For various reasons, I’ve been getting Puck’s daily newsletter for years. I find some of their obsessive worrystones interesting, and I often wonder why one media outlet cares THAT much about Art Basel. In recent years, they’ve been doing some odd coverage of the Duchess of Sussex in general. It’s one of those “we’re a legitimate news outlet, so what we’re doing is not gossip, but here’s some gossip” situations. They’ve previously claimed that Meghan has been working with a Montecito-based stylist named Jamie Mizrahi, and their sources claimed last summer that the Sussexes’ Netflix contract would not be renewed (lol). Puck’s latest piece – “What Went Wrong With Meghan’s Brand?” – is all about Meghan’s associations with Netflix, and her As Ever brand.
As Ever’s launch & selling out in less than an hour: One person who knows Markle intimately described the haphazard rollout and disorganized pivot as simply “the Sussex way.” I’m told the product “scarcity” was always part of the plan, and that Markle wanted everything to “sell out” within the day to create the illusion of demand. In reality, though, the company probably either produced too few units or was opaque about selling out, maybe both.
The ownership of As Ever: The ownership structure of As Ever is also difficult to untangle. Technically, it’s a partnership with Netflix in support of the show. Ted Sarandos previously described Netflix as a “passive partner in Meghan’s company.” And yet, everything is “completely manufactured and handled by Netflix,” according to one insider, who likened the venture to a licensing agreement. (A person close to Netflix claimed the terms are “more involved than licensing.”)
Meghan outsourced As Ever to Netflix? The Duchess made sure to note in the story that Netflix wasn’t just funding the venture, but the truth is that As Ever wouldn’t exist without the streamer. I heard that Markle doesn’t even employ an actual team. “She’s not building a lifestyle empire,” the insider said. “There’s no one that works for the brand. She’s outsourced the entire brand to Netflix. They send samples and she picks what she likes.” (“Meghan has been actively building a dedicated internal team to support As Ever’s growth,” a person familiar with the partnership told me, noting that Markle recently hired Melissa Kalimov as chief operating officer.)
Meghan doesn’t want As Ever to be in business with Netflix? In a way, this is kind of what most celebrity beauty ventures are like, albeit with a half-trillion-dollar streaming company’s product arm replacing what would otherwise be a small team of operators…. Perhaps As Ever’s recent inventory issues stem from the fact that Markle, who was late to the celebrity lifestyle business game, really wanted to take her Netflix-funded domestic brand back from Netflix and try it out on her own.
Meghan was considering investing in other companies: Still, I never expected the rollout of As Ever to be this bad. Also, an industry type recently pointed out that As Ever’s logo bears a striking resemblance to the iconography of Flamingo Estate’s original logo, except with hummingbirds instead of flamingos. In fact, before she decided to create American Riviera Orchard/As Ever, Markle was in advanced talks with Flamingo Estate about an investment in the company.
Meghan wanted her own celebrity brand: “She had a hard time understanding that other people were having success when she couldn’t find her footing,” said the person who knows Markle intimately. “[For Markle, it was] ‘I’m not going to add to their success, I want a piece of my own.’” According to this person, the Duchess has passed on many opportunities to invest and “be more behind the scenes”—not only with Flamingo Estate but also Oak Essentials, the beauty line spun out of Jenni Kayne that last year raised close to $10 million ahead of an Ulta Beauty launch.
Meghan wants to be an untouchable queen: Markle has proven she’s incredibly effective at selling other brands’ stuff, but that doesn’t mean she can do it when it’s her name on the label. She may influence the purchase of a J.Crew sweater, but would that same person buy As Ever knitwear? “There was the thought that she could dominate any space she decided to get into,” the insider added. “But she doesn’t want to be accessible.” Markle, it seems, wants to be an ethereal Montecito queen, this person continued, “but isn’t willing to commit in the way Gwyneth was—in the sense where Gwyneth was like, ‘I don’t care if you’re poor and can’t afford this. Get in or get out.’”
Puck goes on to say that they expect Meghan will eventually pivot again to starting a beauty line. Like, it’s clear that this person hates Meghan and thinks the As Ever venture is stupid, but did Puck miss Meghan explicitly saying that she was looking more into homeware and kitchen? That’s where As Ever is headed – less J.Crew and more Pottery Barn. Puck also missed Meghan’s ShopMy page, which is Meghan explicitly offering all kinds of beauty, homeware and fashion recommendations with commissions. So many people in so many industries are dismissive of Meghan’s Midas Touch – it feels like Ted Sarandos is one of the few people who actually understands that people want to dress, cook and decorate like Meghan, and that Netflix is uniquely positioned to monetize everything Meghan wants to do.
As for the structure of As Ever… I don’t think Meghan has outsourced everything to Netflix, and I think that’s why the As Ever situation has felt a bit chaotic for several months. The mixed-messages about restocking products, the contradictory comments in interviews and her podcast, the indecisiveness about how to proceed – that’s all because Meghan is in control. If Netflix was in control, things would be moving a lot differently.
Photos courtesy of As Ever’s IG.
Clearly whoever is talking isn’t a friend to Meghan, Meghan’s friends have names.
I stopped reading at “one person who knows Meg intimately “. Horseshit alert!!
“Intimately.”
That would be Harry. 🥴
Every time they source someone like that, I assume Samantha Markle
I look forward to more products dropping this June. Sigh… there will always be those invested in naysaying Meghan fortunately her fans AND haters wait on her every move with bated breath.
I choose to believe absolutely nothing I read unless it’s coming directly from Sussex team.
I strongly disagree that it is/ was chaotic because of Meghan. She is incredibly intelligent and does her research, surrounds herself with experts in the areas she needs assistance in and always rolls out an amazing top shelf product. So much thought and planning goes into everything that she does. Even a visit to another country, her research into the culture and designers and the newest developments going on in specific areas is next level. Not to mention her ability to find and research and invest in small female run businesses and ventures.
The chaos seems to have been due to the struggle of two different business entities, with two different and possibly clashing visions, attempting to reach a comprehensive branding strategy and agreement. From logo to style to availability to scale to everything legal.
can we stop with the Meghan is indecisive and constantly changes her mind narrative please? that is a tabloid media talking point and untrue based on actions.
this woman is more buttoned up in terms of her launches and her comms and her strategies than most businesses and celebrities and no one wants to give her credit for that.
it’s insane. business is messy. launches are messy. perfection is not possible. she made stuff. it sold out. our country has had massive internal economic instability and external supply chain instability since that launch. she’s making more stuff. she will sell it when she’s ready. the narrative about flip flopping and indecision is so annoying.
Yeah it’s super annoying and an erroneous narrative. It’s wild even after she did eight episodes with other entrepreneurs co-signing all of the things that she struggled with that people still act like it’s some sort of anomaly and bad decision-making on her part.
It’s not even getting into the supply chain factor of it. I think most people legitimately just think that there is a bunch of stuff stored in warehouses that you can go and pick up whenever you’re ready. Not realizing that labels are made in one location, jar lids are made in another location, jars are made in another location and what goes in the jars are made in another location. All of those have to get picked up sent to one spot and then combined. But apparently that should only take a week or so.
Thanks. I am sick of reading this. I saw Lainey bashed Meghan last week saying like many of her critics are saying, she’s indecisive. What? They had zero idea they would be sold out within freaking minutes. No one planned for that. She already said she was doing seasonal drops. She even added that she was working to ensure no more sold out within minutes thing, she’s not trying to turn it into a Nike shoe drop. Bah.
The perception that she is indecisive is a pure media invention and it stems from their lack of access and actual sources.
They have no idea what she is doing or planning or thinking. So they make something up and shout it with their full chest. Then Meghan does what Meghan actually does and it’s not in line with what they had said so instead it’s: “she was totally going to do ABC in the way we stated but then changed her mind because she’s (stupid, indecisive, inexperienced, arrogant, uppity…whatever damaging adjective they want to use that morning).”
And people believe it.
Girl is just trying to make a living like everyone else. Don’t like it then don’t buy it.
Meghan has done on the record interviews about investing in other brands so it doesn’t make what they said about her investing. She also talked about the restocking issue in her podcast and what the “pause” meant. This article is very push pull and cobbled together.
Not only that, but Meghan really seems to enjoy lifting up other women and investing in women owned businesses, she really seems to love it, and they are just negating all the good she is doing for other people. I truly can’t stand these pathological liars.
This piece is name dropping some brands I’ve never heard of 🤔
“ Flamingo Estate but also Oak Essentials, the beauty line spun out of Jenni Kayne that last year raised close to $10 million ahead of an Ulta Beauty launch.”
I mean who cares about a $10M brand (I had to check it was an M and not a B) when you’re dealing with a multi billion dollar company?
Flamingo Estate is a huge brand for a certain kind of foodie; As Ever is basically the Target version of Flamingo Estate. I don’t mean that as a knock against Meghan because she is clearly going for a relatively accessible version of “lifestyle,” just to give you an idea of how they compare. Just because you haven’t heard of them doesn’t mean they aren’t successful.
I’ve never heard of Flamingo Estate either but I looked it up, hunted for their logo, and it doesn’t look anything like As Ever’s? Yeah, these people are weirdly obsessive and bitter.
And Jenni Kayne would have been nuts *not* to ask Meghan if she wanted to invest in the skincare spinoff. Especially since I’ve only heard of Jenni Kayne because of Meghan!
i dont even know what theyre saying in this article. meghan wants her products to sell but also doesnt want to be accessible and she wants to be the queen of montecito but she’s not an out of touch snob like gwyneth??
like what are they trying to say?
I don’t think even they know WTF they’re on about anymore.
I wish I had as much energy for ANYTHING as these people do for criticizing a woman they’ve never met who has literally no impact on their lives.
I read that Gwyneth bit as racist snark — blonde girl already out there doing it better. SMH
I don’t think these articles are even trying to make sense anymore. They’re like : X number of garbled words bashing Meghan for their daily 2 Minutes Hate — no matter what Meghan is actually doing and accomplishing.
Agreed. The article was totally incoherent.
Ah, yep. The whole thing is belittling racist bullshit. Moving the goalposts constantly so that no matter what their opinion or stance is, Meghan is obviously wrong and dumb for doing it.
Co-sign. Writers are sounding incoherent as they twist themselves up to find criticism. I’m not saying there can’t be criticism but when it doesn’t make sense…what’s the point.
I was confused too. They’re completely contradicting themselves. It sounds like theyre saying she wants to be a luxury brand but isn’t willing to alienate everyone. That is her trying to be accessible?! What are they even saying
The article makes no sense.
Meghan gave up control of life for almost 3 years, she is NEVER going to let anyone control her life again.
Everything that has been written here seems opposite to what Meghan has said publicly about the business. So is it that somebody just sat down a decided to write a contradictory piece for clicks?
None of what they wrote makes sense, especially if you listen to her podcasts or read her interviews in Fast Company and the New York Times, which quote her directly, her own voice. Even her Instagram reel talked about the Netflix partnership when she announced the AsEver name. I don’t understand what they’re even trying to say.
I never heard of Puck so I googled and guess what, apparently they have British investors, which might explain the policy of Meghan-dissing.
How many people in the USA know Puck exists? How many outside of Ameica know it & read them?
This article was a totally 🐂 💩. Is Puck getting on the Meghan-hating train to make money? After all, as a journalist said, “Hating Meghan” is a millions pounds earning industry.
Oh, okay, that makes more sense with the “Meghan is the absolute worst and why can’t everyone see that” tone of the Puck pieces. British takeover of US news is one of our big problems. Not the biggest, of course, but it’s painful.
One of my thinking surrounding Meghan’s seeming indecisiveness stems from wanting to confuse the media and keep them from knowing exactly what she is doing. Now that they know her brand is live, they want to act like they know her every move…so when she give them the false trail, they are not sure where she is going. The only drawback in this strategy is that her fans are a bit confused…but hey…we understand. Also, for a new company, decisions on how to proceed when a huge thing unexpectedly happen (selling out in 45 minutes counts as a huge unexpected) can be very uncertain, especially when she may have thought that her original stock would last for months and that she would have time to see and evaluate.
Another reason that I attribute to Meghan’s seeming indecisiveness is that I believe that all those interviews that Meghan did, were schedule to drop during the sale of her products to keep the interest going…and then, her products sold out and she had to keep the engagement
Those are the reasons that I cycle between 😊
I don’t think she really is indecisive? I think the British press is very used to creating their own characters and storylines and since Meghan is refusing to play along, the press is determined to create a lot of chaos around very normal things. The only thing she’s really changed is the name of her company – and, since I didn’t like ARO at all, was pleased she did!
I think she’s revealing more of her thought process, which is nice! But not always clear in this crazed press environment. She seems very focused and clear on what she wants to do, it just doesn’t match what the press wants for her. Plus there’s just an entire ecosystem determined to muddy the waters around her no matter what.
lol Puck knows so much but like the tabloids somehow cant seem to provide advance information? Why couldn’t Puck with all its so called advance knowledge report on or what first As Ever products would be or Meghan’s investments before she announced them in business mags? Or tell us about the As ever COO appointment in advance of Meghan’s team briefing this.
Every one just wants a piece of the lucrative Meghan hate machine & some of these comments even sound like straight out of the Fail eg about Meghan deliberately plotting for scarcity. When Meghan posted a big production line on IG & they were still doing PR packages roll out after the collection had sold out. Most time people posting pr packages is to encourage others to buy so to me that was another sign they weren’t expecting items to sell so quickly.
It’s also obvious that like the Fail, Puck are just guessing on Meghan’s/As Ever’s next steps based on trademark registrations (beauty) and Meghan’s own comments in interviews.
Meghan in one of her interviews said her team are daily on the phone with Netflix & were doing a field trip with them so idea there is no As Ever team & it’s Netflix doing it all doesn’t sound right at all.
Whilst I think there WAS a lack of comms around ARO when it was briefed it was going to launch last spring& then nothing happened until we heard of the rebrand – I don’t think there was chaos around As Ever. There has been way more than the usual comments you’d get from a brand about its products & it was clear that some COAFF podcast episodes were filmed in advance of their release so some comments around eg restock pauses were old by time they came out. But we still got IG posts &briefings to people mag etc advising on restocks etc around such episodes
Yeah, the products were sold out before the influencers posted their reviews. That makes it obvious that Meghan or her team didn’t expect the products to be sold out that quickly. That must have changed their whole manufacture deals, estimations.
Exactly! I tried to log on and everything I wanted was sold out. I couldn’t believe it. No one could. I don’t see how selling out all your products in one day equals poor business management. They are a mess.
Yup! Hating her is a $$ maker. Very odd of puck to go down this route
If Meghan is putting her name on an item, I’m buying it. that’s all!
I second that with all my heart.
I second that as well… I couldn’t get my hands on the first drop of As Ever! I am ready for the next drop; so is my mom, some of my friends, etc.
TARIFFS!!!
Sure all of the ingredients are local/national… but I am sure the bottles and packaging are imported. It could be that the packaging out priced the product.
How are you so “sure” that the bottles and packaging are imported? Are there no American companies that make bottles and boxes and other packaging???
Horse biscuits and cow pies!!! Don’t you recall when Meghan talked about testing out the boxes for herself even though she had contracted with 3PL?
The only thing that’s obvious from Puck is that they want to be known as coming down squarely and with emphasis as anti-Meghan. They have no insider knowledge, especially not from “intimate” insiders. I’ve paid attention to Puck in the past, but doubt I’ll spend time on it in the future after this 💩
The quality of the products and sales are her success. It’s clear to me she is in control of the quality of the product she is selling. She has final decision.
The way I read it, Netflix is the investor and has connected her to the infrastructure needed to create, source and produce the products. While she is in control of the direction and quality of the brand.
I do agree if Netflix owned it, they would just slap her name on private label products of a lower quality.
If it’s something like a a 51/50 partnership. That Meghan holds the most important 1% to make final decisions.
As Ever first launch sold out in minutes. Pretty sure Netflix is happy with the investment and will continue to help grow the brand. Incredible even in success they are trying to either frame it as a failure. Or she had no direct involvement. Which is clearly not the case.
Rarely, if ever is a celebrity brand is wholly owned. Goop, Rhianna, Drew Barrymore, Alicia Keyes brands all have investors. Or are licensing deals like Paris Hilton or Martha Stewart selling a million products with no investment on their own.
Just let the woman have a win.
I believe Puck is the latest low-circulation rag published by Graydon Carter, a Brit firmly up his own arse and an execrable excuse for a journalist of the Tina Brown variety.
Puck was founded by Matthew Belloni, previously editorial director at Hollywood Reporter. Belloni also does ‘The Town’ podcast. He’s had some good scoops about other Hollywood stories, but when it comes to Meghan he looks like DailyFail/Express/Sun tabloid. He’s the one who tweeted that Meghan wrote personal letter to Taylor Swift asking her to come on her podcast; “The pop star declined, through a representative.” With dookies like that, he sounds like any other brittabloid so-called ‘reporter,’ just pulling gunk out of his behind.
It may seem like Meghan is indecisive or unsure, chaotic, or whatever – I call it being elusive. Why? Because, announcing anything ahead of time, and giving details about her products, may give the Royals amber time to sabotage Meghan’s business. They tried it with With Love, Meghan (they wanted to buy/swap it from Netflix) and it didn’t work. I feel like they’re actively working to destroy her and Harry so that they don’t become successful.
Fyi the guy who does the podcast for Puck does it through Spotify and Bill Simmons.
“One person who knows Markle intimately described the haphazard rollout and disorganized pivot as simply “the Sussex way.” I’m told the product “scarcity” was always part of the plan, and that Markle wanted everything to “sell out” within the day to create the illusion of demand. In reality, though, the company probably either produced too few units or was opaque about selling out, maybe both.”
— Make up your mind: was it haphazard and disorganized, or deliberate and staged?
“The Duchess made sure to note in the story that Netflix wasn’t just funding the venture, but the truth is that As Ever wouldn’t exist without the streamer.”
— What?
In 2025, very few news orgs, gossip platforms are credible when reporting on the Sussexes due to reporting overreliance on snark, misogynoir and a weird peevishness. It seems many journalists and editors think it’s their job to undermine the couple for not being willing to be scapegoats for Harry’s dysfunctional relatives and the sclerotic monarchy.
Let them and the monarchy stay in the past and rejoice that the Sussexes love living in the 21st century.