If you are living under a rock, you might not be aware that the British royal family is mired in chaos at the moment. In the midst of King Charles’s cancer diagnosis and the swirling conspiracy theories surrounding the “missing” Princess Kate, who’s scarcely been seen in public since Christmas 2023, self-exiled royal Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex and wife of Prince Harry, is hoping to bring a little calm domesticity to the royal fold. How, you may ask? Why, with a new lifestyle brand, of course. Enter: American Riviera.
My colleagues at The Cut noticed that Markle had made a swift return to Instagram this week to soft-launch her new lifestyle empire, complete with an Instagram story of Markle stirring together some sort of baked good in time to a vintage Nancy Sinatra tune. She has experience in this realm. Before she made headlines as the bride of Princess Diana’s youngest son, Markle was both an actress and the mind behind the Tig, a platform she used to write about travel and beauty, and shared her tips for dining in cities like Lisbon and her favorite recipes. The Tig was shuttered in 2017, the same year Markle became engaged to Prince Harry, and thus began her royal fairy tale.
But, of course, that’s not exactly how it worked out. The two were married, but after months of horrible (often racist) treatment from the Royals Industrial Complex and the British press, Markle and Prince Harry announced that they would “step back” from their duties as senior royals and decamped to California. Once there, Markle engaged in a couple of high-profile Netflix and podcast development deals, the latter of which did not end particularly well for the Sussexes.
And so it is perhaps not surprising that Markle, after a lengthy absence from Instagram and the world of social media influencers, is making a comeback. The couple, cut off from the extensive (mostly plundered) resources of the British royal family, has to figure out some way to make a buck! Filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office indicate that Markle has registered American Riviera trademarks for “jellies, jams, and marmalades,” along with cookbooks and other kitchen goods.
In other words, it looks like Markle is positioning herself to become the next Joanna Gaines, who has built a massive empire that spans television, home goods, and even an entire complex of retail establishments and restaurants in her home base of Waco, Texas. Markle is especially well-positioned for that kind of success, considering how rapidly Markle-endorsed products like Rothys ballet flats flew off shelves as soon as she was photographed wearing them. I can only imagine the digital chaos that will ensue the second that she starts selling her California clementine marmalade.
Even though she wasn’t a working royal for very long, Markle brings that cachet to a world in which most influencers are desperately seeking to make their (often luxurious) lives seem deeply normal. But from the jump, American Riviera is positioning itself as an upscale, aspirational brand — it’s literally in the name. The font used for its logo is a perfect juxtaposition of royal script and laid-back, California cool, indicating that it will offer consumers some proximity, however distant, to feeling a little bit like royalty. Or at the very least like a rich, cool, Californian.
And it’s clear that there are plenty of consumers who are just dying to see whatever Markle does next — as of the time of this writing, the account had racked up over a quarter million followers in just a matter of hours, and that number is only ticking upward. Whether or not Markle will be able to even come close to Gaines’s domination on the world of home interiors remains to be seen, but one thing is abundantly clear: the Sussexes are coming for your kitchen.
