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Meghan Markle’s curious timing of new brand launch dumps fuel on Royal rumors

March 15, 2024 | | Print Article

Meghan Markle is facing backlash for debuting a new brand amid her extended royal family’s worsening troubles.

“Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, debuted an Instagram account on Thursday that announced a new venture, American Riviera Orchard, which appears to be a kitchen and lifestyle brand,” according to The New York Times.

“Little is known about the brand beyond a 15-second video that features grainy footage of Meghan arranging roses and hydrangeas, posing from afar in a black gown and cooking in what appears to be her kitchen in Southern California,” the Times reported Thursday.

What’s the problem with her debuting the brand? The timing, it appears.

On the same day that Markle debuted the brand, her husband, Prince Harry, and his brother, Prince William, honored the late Princess Diana, their mother, during the 25th anniversary of the Diana Award charity.

Some critics believe Markle may have purposefully scheduled her debut for Thursday just to steal attention away from the ceremony.

Look:

Another problem with the timing is the ongoing trouble with Markle’s sister-in-law, Kate Middleton.

“The announcement comes amid a week of wild-eyed speculation about Catherine, Princess of Wales, Meghan’s sister-in-law, who apologized on Monday for releasing an edited image of herself,” the Times notes.

“The image has wrought a public relations scandal and fueled conspiracy theories about the princess’ well-being since her abdominal surgery in January,” according to the Times.

Evidently, Middleton hasn’t been seen publicly since she underwent the surgery, and so the Photoshopped photo is, some believe, proof that “[t]he Palace appears to be trying in a very ham-fisted way to cover something up,” as noted by Vox.

Further complicating everything is a report that Middleton wasn’t wearing her wedding ring in the doctored photo. Some believe that her husband, Prince William, was recently busted having an affair with his neighbor, Rose Hanbury.

Middleton has for her part formally apologized for publishing the “fake” photo:

Markle is linked to the Middleton incident because of comments made to Page Six by somebody allegedly close to her.

“Sources close to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry waded into Kate Middleton’s bizarre photo-editing crisis Monday, saying, ‘This isn’t a mistake Meghan would ever make,'” according to Page Six.

“The exiled British royals would ‘have been annihilated’ if they had handed out secretly Photoshopped images of themselves and their family, sources [said],” Page Six reported Monday.

While Markle has publicly denied that she had anything to do with these comments, some don’t believe her.

Markle is also facing backlash because her new brand is allegedly the type of thing the late Queen Elizabeth would have never approved of.

“This was everything the late Queen Elizabeth dreaded: The Sussexes commodifying royalty, using it to shill some copper cookware and start an imitation Ina Garten show while capitalizing on their family, never more in crisis than now,” according to Maureen Callahan, a Daily Mail columnist.

Markle’s supporters disagree with all the criticism. They say the princess is merely doing her own thing at her own pace, regardless of other events that are also simultaneously occurring.

Vivek Saxena
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