I’m actually glad that the Duchess of Sussex’s London jaunt with Malala Yousafzai became public knowledge via a TikTok and some Daily Mail photos. You know why? Because the British media’s hysteria over Meghan’s As Ever advent calendars had reached a fever pitch and we were in desperate need of a change of subject. Still Meghan-related though, because fueling outrage about Meghan doing something or saying something or selling something is basically they only thing they have. Princess Kate hasn’t been seen in more than a week, William has liquor breath and the bisexual king is still crying over Swan Song. So… back to the As Ever advent calendar, did you know that this is the worst thing to ever happen to calendars, privacy, California, Christianity and the royal family? An excerpt from Annabel Fenwick Elliott’s Mail column:
I might have been wrong about Meghan Markle. I always assumed she was vain, vapid and utterly clueless. But is she, in fact, a comic genius? Because surely her newly released advent calendar is a joke. After years of going out of her way – in a very grandiose fashion – to protect her privacy, sharing only closely cropped snapshots of her guarded life in California, and even hiring a separate house when shooting her Netflix show With Love, Meghan, what has she gone and done? Slapped a rendering of her real Montecito mansion on the front of an advent calendar and listed it for sale at £112 ($148).
Is she covertly tittering to herself about this? Is it a skit, like when actor Joaquin Phoenix pretended to be a rapper for two years, then revealed it had been a performance all along for a mockumentary?
There are so many baffling aspects to this. I can quite see how the Statue of Liberty’s gift shop might sell an advent calendar with a photo of the Statue of Liberty on it. Or Buckingham Palace, for that matter, which just released its own Christmas advent calendar, priced at £12. But those are famous landmarks. There is nothing famous about Meghan’s house. She doesn’t even live there any more.
But let’s give her the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are planning to sell their £11million ($14.65million) pad. In which case, it’s more advert than advent. There has been no firm indication that they are intending to leave the 18,000-square-foot estate, however, despite suddenly moving the family back to the UK last month, and even if they were, it would be a rather odd way to mark it.
No, I suspect the truth is more that Meghan appears to genuinely believe that an illustration of her own house is really interesting enough to be the subject of her As Ever brand’s first advent calendar. Did no one in her marketing team suggest there might be a less narcissistic option? If so, she didn’t listen.
I can’t think of any celebrity, no matter how self-absorbed, who would deem the facade of their home so fascinating it deserves to be front and centre on one of their products. Not even Kim Kardashian would expect us peasants to spend the whole of December opening tiny doors on a cardboard replica of her Californian mansion for £4.60 a day.
At the very least, Meghan could be donating a small portion of the profits to charity, given her passion for philanthropy. That’s what one British vicar suggested when he posted about As Ever’s calendar this week – and he paid a bitter price for it. Anglican priest and London University chaplain Reverend Daniel French posted an image of the duchess’s festive product and proposed that people could instead buy a £6 Christian advent calendar that is almost 20 times cheaper, contains Fairtrade chocolate and supports a leprosy charity. Meghan’s fans hit back with such force that the priest was forced to lock down his X account, after members of the so-called ‘Sussex Squad’ branded him ‘evil’ and ‘Satan’s spawn’. Blimey.
The question of “why did Meghan choose an illustration of the facade of her own home for As Ever’s Advent calendar?” is one I’ve never asked myself. Now that I’ve seen the question asked, I have to wonder if maybe certain people are throwing massive tantrums in bad faith? Like… we get it, you’re mad about every single part of Meghan’s life and existence. You’re mad that As Ever is a successful American start-up and that she’s branched out with an extensive holiday collection. I understand. But it would never occur to me that anyone would be *this* infuriated over the packaging for some chocolate. And for what it’s worth, Casa de Sussex might not be a landmark, but it’s pretty famous. The Daily Mail obsessively posts every single photo they have of the Montecito mansion, interior and exterior. Is it really that crazy or narcissistic for Meghan to simply use an illustration of her own home for her personal brand’s Advent calendar? Jeez.
Photos courtesy of As Ever, As Ever’s Instagram.
LOL they can cry all they want. Meg is about home & family, xmas is about home and family, it’s her house: she doesn’t need to pay extra for this image, so there u go. Everything is smart about it. She’s not doing the tacky english palaces on coasters and keychains at least – like the royals probably sell in their souvenir shop, at least not yet 😂
And is the ridiculous reverend really suggesting that US consumers buy what he’s promoting in the UK? After all, As ever doesn’t ship to the UK so not available to his parishioners or others. And it is, of course, an online luxury brand that compares favourably with other luxury brands. Btw, turns out that this guy and his spiteful mate both have form going back years for trolling Meghan and/or Harry. Not exactly Christian and definitely not victims. Perhaps they should check out what their Supreme Governor sells in the Balmoral and Sandringham gift shops. Yikes
GUESS WHO is having the last laugh? She is.
All of this publicity is driving buyers to her site. and she probably chose the picture becuase her followers want to know more about her, and her derangers want to hate on her. Good press, bad press, its ALL PRESS (insert money gun emoji here)
The brilliantly creative Antonio of Majesty Sussex Report fame, provides a musical take on the As Ever
Advent Calendar 👇
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/qo5ImdZvxpg
How dare she thrive? How dare she succeed? How dare she continue to LIVE, happily and independently? All while being Black, no less!! Un-fucking-believable.
She’s a hostess & she runs her business from home, largely based on the way she’s made a home. What’s the mystery? It’s not a coded message. They’re overthinking it. She’s a homemaker & as many of us have discovered that is a job. So she’s marketing her experience of homemaking. A very popular & well-established field.
I recall from photos and the H&M Netflix doc, this really doesn’t look like the front of their home at all. The “style” is basically the same but the front entrance of their home looks nothing like the rendering here. So the tabloids are screaming, crying and throwing up over a kinda likeness??
I was thinking the same thing. It’s just a Spanish Colonial Revival house, which are thick on the ground in Southern California.
This possibly could be her painting too, inspired by her own home, with her kids and harry’s painting stokes
It’s not her painting, it’s generative ai. In my community, we boycott businesses that use generative ai. Employ an actual artist or even use Photoshop.
I doubt it’s generative AI. If you spend a couple-three minutes on google, as I just did, you’ll see that the owner of Compartes does his own illustrations for his brand–including on the chocolates themselves–while for the three advent calendars under his own brand he hired a Spanish illustrator named Helena Perez Garcia.
They sound like the crazies on the message boards who cling to the fact that Benedict Cumberbatch’s kids aren’t real and that his wife is about to be arrested for trafficking women for Epstein or Weinstein (they can’t decide which one).
How dare she convert British oxygen to carbon dioxide and exhale?! I mean, the nerve!
I don’t get the hype on advent calendars (I cannot do any of the make up ones because I am so cool toned I use gray eyeshadow as a contour and cosmetics seriously skew warm these days) and most are overpriced (honestly even this one) but there IS an audience for it.
What the rats are ranting about is that this overpriced advent calendar with the illustration of a beautiful California mansion WILL sell well to its audience and they HATE Meghan being anything other than clothed in a sack cloth begging for scraps.
It was always just a fun thing to do as a kid, and some of the beauty ones are fun as an adult I guess, and the wine ones are tempting. But honestly the best one I’ve ever had was this massive Kinder chocolate one with all of their different types of candy in it. If I could find it again, that is one I’d still buy every year as an adult!
@Graphinya Heather, I don’t get Advent calendars either. I grew up strict Catholic in the US Midwest and we never had them, and if we did they’d probably all have had “say ten rosaries” or “go to confession twice this week” or something behind all the doors.
Actually, even better, it’s a more appealing image than any of the houses occupied on Salt Island by her in-laws! So let the media trolls keep trolling and giving Meghan’s products free exposure.
Well that was one seriously unhinged piece of writing. The snark and resentment oozed out, which has way more to do with the writer than the subject. Meghan loves hosting and having a warm feeling home. She’s made no secret of that. So having a cute chocolate calendar of her home doesn’t feel that nefarious and attention-seeking. Unless ofc you’re a DM writer that thinks you’re super clever and funny….when…you’re just not? And please weren’t they saying they were going to sell that house a month ago?
I personally don’t care what’s on the front of my advent calendar…what’s inside is more important! And as for “I might have been wrong about Meghan Markle. I always assumed she was vain, vapid and utterly clueless” – yes, you were wrong. That is actually Catherine, the Princess of Wales you are describing. 😹
^^^This!!^^^ Meghan is anything but ‘vapid.’
Yeah, someone doesn’t have to like Meghan and it’s clear some in the uk really really don’t to the point of being unhinged about an advent calendar. But she’s not vapid. Anyone who’s ever heard her speak knows that. This is just a crazy biased opinion that is at BEC levels.
To me it seems pretty normal to use your own home for this Advent calendar. Either way, why does it matter to those gutter rats? This is a beautiful home and something she and her husband should be incredibly proud of, especially considering the circumstance of them purchasing their home along with the beautiful memories they have made there with friends and family. i am most hopeful they keep their home in Montecito because many of us shared in some of the memories
Didn’t Diana say something like don’t judge other people by yourself? These journotrolls should take note.
OFFS. I’m going to buy this damn advent calendar just to piss these lunatics off.
As long as you remember the root of their rage with Meghan is her understanding that she does not need theirs or anyone’s permission to exist fully in any space she inhabits then the things they freak out about will not surprise you.
So much outrage over an advent calendar that is only available in one country. And that is not the UK.
“…after members of the so-called ‘Sussex Squad’ branded him ‘evil’ and ‘Satan’s spawn’. ”
Did any of us actually use these words? Did we call him evil, or did we call his actions out?
Did we call him Satan’s spawn, or is this them making up terms to enhance their faux outrage?
It genuinely would not have occurred to me that it was specifically their home in the illustration. It just looks like a fancy house with fancy Christmas decorations. But I guess I’m not obsessed enough.
I still say it looks like a Thomas Kincade painting. Is he still around? –quick google search– OK, no, he isn’t.
The fact that this biracial American woman has a lovely home, a devoted and besotted husband (who happens to be a prince), exquisite jewelry, gorgeous children, loyal friends and a successful business has truly broken the rota’s brains. Their fevered wet dream is to bring this woman low, to humiliate her, and have her begging for their help…yet nothing they’ve thrown at her has worked. These bigots must toss and turn every night, angry and frustrated that Meghan is thriving.
As you so rightly wrote, this is her home and also the HQ of As Ever. She is not the first company to use a picture of their HQ in their products or advertising.
In the case of Meghan, it also make a certain group of haters, which Elliot is part of, go crazy.
Her text is so full of clichés that it became a caricature to laugh at.
The writer of this article is in serious need of help. All of this vitriol over a calendar you can’t even purchase in the UK is unbelievable. Stop harping about the price because there are many available costing far more available in the UK.
Why should Meghan have to donate part of the profits to charity??? She is a businessperson, FFS. She works for a living, unlike the royal leeches grifting off the public dime.
What bothers the bottom feeders is that Meghan is in the UK running her business, and they can’t get their hands on the products. Also, Meghan’s lifestyle is far above their pay grade. It’s more chic and luxurious than theirs, including the inhabitants of those palaces with the old furniture, chandeliers, paintings of dead people, etc. I don’t recall so much hysteria over Advent calendars. Notice they haven’t complained about the wicker baskets filled with products selling for over $200 each. Keep your foot on their neck, Meghan.
Why did this writer was her time an energy on this nonsense? Meghan’s supposed to be irrelevant and a private citizen.
Which one of the English Bitter Betties spewed out this piece? I think the illustration alludes to Megan’s house because of the two trees in the background and the giant urn beside the entrance. It doesn’t have the feel of Meghan’s house at all, nor is it like Meghan’s house. In fact, to me it almost has the feel of an English Christmas card, except for the roof.