In all honesty, I keep going back and forth about where the Duchess of Sussex is in the process of launching American Riviera Orchard. The fact that she’s sending out ARO jam-baskets and creating an Instagram account gives the impression that a hard launch is coming up soon. But the fact that she’s only just recently started to film her Netflix cooking show? And her team has only been filing for trademarks within the past few months and nothing has actually been granted? That makes me wonder if ARO is still very much in the planning stages, not hard-launch stages. I’ve always liked the way Meghan works and if her past projects are any indication, she wants stuff to be fully formed. But yeah, I wonder. As I’ve said before, I’m as interested in the process as I am with ARO products. The Mail is the same, only for entirely different reasons. The Mail claims that Meghan’s hunt for an ARO CEO has fallen flat, and she might organize everything through Netflix, à la Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia brand.
The Duchess of Sussex was unable to fulfil her ambitions within the Royal Family. Now, she seems to be struggling to achieve them outside it as well. Meghan has failed to find a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for her new cooking and lifestyle business, American Riviera Orchard, despite having interviewed several candidates for the position and having began the search five weeks ago.
‘The initial CEO search has not panned out so far,’ a California-based source said. And her apparent difficulties have led to an intriguing new development: Meghan has begun negotiations with Netflix about the American streaming giant entering into a commercial partnership with American Riviera Orchard.
‘This is something new for Netflix,’ the source said. ‘It would run the lifestyle business with Meghan, developing products as spin-offs from her show. If a partnership is agreed, it’s likely that Netflix would install its own CEO to run operations.’
The model for the potential partnership is said to be the deal that American television stars Chip and Joanna Gaines have with HGTV/Warner Brothers for their Magnolia Network. The husband and wife duo host a home renovation show, Fixer Upper, and sell lifestyle products such as bedding inspired by the programme.
Meghan is said to hope that American Riviera Orchard, which will focus on home, garden, food and lifestyle wares, will be highly lucrative. Netflix has more than 250million paid subscribers around the world.
An insider told the Daily Mail: ‘The brand is meant to coincide with the launch of a new cookery show for Netflix. Meghan will be making and selling products such as jams. At some point there will be a book and a blog.’
The way the British media has attempted to narrate everything around ARO leaves the impression that Meghan is being sort of half-assed? Which doesn’t sound like her. What does sound like her is that she has a lot of plans and ideas and she’s having issues finding people to help her execute everything. As for the Netflix and Gaines/Magnolia thing… if Netflix is platforming Meghan’s cooking show and Meghan is under a production contract with Netflix, then Netflix already “owns” part of whatever Meghan is doing with the ARO brand. Meaning, Netflix is already involved. Anyway, I have no idea if the Mail genuinely has a scoop here, I just find it interesting. Considering how these people are having a Defcon 3 freakout over jam, I can only imagine the headlines if and when she has a cookbook, cooking show and kitchenware line out simultaneously.
Also: speaking of CEO hunts, Prince William has been looking for a Kensington Palace CEO for something like seven months. Barely a peep from the Mail though.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Meghan, Duchess of Sussex helps to prepare food at the launch of a cookbook with recipes from a group of women affected by the Grenfell Tower fire at Kensington Palace in London on September 20, 2018.,Image: 534009013, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR SEVEN DAYS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- Meghan, Duchess of Sussex helps to prepare food at the launch of a cookbook with recipes from a group of women affected by the Grenfell Tower fire at Kensington Palace in London on September 20, 2018.,Image: 534009087, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR SEVEN DAYS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- Meghan, Duchess of Sussex helps to prepare food at the launch of a cookbook with recipes from a group of women affected by the Grenfell Tower fire at Kensington Palace in London on September 20, 2018.,Image: 534009088, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR SEVEN DAYS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 21: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visits the Hubb Community Kitchen to see how funds raised by the ‘Together: Our Community’ Cookbook are making a difference at Al Manaar, North Kensington on November 21, 2018 in London, England.,Image: 534664062, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR SEVEN DAYS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 21: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex has a drink as she visits the Hubb Community Kitchen to see how funds raised by the ‘Together: Our Community’ Cookbook are making a difference at Al Manaar, North Kensington on November 21, 2018 in London, England.
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- LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 21: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visits the Hubb Community Kitchen to see how funds raised by the ‘Together: Our Community’ Cookbook are making a difference at Al Manaar, North Kensington on November 21, 2018 in London, England.
Sounds like another made up story and made up “source”. Just more propaganda to try to make Meghan seem hard to work with.
Exactly! They know nothing about Meghan’s business or plans until she announces them publicly. Just look at the Nigeria visit. The papers and their “sources” had no clue until Harry and Meghan chose for the news to be broken.
It seems to me that WME would be involved with finding a CEO for ARO as they have probably been involved in its creation from the beginning. Wasn’t WME hired to handle Meghan’s business ventures? American Riviera Orchard is the mother of all business ventures. I’m sure they have ‘Head Hunters’ who could find the right fit for her.
And why would Netflix be involved with choosing a CEO for Meghan’s company/Brand just because they are filming her cooking show? I guess what I’m really asking is why would Meghan ‘share’ her Brand with anyone other than Harry?
How would the DM know any of this?
They don’t, they make it up as they go along, the truth is of no consequence,
Well, Maureen Eden and Ed Holt, trainee reporter for the DM that lives in Liverpool?, are apparently using Camilla Tominey’s Montecito “water board” connections. Or, a ‘California based source’, that lives in the small town of California, who often feeds pigeons in the small town of California, heard it from a talkative pigeon? It might have been a morning dove. The cooing was hard to decipher. Language problems.
Ed Holt, you really don’t seem like a dumb@ss. You’re young and new with possibly fresh new ideas. Run Away, run away, run away from the BM. They will suck out your soul and any integrity you might have. You are better off getting a bartending license and monetizing a blog of funny bartending stories than working for the British Media.
I see they have been consulting their favorite source (the magic eight ball) again. I think they know nothing and should try again later.
So these people wanna tell and dictate to Meghan how to run her own company by demanding that she hires a CEO just so they investigate the CEO’s background in order to have content and something to write about because W and K and the rest of the royals are dry and boring?
As if she would announce the brand and then realize she needs a CEO.
I look forward to Meghan making all these concern-trolls look idiotic when all this breathless speculation about CEOs and jam turns out to be so wide of the mark it’s an ocean and a continent away.
It’s like Chantal? said further down in comments. Meghan could be CEO of her own company.
It sounds dumb on my part (okay with that), my husband and I own a business. In my mind (and techincally), I’m an owner. We work a lot. There’s times when the business owns you. So you forget.
Last week we were asked about when we’re going to retire and it was by a customer who has a very high profile in a well known corporation. Made a joke about retiring and what I could put on a resume if I still wanted to work. Laughing at myself. He (customer) looked at me and said, “Co-CEO is a good start.”.
Does Madame Duchess’s ARO need a CEO outside of herself? Probably not. Whatever happens, happens. Gotta laugh at Maureen/BM. All these years of them p*ssing, moaning, complaining, whinging(sp?), that Meghan is IN CONTROL of everything relating to H&M, and now they’re “concerned” about her finding a CEO after 35 days? when Kate, FQ, hasn’t been seen for 126 days? Meghan’s business is THEIR concern. IDIOTS to the deflecting nth degree.
It amazes me why someone with so much knowledge of the business world and what it takes to be successful would choose to be a gossip columnist or worse a rota member, I mean they chose to be paid by the word instead of a fat corporate salary.. I need this explained to me.
Meghan is a very cautious person by nature and she will take her time with this and any endeavor she engages in. The gutter press is dying for content to try to shade. I believe when she feels the timing is right, things will explode. I like many cannot wait.
I don’t believe anything that British tabloids say. I have a hard time believing that they know more about American entertainment deals than US papers.
Don’t we just love how the BM and 🐀🐀🐀 are *still* unhealthily obsessed with everything H&M&A&L but couldn’t care less about their own (missing) leftovers on welfare, or the tens of millions of £££ missing in jewelry?
We all know that H&M said they’d no longer talk to the 🇬🇧🗑📰, so anyone who is really close to them wouldn’t either.
Seems the media are still busy trying to remind us that speculation, rumors, and innuendo is all they have.
See also Sussexes in Nigeria, which caught them unawares.
They should know by now that Meghan never rushes things, that her projects are carefully planned. If they don’t work out, it’s usually through no fault of her own – see being an active part of the royal family that was torpedoed by the RF and BM, or Spotify, which had a bad juju vibe.
William can’t find a CEO because he doesn’t have actual work to do that would warrant the need for a CEO maybe ?
Genuine (and perhaps silly) question : can’t she be the CEO of her own brand ? Or co-CEO ?
There you go, assuming that the brit shidtmedia know anything about M’s business. LMFAO
I imagine that in many ways Willbur’s reputation precedes anything he does to hire a CEO or COO or whatever. Word has definitely gotten around that he’s lazy, difficult, prone to tantrums, and does what he wants instead of listening to good advice. You’d have to be crazy to want to work with someone like that.
I’m confused here. There was an article a couple of months ago about a man who’d been hired last October for KP, and I mentioned that in comments here.. Recollection is that he was referred to as a COO? Can’t remember his name, but at the time, I looked up his CV on Linked In. Pretty impressive qualifications (believe from the financial sector), and his resume said the same, he’d been at KP since October. The question at the time was, is this the position KP was aiming to fill, or is there another position (as CEO?) they’re looking for in addition?
I know I didn’t dream this! Pretty sure the article I saw wasn’t one that was linked to a story here. Anyone else remember anything about this?
@windyriver: they advertised for a COO. The DM referenced the headhunting company, which I googled & found the actual job announcement. It was definitely COO, but for whatever reason people continue to say CEO–even the DM in the body of their original article! I seem to recall reading somewhat recently that they’d hired somebody (title unknown) & done a bit of staff shuffling because neither W nor K had hired private secretaries yet.
Mid-size and large companies often utilize a CEO as the brand figurehead (this is not a negative connotation) to be the face of the company and steer the general strategy. A COO, Chief Operating Officer, would lead teams who perform accounting, tax issues, technology, production, distribution, marketing, etc. So far, ARO is a small-ish company with, most likely, larger ambitions that might, currently, utilize a CEO for more day-to-day operations until it is large enough to hire a COO. In hiring a CEO, it appears that Meghan does not want to handle day-to-day tasks, nor should she. And finding someone who can manage the diverse everyday tasks of a small niche business would take time.
They’re crowing bc (according to them) she hasn’t found a CEO in five weeks? And who is this no named “California source”? Maybe, just maybe and it might sound crazy but maybe Meghan’s the CEO bc its HER company. After all, the Sussexes worked for the BRF and learned the hard way how important it is to have competent people working with and for you.
Wait, Willy Nilly has been looking for a CEO for 7 months and its nothing but crickets? Yet the BM remains committed to their repeatedly proven false narratives about the Sussexes. There’s something seriously wrong with these people.
That’s what I’m thinking too.
“Maybe, just maybe and it might sound crazy but maybe Meghan’s the CEO bc its HER company”. I’m laughing because I initially automatically presumed she was the CEO of HER COMPANY. Also laughing because of BM headlines/articles claiming Kate being top CEO of the monarchy or whatever sycophantic stories with Kate. Kate doesn’t have business acumen, just stalking/buttons/photo editing acumen. She’s not even knowledgeable about Art history. Which she supposedly has a degree in.
It’s not even a ‘California source’. It’s a ‘California based source’, meaning a BM tabloid writer based in California. Who knows nothing.
“An insider told the Daily Mail: ‘The brand is meant to coincide with the launch of a new cookery show for Netflix. Meghan will be making and selling products such as jams. At some point there will be a book and a blog.’”.
Sound like another BM BS “insider”. Americans typically don’t call cooking shows/food shows ‘cookery’. I read a lot of food blogs. There are only 2 that I know of that have said/used ‘cookery’. Both are based in the northeast of the US. Eden and his “sources” are drinking from Alice in Wonderland ‘Drink Me’ bottles alongside Angela Levin.
I cannot stand the entire Magnolia vibe, and it means I can’t stand to even open the Max app because they’re all over it with their “Christian”:hatred of gay people and racism. Puke.
This is one reason why I’m excited for Meghan’s show, finally a lifestyle host I can vibe with. Plus, her taste in food is exquisite.
As for her alleged CEO search, the Fail would be the last to know.
I also recall reading that Chip & Joanna left HGTV & created their own network for more control & better money. The DM article makes no sense.
Yawn. Another example of the British media trying to project fantasies about H&M that are realities for W&K.
All I know is I’m excited for what’s to come.
Uhhhh, it takes longer than 5 weeks to hire a senior executive. I know they desperately need reasons to put Meghan in an article but this is an exceptionally stupid take. It takes longer than that to even complete a reasonably thorough background check.
I agree with Kaiser on this. I recently read Meghans podcast was pushed back to 2025 “at the earliest.” It seems like they have a lot on their plate but perhaps not the infrastructure to make it all work simultaneously. As always, I wish them the best regardless and hope it’s all working out.
There you go, believing that the brit shidtmedia knows anything about the internal workings or the rollout of M’s business.
ProTip: whenever you feel yourself being suckered into believing that the britshidtmedia has anything resembling truth about ANY topic under the sun [except as it pertains to their clients in the BRF] just remember that EVERYTHING that H&M have done since leaving Saltine Isle, have CAUGHT THEM BY SURPRISE.
The news about her podcast was in US Weekly and other US media, not British media.
US Weekly is not “….US media.” As a tabloid, its nature is as it is with all tabloids in the world: the truth is not in them.
This hasn’t been confirmed but it stands to reason that it would come out next year or later this year because Lemonada has only just re-released Archetypes to all platforms. There’s no rush for the new podcast to come out.
@GoodWitchGlenda, what do you think will come out first? Meghan’s documentary on all of Kate’s charity work that US Weekly claimed a couple of years ago or Meghan’s Lemonada podcast?
Actual legitimate US media hasn’t jumped on this. My google search came up with the usual suspects citing Maureen Eden as their source. LOLZ
The ROTA and even their fans need to get something through their heads: They are operating on their own time line not perceived/imagined ones. They are also really good at keeping their business, THEIR business. For all we know they might have everything in place and maybe wants to launch with her show? Everyone needs to worry about what’s going on in their own business and stop worrying so much about Harry and Meghan’s business. They grown , they can roll with their successes and failures.
Let’s be honest , the ROTA don’t know anything . They have whined repeatedly that they are totally and completely locked out of the Sussex’s business and movements. They find everything out when the public does and they are SALTY.
Has William found his CEO yet? Projection again, perhaps?
I think ARO is much closer to a full launch than we might think. She’s not starting an IG account and sending jam out like that if its going to launch in a year.
I also wonder if the CEO role of ARO is necessary for launch. If they’re doing a small rollout with 1 or 2 products, and Meghan is the creative vision, perhaps they can launch with, say a CFO and COO but Meghan can act as interim CEO until they find someone. Especially if they’re leveraging 3PL and other outsourced production strategies, they could probably do it.
Meghan only aspired to be a loving wife, mother and senior working royal who supported the Queen during her time in the UK, all of which she excelled at. So much so that she outshined the other royals who had been there their whole lives or decade(s) at that point. The Queen wouldn’t have given them the roles of being the President and Vice President of the Commonwealth if she didn’t have complete faith in their abilities. Two roles which coincidentally she never replaced when they were forced out by the others.
The media found out about ARO and her jam the same time the rest of the world did. So them having an inside source about what she has or hasn’t done in the past five weeks is utter BS. Any real source would know that five weeks (which I think is BS the media pulled out of their ass) isn’t enough time to not only begin the search for such a prestigious and important position but it’s also not enough time to interview, complete background checks and make a crucial decision on hiring someone you are expecting to take on such a huge role but also be someone that you truly trust with your brand and in some capacity, having access to you and your family personal and public schedules and comings and goings. The UK media think that hiring incompetent and trustworthy people is the norm, when in Harry and Meghan’s case they must always consider who they introduce into their businesses and families surroundings.
*President and Vice President of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust.
PS:
The Commonwealth is an organization of 56 nation states.
The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust is a charity focussing on youth in the Commonwealth.
Where’s KP’s CEO? That’s the question Richard Eden should be asking not what’s going with Meghan? I don’t believe anything Richard Eden writes and I’m happy to wait for Meghan to launch her show and business. But it does prove that no matter what the British press says Harry and Meghan are the most relevant royals.
Here we go again Megan blah blah blah, new CEO blah blah blah, deal with Netflix blah blah blah. Oh and no dears Megan isn’t falling at anything since she left # number 1 best selling children’s book (no celebrities involved. #, 2 number 1 podcast. And lots of friends involved.
Against earthshot blah blah 8 million to give out 5 million lots of celebrities and a far flung continent involved and Early Yars and Dah Dah Dah, a. Pyechart involved, oh and a note book that on its front cover said “NOTEBOOK”, cry harder salty rags, cry harder
Why would she need a CEO for her start up business? She will run it. If it becomes too big then she can go on a hiring spree but for now she is the owner and CEO. These people are obsessed with her. They don’t have a single scoop. They just make it up as they go along.
“Meghan is said to hope that American Riviera Orchard, which will focus on home, garden, food and lifestyle wares, will be highly lucrative.”
—You don’t say! And, here, I was thinking she hoped it would flop. 🙄