023 memoir “Spare” — resulting in a long-running feud between Harry and William.
The Sussexes have a history of upstaging the royal family including when Harry sat for an interview with CBS to discuss royal family tensions just one day before Kate Middleton’s birthday.
They also dropped the trailer for their controversial Netflix docuseries just as the Prince and Princess of Wales touched down for their first trip to the US since Queen Elizabeth II’s death.
Harry and Markle also reportedly announced to their family that they were expecting their first child at the wedding reception for Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank in October 2018, and the former actress also announced that she was releasing a new children’s book in 2023 just weeks before Middleton was to drop her photography album.
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Keeping up with their attention-seeking pattern, the couple picked the day of the event honoring Diana as the day to announce the winner of the NAACP x Archewell Foundation Digital Civil Rights Award, who will be granted $100,000.
Page Six Style reported on Thursday that Markle was going back to her old roots by launching a new version of her now-defunct lifestyle blog “The Tig.”
An insider told us American Riviera Orchard will focus on home, garden, food and general lifestyle wares.
“She’s been working on this for over a year and it’s all the things that are close to her heart — all the things she’s passionate about,” an industry source shared.
A trademark application obtained by Page Six Style reveals the company will sell a range of home goods including tableware, cookware, cookbooks and delicious treats like jellies and jams.
Markle’s Tig 2.0 announcement, which debuted with a glitzy new Instagram page containing very little information, also coincides with the expected launch of her lifestyle/food show on Netflix that Page Six revealed last month.
Markle’s homemaker mission made headlines amid swirling conspiracies about Middleton’s health after she posted a doctored photo on Instagram amid her post-surgery recovery that has kept her out of the spotlight for more than two months.