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The Royal Arrival of Prince Harry & Meghan Markle at The Lion King Europ...

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Happy Holidays Peace Peace Peace Peace

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Megxit Networking Events

July 16th Networking Event

Clothing Capsule

Vogue Let's call some people

Bakery/cooking

The World of Disney July 16th 2019

Canada House 2x

Obama Foundation (book tours & South Africa)

The Royal Arrival of Prince Harry & Meghan Markle at The Lion King Europ...

On Sunday July 14th, a golden carpet was especially rolled out in London's Leicester Square for The Lion King European premiere. It was a star-studded affair with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex celebrating the occasion along with Beyonce and a host of other cast members.

Disney’s The Lion King arrives in cinemas July 19th.

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Her Rush to the Golden Carpet: July 14th 2019

Setting up LA jobs, pitching, voice over, Beyonce

The Royal Arrival of Prince Harry & Meghan Markle at The Lion King

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https://www.wineenthusiast.com/culture/wine/12-best-celebrity-wines-ratings/

Francis Ford Coppola

Famous for directing The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, Coppola has also built an empire in the wine industry. His eponymous brand produces more than three million cases annually. In 1975, he took control of the historic Inglenook estate that yields classic Napa Cabernets.

Inglenook 2016 Rubicon Cabernet Sauvignon (Rutherford); $210, 95 points. From the esteemed producer’s gorgeous estate, including 3% Merlot, this is impressive and structured—a leathery, viscous and concentrated expression of a great site in an intense vintage. Gunpowder, oak and black-cherry compote form around brightly captured acidity and a lasting fistful of baking spice that lingers and softens the finish. Editors’ Choice. –Virginie Boone

Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill in The Hunter (2011) / Photo by Matt Nettheim, courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Sam Neill

Known for portraying paleontologist-turned-dinosaur-wrangler Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park, Neill is also a vintner. In 1993, he started his wine brand, Two Paddocks, in Central Otago on New Zealand’s South Island, which crafts Pinot Noir from organically grown grapes.

Two Paddocks 2017 The Last Chance Proprietor’s Reserve Pinot Noir (Central Otago); $80, 94 points. Actor Sam Neill’s Two Paddocks label is on a steep upward trajectory: Vine age, impeccable farming and a dream team inside and out of the winery are paying off. This premium Pinot is an intensely spicy, perfumed drop. It’s hard not to fall under its spell. Like Christmas distilled, it’s a heady hodgepodge of red currants and preserved cherries marinated in bitter herbs and spices—licorice root, cloves, cinnamon bark and vanilla pod—derived from the fruit and stalks, not from oak. Chalky tannins curl around the tongue, the juicy, prickly fruit trickles through the cracks. Powerfully structured yet utterly drinkable, this would perch happily beside charcuterie or a mushroom truffle risotto. Drink now–2028. Negociants USA–Winebow. Editors’ Choice. –Christina Pickard

Yao Ming / Photo courtesy Yao Family Wines

Yao Ming

The 7-foot, 6-inch tall Chinese-American basketball player is a powerhouse on and off the court. He is the founder and proprietor of St. Helena-based Yao Family Wines, which produces red, white and sparkling wines under the winery’s Yao Ming and Napa Crest lines.

Yao Family Wines 2018 Napa Crest Sauvignon Blanc (Napa Valley); $35, 91 points. Creamy on the palate, with a balanced approach to acidity, this wine offers breadth and length, nicely combining a small amount of Sémillon within. Pear, peach and Key lime make for an expressive midpalate of fruit seasoned in a touch of lemongrass. –V.B.

Jeff O’Neill and Charles Woodson / Photo by Photagonist.ca

Charles Woodson

The nine-time Pro Bowler has long been a wine lover, having dabbled in the industry since 2005. His most recent endeavor is the Paso Robles brand Intercept, which offers a line at tailgate-friendly prices.

Charles Woodson’s Intercept 2017 Pinot Noir (Monterey County); $20, 92 points. Soon-to-be NFL Hall of Famer Charles Woodson is not messing around with this Pinot Noir. Crisp aromas of fresh raspberry and hibiscus meet with a hint of gamy meat on the nose, while the palate delivers pleasantly rustic flavors of dried wild cherry, oregano and peppercorn. Editors’ Choice. –Matt Kettmann

In 2006, pop star Fergie purchased a Santa Barbara County winery with her father and named it Ferguson Crest in an homage to their family’s surname. Winemaker Joey Tensley works with the brand to create a focused portfolio that mostly features Rhône red and white grapes.

Ferguson Crest 2018 Viognier (Santa Barbara County); $28, 92 points. Clean lines of Meyer lemon, mango and ripe melon are generous without being overbearing on the well-balanced nose of this bottling by winemaker Joey Tensley for pop star Fergie. There are ripe flashes of peach on the palate yet a citrus freshness and stony grip are unrelentingly tense, leading to an ashy finish. –M.K.

Kurt Russell / Photo by Henry Bruington

Kurt Russell

The lifelong actor fell in love with the Pinot Noirs of Sta. Rita Hills, which he felt rivaled his favorites from Burgundy, while filming Death Proof in 2006. Encouraged by fellow actor-turned-winemaker Fess Parker, in 2008, he began to produce wines with Peter and Rebecca Work of Ampelos Cellars and created boutique winery Gogi. It produces Pinot Noirs made in an Old-World style.

Gogi 2016 29 Pinot Noir (Sta. Rita Hills); $75, 92 points. Quite light and transparent in the glass, this bottling by actor Kurt Russell starts with aromas of Montmorency cherries, dewy herbs and pine-forest floor on the nose. It’s a fresh, snappy and lean style of Pinot Noir, with flavors of tart red plum, raspberry and orange rind that benefit from a hefty dusting of wild herbs. –M.K.

Jay-Z

The hip-hop giant catapulted the Armand de Brignac brand into the spotlight in his 2006 music video, “Show Me What You Got.” Produced by the Cattier family, who founded their Champagne house in 1763, and owned in part by Shawn Carter (a.k.a. Jay-Z), the Champagne has become a favorite among celebrities.

Armand de Brignac NV Gold Brut (Champagne); $300, 91 points. A blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir, this ripe, well-balanced wine has some toast that adds complexity and richness to the apple and lemon fruit, indicating a mature bottling. The wine in a gold-foil bottle is one of five made by the Cattier house for rapper and entrepreneur Jay Z’s Armand de Brignac Empire brand with the “Ace of Spades” logo. –Roger Voss

Drew Bledsoe

Before Tom Brady’s ascent, to a certain generation of sports lovers, Drew Bledsoe was the face of New England Patriots. The four-time Pro Bowler spent spent nine seasons with the Patriots before retiring to Oregon’s Walla Walla Valley, where he founded Doubleback Winery and Bledsoe Family Winery.

Doubleback 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon (Walla Walla Valley); $98, 91 points. Dried herbs, cherry jam, graphite and spice lead to ripe, full, fleshy fruit flavors that linger. It comes off as quite ripe but has a pleasing yum factor and a fine sense of acidity. Best after 2026. Cellar Selection. –Sean Sullivan

Kyle MacLachlan at Cannes Film Festival (2017) / Photo by Georges Biard, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

Kyle Maclachlan

The star of David Lynch’s cult classic films Dune and Blue Velvet, as well as television series Twin Peaks, this Washington native launched his Walla Walla winery, Pursued by Bear, named for a Shakespearean stage direction, in 2005.

Pursued by Bear 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon (Columbia Valley); $70, 91 points. Enchanting aromas of green coffee bean, black cherry, graphite, black licorice and dried flowers are followed by well-balanced, palate-coating dark-fruit and coffee flavors. The tannins are combed to a fine sheen. —S.S.

Jim Nantz / Photo by Christine Bush

Jim Nantz

With approximately 40 years of sportscasting experience, Jim Nantz is widely considered one of the premier voices of the National Football League. In 2009, after a chance meeting in a Connecticut restaurant with Peter Deutsch, of Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits, the duo took their combined passion for wine and launched a joint label, The Calling, in Sonoma.

The Calling 2016 Searby Vineyard Chardonnay (Russian River Valley); $51, 91 points. Robust Meyer lemon flavors exude from this fleshy and lush white wine, laced in acidity and modest oak, that reveals full-bodied richness within a context of balance. Touches of nutmeg, lemongrass and white flower permeate through a long finish. –V.B.

Zac Brown / Photo by Andy Sapp

Zac Brown

Grammy-winning country singer, producer and bandleader Zac Brown is passionate about his Z. Alexander Brown label. From blending to label design and packaging, the musician is invested in all facets of production.

Alexander Brown 2017 Uncaged Proprietary Red (California); $18, 90 points. Tones of charcoal and smoked meat are backed up by ripe, rich blackberry in this dark-colored, moderately tannic and thick-textured wine. Black cherry and clove nuances develop on the palate and linger on the finish. Editors’ Choice. –Jim Gordon

Bruno Vespa

A household name in Italy, this TV journalist has been the face of news show Porta a Porta since 1996. An avid wine lover, in 2014, he opened a winery in Manduria with his sons Alessandro and Federico that focuses on the indigenous grapes of Puglia.

Vespa 2017 Il Rosso di Vespa (Primitivo di Manduria); $35, 90 points. Aromas of mixed berry preserves and fig are lifted by accents of pepper, violet and tar on the nose. There’s a pleasing vibrancy to the palate, with lively acidity brightening flavors of jammy berries and orange rind. The tannins are fine yet copious, giving a structured frame to this immensely food-friendly wine. Ethica Wines. –Alexander Peartree

Last Updated: May 8, 2023

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Royals

Meghan Markle Is In a Jam Jam

After weeks of speculation, sources close to the duchess have divulged that her As Ever products are manufactured by grocery store brand Republic of Tea, as a jam expert slams her fruit spreads for being too runny.



By Erin Vanderhoof

June 30, 2025



Karwai Tang/Getty Images.

On Tuesday, Meghan Markle will release a rosé wine, one of the most hotly anticipated products from her Netflix-backed company As Ever. As the website ramps up for another launch, jars of her apricot spread have been making their way to customers around the United States—and kicking up a bit of controversy in the British tabloids.

Though Meghan’s business was inspired by the jams and spreads she made in her own home, and she said they were made in US, the Mail on Sunday revealed that they are currently being produced in a factory about 2000 miles from her Montecito home in Illinois. This week, sources close to the duchess told the British paper that As Ever’s spreads and teas are being manufactured by Republic of Tea—an Illinois-based company known for its round pouches and eclectic blends—using California-grown berries from an unidentified supplier. In addition, the Mail reported that the rosé is being made in collaboration with Fairwinds Estate, a Napa Valley winery. (Vanity Fair has contacted the Duchess’s representatives for comment.)

In an April interview with Fortune, Meghan noted that her products were all manufactured in the United States, but otherwise, details about the product’s sourcing and production were difficult to come by. According to The Mirror, she is currently in the process of looking for new suppliers for the brand.

Watch Now:

Amelia Dimoldenberg Crashes Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers' Interview

Though As Ever’s tea bags are triangular, it isn’t a huge surprise that Republic of Tea was involved with the product development for the brand that Meghan started with support from Netflix’s Consumer Product Group. The CPG has a history of partnering with other brands and manufacturers to bring their products to market, and in 2022, Republic of Tea released an assortment of teas and accessories promoting the streamer’s show Bridgerton.

Meghan first began to build buzz for a lifestyle brand in early 2024 when she sent jars of homemade strawberry jam to 50 friends and acquaintances. A handful of the recipients, including Mindy Kaling, Kris Jenner, and Chrissy Teigen, shared photos of the jam to their Instagram accounts. At first, she decided to name her company “American Rivera Orchard,” but later decided to change track when she realized that a geographically specific name would limit her to make products in the area. In a May podcast interview with Tina Knowles, she mentioned that her original ambition for her business was to open a Santa Barbara farmer’s market stand where she would sell small-batch preserves, adding that she had even applied for a license.

When the brand made its mass-market debut in April 2025, she had chosen a new name and opted to release a raspberry fruit spread. In a conversation with It Cosmetics founder Jamie Kern Lima, she noted that she hoped to expand the range of flavors. “Of course, more jam drops,” Meghan said. “Think of them like sneaker drops.” Earlier this month, when As Ever did a restock of its products, the apricot spread became the company’s newest jam flavor.

Earlier this month, an American jam maker told the Daily Mail that she found Meghan’s decision to market “fruit spreads” to be suspect. “It's a real disappointment that Meghan is selling a fruit spread, which is what you make when your jam fails," said Donna Collins, the owner of Jelly Queens, a business based in Fairview, Texas. “It can have the best ingredients, but if I had a jam that was too runny, I'd slap a label on it and call it a spread.”

The difference between a “jam,” a “preserve,” and a “spread” comes down to the ratio of fruit to sugar. Jam, which is regulated by the FDA, must have at least 55% sugar and 45% fruit. The sugar content also affects the jam’s final consistency. As the sugar is heated, it binds to fruit pectins, either naturally occurring or added, to create a stronger gel.

In an episode of her show, With Love, Meghan, the duchess explained that she intentionally made a product with less sugar. “Technically, it can’t be called jam because jam is equal parts sugar and fruit,” Meghan said. “I just don’t think you can taste the fruit that way.”

On their website, As Ever describes their new apricot spread as having “a touch of sweetness, letting the apricot’s bright flavor shine.” Vanity Fair obtained a jar of the brand’s newest release, and though the spread’s texture was distractingly runny, the fruit’s acidic flavor was a hit.

The duchess is aware enough that her preserves are fairly runny, to the point that she joked about it during her appearance on Aspire With Emma Grede earlier this month. After discussing the stress of launching a TV show, a podcast, and a lifestyle company at the same time, she said she was looking forward to taking a break from her busy schedule. With a smile, she added, “At a certain point, the only thing I want to spread thin is my jam.”

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Fraudster jailed for selling fake 'Scottish-grown tea'

6 hours ago

Paul Ward and Steven Godden

BBC Scotland News

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Thomas Robinson supplied high-end establishments such as Edinburgh's Balmoral Hotel and the Dorchester in London

A fraudster who tricked luxury hotels and stores into buying "Scottish-grown tea" that was actually from abroad has been jailed for three and a half years.

Thomas Robinson also conned aspiring tea growers by selling them plants he claimed had been "specially engineered" to grow in Scotland's climate - but in reality they had simply been bought in from Italy.

The 55-year-old, who was known to his many customers as Tam O'Braan, spun an elaborate backstory claiming among other things that he was a former bomb disposal expert, had lived in the Amazon and had invented the "bag for life".

Last month he was found guilty of the £550,000 scam that spanned five years from 2014.

He had supplied high-end customers such as Edinburgh's Balmoral Hotel and the Dorchester in London with varieties of tea with names like Highland Green, Silver Needles and Scottish Antlers Tea.

Sentencing was deferred from this morning after Robinson's solicitor withdrew.

He represented himself in mitigation and apologised for his crimes saying "hubris and arrogance" led him to "believe he knew best".

While sentencing Robinson at Stirling Sheriff Court, Sheriff Keith O'Mahony said his crimes were not victimless and involved "significant and persistent planning".

Getty Images

Thomas Robinson raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds in his elaborate scam

Trading as The Wee Tea Plantation, Robinson claimed his brews had been grown on farmland in Perthshire and Dumfries and Galloway, but really the tea had been bought from a wholesaler in Oxford and resold at hugely-inflated prices.

Concerns were raised with the authorities when genuine tea growers caught wind that Robinson had populated the Balmoral Hotel's Palm Court luxury tea menu with Scottish brands.

Richard Ross bought 500 plants from Robinson in 2015 but as the crop failed he followed stories of Robinson in the media.



0:26

Tea writer Richard Ross exposed 'Scottish-grown tea' fraudster

"I heard about the Balmoral tea list and decide to go and have a look," Mr Ross said.

"He'd taken names of genuine plantations but no-one involved in the actual plantations had heard they were selling to The Balmoral and that's because none of them had produced any tea from their plants."

In 2017, Perth and Kinross Council started to check if Robinson had a food processing licence.

At the same time Food Standards Scotland (FSS) was alerted and Robinson's fraud began to unravel.

Lead investigator Stuart Wilson said: "It didn't take long to establish that the tea he was selling to the hotels was being bought from wholesalers, likely to have originated in Sri Lanka or India.

"He'd created such a story that people were taken along. Once we started digging into it, it was quite clear that not only could the quantity of tea not be grown but the plants he sold couldn't have been grown either in the quantities claimed."



Stuart Wilson from Food Standards Scotland said Thomas Robinson made several false claims about the tea he sold

Mr Wilson added: "It was quite clear there were a lot of false claims.

"He claimed at certain points to be a chemist, a scientist and an agronomist. He claimed to have served in the Army as well as many other things.

"Digging in to each aspect, it was quite clear that all of these were falsehoods and he built up his lies upon these falsehoods."

Hotel apologises

The Balmoral said it was "shocked and devastated" when the fraud was discovered and has since tightened its procurement process.

General manager Andrew McPherson said: "We work hard to support local Scottish food producers, providing them with a global platform to showcase their products.

"To have been deceived in such a calculated manner left us all profoundly disappointed and embarrassed.

"As the hotel general manager, I would like to extend my sincerest apologies to everyone affected by this tea incident, particularly our loyal guests, who trusted in the authenticity and quality of our offerings."

Robinson couldn't help but embellish his credentials when trying to defraud.

He boasted that tea he had supplied to London's Dorchester Hotel in 2017 was "the Queen's favourite".

Getty Images

Thomas Robinson claimed his brews had been grown on farmland in Perthshire and Dumfries and Galloway

The media was also taken in with numerous stories appearing about his tea "success", including on the BBC News website and in a BBC podcast.

One magazine feature introduced Robinson as having previously lived "on a canoe in the Amazon, bitten by a deadly snake in Brazil and shot at on the Thailand-Burma border" before he turned to tea.

During his trial, it was heard that he created the "CV of a fantasist" - claiming he was a multi-millionaire, a former bomb disposal expert and an inventor.

He claimed to have developed a "special biodegradable polymer" that would make the tea plants grow in half the usual time. The court was told it looked just like a black bin liner.

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Mr Wilson from the FSS investigation said Robinson was a unique character.

"Fraudsters will do whatever it take to continue their lies but once caught they tend to diminish away into the background - but Tam O'Braan, or Thomas Robinson, was quite happy to stand up in court and continue his lies.

"Clearly the jury didn't believe him."

Tea enthusiasts

Along with the hotels, high-end shops were also targeted, raking in £278,000 for Robinson.

When a buyer from the prestigious food store Fortnum and Mason's wanted to visit his plantation near Loch Tay, he hurriedly bought in plants from a nursery in Sussex and put them on show.

Robinson's scam also hit tea enthusiasts trying to build the industry in Scotland.

He defrauded a dozen genuine tea growers in Scotland and one from Jersey by supplying them with 22,000 plants at £12.50 each.

Robinson claimed they were "specially engineered" for Scottish conditions but he had actually imported them from a horticulturist in Italy at around £2 per plant.

Many of the plants died or failed to thrive while Robinson made almost £275,000 from the sales.



Islay Henderson and her husband bought 1,500 plants from Thomas Robinson

Islay Henderson started growing tea at a plantation in Tighnabruaich, in Argyll and Bute, seven years ago, after hearing a radio interview with Hamilton.

She and her husband bought 1,500 plants from him.

"He told us we were buying tea (plants) that were selectively grown in Scotland for 11 years, so we thought we had Scottish seed that had already been trialled.

"When we realised they weren't actually from Scotland, it was quite a worry.

"We felt really lied to – he was promising so much with these plants and I guess that's when the suspicion became a bit more obvious."

Robinson denied the fraud at his trial and claimed paperwork that would have proved his innocence had been destroyed in a flood.

He said he was proud of his work and told the jurors: "I wanted to leave something that would stand in the history of tea."

'Honest toil'

Genuine tea grower Mr Ross said the industry in Scotland had been damaged but was now moving on.

"It's hard enough to convince people that tea growing is a thing in Scotland," he said.

"It's taken a number of years for us to bolster our credentials. Tea Scotland has now collaboratively produced a tea – a product of honest toil."

He added: "Right from the first day when tea was traded in this country there has been nefarious practices around it.

"There's been smuggling, contraband tea, counterfeit tea.

"When there's money to make from a high-value product, there's always somebody who's going to try and take a shortcut and try to make the most of it."

Ron McNaughton, head of the Scottish food crime and incidents unit at Food Standards Scotland, welcomed the sentencing and said it reflected the "scale and impact" of Robinson's deception.

He added: "His actions caused real financial and reputational harm to individuals, businesses and a developing sector of genuine Scottish tea producers.

"This outcome is the result of a complex and painstaking investigation involving a dedicated team at FSS and the cooperation of partner agencies and key witnesses.

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Telegraph; Simon Heffer's article

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COMMENT

Finding Freedom drags the royal biography – and the Royal family – into the show business gutter

This vacuous piece of work degrades one of Britain’s great institutions, and raises suspicions about where the authors’ ‘facts’ came from

SIMON HEFFER

13 August 2020 • 10:35am

The new biography of the Sussexes, says Simon Heffer, is an insultingly shabby PR exercise CREDIT: REX

It strains belief that, well within living memory, a member of the Royal household was sent to outer darkness for the crime of publishing a book that was unfailingly loyal, charming and civilised about the royal personages described in it. But that was the fate, in 1950, of Marion Crawford – ‘Crawfie’ to her charges – ex-governess to the Queen when she was Princess Elizabeth, and to her sister, Princess Margaret.

Her book, The Little Princesses, was a highly anodyne account of her life with two little girls, one of whom, by an accident of fate, became at the age of 10 heir presumptive to the Throne.

Crawfie had retired from royal service in 1948, when Princess Margaret was 18 and Princess Elizabeth had married. Such was her devotion to her employers, King George VI and the late Queen Elizabeth, that she had delayed her own marriage for 16 years to fulfil her duties.

When Princess Elizabeth heard she was writing the book (which began as a series of magazine articles, and was an enterprise in which she was encouraged by the Attlee administration for public relations reasons) she pleaded with her ex-governess not to do so, as the principle of confidentiality among courtiers was deemed inviolable: and it was courtiers who, understanding the need to protect the institution, urged a hard line against Crawfie.

For Crawfie, the lure of money and pressure from her new husband was too much; and she transgressed the Unwritten Law by disclosing that Queen Elizabeth didn’t get on with Wallis Simpson – a little like saying that the Chief Rabbi isn’t wild about bacon sandwiches. Crawfie was ostracised by the Royal family and by the Court, and they never spoke to her again.

What the Royal family and Court of 1950 would make of the preposterous “biography" of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Finding Freedom, published this week, hardly bears imagining: a fleet of ambulances would doubtless have been required to take them to the nearest hospital. I put “biography" in quotation marks because this self-serving tripe is really nothing of the sort: it is a cynical and apparently orchestrated snapshot of a period in the lives of two thirtysomethings, which aggrandises and justifies them in the eyes of the world.

The Duke and Duchess’s wedding was only a little over two years ago – their fortunes have since changed CREDIT: PA

It is a monumental public relations job, and a pretty disastrous one at that. The authors are a pair of American journalists who write about the Royal family for American glossy magazines. For them, the Royal family is a commodity, an institution in which their only interest is how loudly it can make their personal cash registers ring. It is a branch of show business; which is why they were the perfect couple to write a book about the Duchess of Sussex. 

Even by the standards of recent royal biographies – most of which, when written about living members of the family, are little more than an extended gossip-column rather than reflecting the serious research normally associated with such a work – this one is an offence against even a moderate standard of intelligence and good taste. It is the perfect present for someone you wish to insult.

Serious biographies do not include effluent such as "the rising sun washed over her makeshift yoga garden, while an exotic flock of birds that looked as if they had just had their tails dipped in pots of colourful paints serenaded her”. Nor would they include drivel such as this description of the Duchess meeting Misha Nonoo, a fashion designer: “Meghan was instantly intrigued by Misha’s effortless glamour, and Misha felt similarly about the actress’s fresh-faced interest.”

Leaving aside the atrociousness of the prose, which any respectable editor would keep only in a book destined to be read by the vacuous, insights such as these raise the question of whether the Sussexes collaborated: a key point, because one needs to know with any biography how credible the information contained within it is.

To those of us who have written biographies – and even, I don’t doubt, to scores of millions of others who haven’t – it is blindingly obvious that much of the information in this book can have only one of two origins: either it is made up, in which case the book is worthless trash, or it was written after some sort of briefing or assistance from the Sussexes or those they may have instructed to speak for them.

The book goes into extraordinary detail about the Duke and Duchess’s early courtship CREDIT: EPA

How, otherwise, do the authors knows that “Meghan was instantly intrigued by Misha’s effortless glamour”? Are they psychic? As with so many books, royal or otherwise, about living people, sources are usually anonymous. That doesn’t mean that what they say is invention; but without attribution, anything goes, and the notoriously unreliable narrative tradition of this history gets off to a flying start in the case of the Sussexes.

If the book were invention the Sussexes, who are not slow to go to law, would be so outraged that a blizzard of writs would have been issued by now: so let us give the authors the benefit of the doubt and assume the contents are true. The book is still pretty much trash.

The Sussexes have made themselves people of no consequence in the British royal family. They are unconcerned, in both senses of the word, with great matters of state. The book is an unwitting tribute to what appears to be the Duchess’s titanic self-obsession  and the tragic ease with which the Duke has apparently decided to let himself be swallowed up by his wife’s narrative.

Prior to the Sussexes’ ‘departure’ from the Royal family, there was widely rumoured to be a rift between Princes Harry and William ® CREDIT: AFP

 What also lowers an already dismal, muck-raking standard is the book’s breathtaking lack of objectivity, with its accounts of people marvelling at the wonder of the Duchess as she condescends to pat a three-year old child on the head, or the magnificence of Harry’s manners when he asks his future wife to go through a door in front of him. That’s Eton for you.

There was an era of royal biography that was considered unduly fawning – Sir Sidney Lee’s authorised life of Edward VII, for example, or Harold Nicolson’s of George V – but that changed with James Pope-Hennessy’s subtle and entertaining life of Queen Mary, as amplified by Hugo Vickers’s superb edition of Pope-Hennessy’s notes, The Quest for Queen Mary, published in 2018.

The finest royal biography was not an authorised one, but Kenneth Rose’s peerless life of George V, written using Harold Nicolson’s notes and published in 1983. Once the Diana industry in all its repulsiveness got under way, standards fell. Royal biography became not a historical record, but a vehicle for settling scores.

That standards have fallen so low as this is something that does more damage to the Sussexes, embodying as it does their non-stop, self-righteous whine, than it does to the biographer’s craft.

In 50 years’ time, will serious scholars refer to this book? Perhaps: it might get a footnote or two as a contrast to more serious studies of the British royal family in the early 21st century. Would anyone, on the basis of what this biography promises, want then to read a book solely about these two future nonentities? I doubt it.

______________________________________________________________________

“Titanic self-obsession…” LOLOLOLOLOL.

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Trying—and Failing—to Make Sense of Meghan Markle’s 2016 Influencer Shtick

She could've been a princess but she gave it up to be one of countless people to talk about “seed funding” on a podcast and photograph staged lifestyle content.

By Nora Biette-Timmons  |  June 6, 2025 | 12:52pm

Photo: Getty ImagesCelebrities>In Depth 



 

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It seems like it was great being Meghan Markle in the summer of 2016. You’re on a hit—if not critically acclaimed—TV show. You’re 34, comfortable in your own skin, but still young and hot. (Sorry to be crass, but it’s true.) You have a fairly successful lifestyle blog; it’s nothing special, but it makes you feel like you’ve really got a passion project. You advocate vaguely for the rights of women and girls worldwide. And then you’re in London for work and your friend sets you up with the world’s most eligible bachelor, a literal prince—and even better, you hit it off. 

Then Meghan’s life famously pivoted. Suits ended; she moved to London; she married Prince Harry in an international television event; she gave birth to her firstborn, Archie, who is now sixth in line to the throne. She was also treated horrifically by the British tabloid press, even by its notoriously terrible standards, and it severely impacted her mental health. By early 2020, Meghan and Harry had quit their official royal duties and moved back to North America. 

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So, look, I can see why Meghan might want to return to 2016, or at least emulate its naively optimistic vibes—because that’s certainly what it seems like she’s trying to do with what she’s putting out into the world these days. Everything—from her foodstuffs brand to her podcast interviewing female founders to her incomprehensible Netflix show and, above all, her Instagram posts—all reeks of the mid-2010s, which is to say, it’s all very millennial cringe. (As a millennial, I’m allowed to say that.) This week, for example, she mused aloud about starting a business with her daughter during a podcast interview with Tina Knowles, and posted a throwback video of her and Harry dancing in the delivery room to the “Baby Momma” song (a YouTube classic from, you guessed it, 2014). Each of those developments has, like every other piece of Meghan content, put me into an irritated, confused spiral of asking things like, why is this happening in the year of our lord 2025? And, more importantly, who the fuck is this for??

Since her show premiered earlier this year, Meghan has been active on Instagram. It’s as if, after years of a royalty-and-then-presumably-lawyer-imposed social media blackout, she can’t help herself; she’s bingeing. And these posts have reached a level of basicness that is impossible to compare to anything else besides the lifestyle influencers of the mid-2010s; the ones who, much like Meghan, probably started out blogging before pivoting to Instagram. (Your Cupcakes & Cashmeres; your Lee From Americas; Karlie Kloss’s YouTube channel). She’s captioning a carousel of photos of her in a box at the Cowboy Carter tour, “about last night.” She’s constantly filming her massive garden through a gauzy filter. (Did Instagram bring Valencia back just for her?) She’s posting three different grid posts about her daughter’s fourth birthday.

Her podcast might be the most egregiously mid-2010s of everything, though; even its name, Confessions of a Female Founder, makes me pull a Nick Young face. (Please appreciate that that meme is from 2014.) Tonally, it’s the more-thoughtful, older sister of the Lean In girlboss—but at its core, its message is that the primary way to achieve women’s rights is for women to make a lot of money from their companies. At a moment when women’s actual bodily rights are very much under attack, launching a podcast focusing on the woes of women staying up late stressing over the design of their product labels is offensively out of touch. It really sounds as if Meghan and her guests might be wearing “Entrepreneurs for Hillary” T-shirts as they record. (I guarantee you they all bought Lingua Franca sweaters embroidered with “nasty woman” in 2017.) 

Meanwhile, she’s also attempting a Martha Stewart-Gwenyth Paltrow-Chrissy Teigen thing. Her Netflix show offering tips and tricks for hosting and “elevating the everyday” is heavily predicated on the thing these incredibly rich women all have in common: a huge, blandly beautiful house; a huge, blandly beautiful kitchen; and unlimited funds. But Meghan also has some perverse compunction to be relatable, so she occasionally drops phrases like “budget friendly,” and in order to profit off of her carefully curated coastal-grandmother-ass-vibe, she’s not selling $800 sweaters, but cookie mixes and ginger tea for under $20. 

Here I must pause and note that Meghan is literally royalty (by marriage but it very much still counts). She’s a princess in the only nation where that really even means anything anymore. Yes, the royal family is bad, etc., but it’s not like she’s pivoted to smuggling pregnant women across state borders to get life-saving abortions or something. She could be covered in diamonds and ermine, eating off dinner plates Henry VII used, but instead she’s (re)wearing a beige Loro Piana sweater t-shirt while sitting in Jenni Kayne chairs like the rest of the multi-millionaires in California. It’s so boring!

I know I’m dangerously close to echoing a right-wing tabloid columnist and verging on some perverted Meghan Markle horseshoe theory. I also know “princess” isn’t even a viable career path for anyone these days. She had the only open position, though, and she gave it up to be one of countless people to talk about “seed funding” on a podcast and photograph staged lifestyle content.

She seems intent on founding an empire of … something. But I have no clue what it is. And I’m just not sure the way to do it is repackaging her 2016 influencer dreams. 

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[gritsr3]

Why the lead-up to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding was labelled as a 's*** show' by royal insider 6-1-25

Nothing really new other than this:"Ingrid Seward, author of My Mother And I, claimed Harry's behaviour led to yet another meeting with the Queen.According to Seward, Lady Elizabeth Anson - Queen Elizabeth's cousin and close friend - said that that the monarch was 'dismayed by Harry's high-handed attitude before and after the wedding', which is likely in reference to the tiara fiasco."https://ift.tt/T37OEqv

post link: https://ift.tt/jA3SY9y

author: cccxxxzzzddd

submitted: June 01, 2025 at 06:56PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit

disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only.

END GAME Meghan will PAUSE As Ever jam & tea restock over fears she’s ‘annoying’ customers – as she opens up to Beyonce’s mum - The Sun (Worth the read, there is a LOT to unload here)

She is so full of crap, it's ridiculous.She claims she's not restocking As If products because she wants to wait until "it's stable" because she "doesn't want to annoy customes." Bitch they are already annoyed.She said that the "scarcity mentality at the beginning might be a hook for people", comparing it to "a sneaker drop". SHE ADMITS IT: the "shortage" was a planned scam.The 43-year-old has previously admitted As Ever "overwhelms" her and she stays up stressing about it until 3am. And I thought she woke up at 3:00 a.m. because Harry needed a diaper change.On the podcast, she also expressed her dream of launching a future business with daughter Princess Lilibet, after talking to Tina about the Cecred haircare line she started with Beyoncé."I wonder if one day I'll be in business with Lily and we'll be bui Wellding something," the Duchess said, with Tina adding: "That's the best." Well, that's one form of child abuse/child labor. Interestingly, there's a suck up to Tyler Perry:Speaking on the podcast, Tina said: "And Tyler talks about you all… he loves you, Tyler Perry, he's a really good friend of mine." Meghan replied: "Yes, well, he's a good friend to have. He's the most extraordinary soundboard.. "It's interesting for us to be sitting down talking about business, because he is that person that when I have questions about business or just when you feel like you're off your path, I need to check in with Tyler." I wonder if this is Meghan trying to firm up her relationship with him, or if this is really the truth.Archive: https://ift.tt/V4TRBSs

post link: https://ift.tt/cs4PyvO

author: wenfot

submitted: June 03, 2025 at 03:43PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit

disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only."My heart is very deeply in my home,” she told Fast Company. "Everything comes from being rooted in the love story of your home and garden, and then you can imagine different verticals coming out of that."

[gritsr3]