Meghan Markle is preparing to launch a new Netflix show featured on “cooking, gardening and entertaining” in “early 2025”.
The news follows major setbacks tothe Duchess’s lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard, initially announced in March, which has encountered obstacles to securing its trademark.
Her TV show will celebrate “the joys of cooking, gardening, entertaining and friendship,” according to the streaming platform, with a focus on the Californian lifestyle.
According to a Hollywood insider the Duchess has been keeping a low public profile and “keeping her cards close to her chest.”
She was last seen in public at a holiday dinner for The Welcome Project with Afghan women in Venice, California, in October.
The insider added: “But I can tell you that she is the CEO of American Riviera Orchard, so all these rumours about her having a hard time finding a CEO are false. As far as Meghan being quiet, she’s been in the background working on her entrepreneurial efforts.”
They revealed that both the Netflix project and her brand will come out within the same timeline in the New Year.
“It’s going to be a good year for Meghan specifically, she’s spent the majority of the year doing work behind the scenes to launch a project in the first few months of 2025,” they told Page.Six.com.
Meghan has reportedly been working with people outside of the not-for-profit Archewell Foundation to push the brand to market. It has been suggested that staff from her and Harry’s charitable Foundation have also been involved.
A recent setback to her lifestyle brand came after an initial rejection in August when the Duchess was given three months to rectify errors in the application. The Duchess of Sussex‘s application must be started from scratch if the deadline is missed.
She will hope that her new show will be another hit following the pair’s debut series, Harry & Meghan, which broke several Netflix records.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex signed a lucrative five-year deal with Netflix in 2020 after stepping down as senior working royals.
Speculation has been rife that all was not well with the development of the brand, which has so far only been promoted with cutesy baskets of homemade jams sent to Markle’s celebrity friends, including Kris Jenner, Chrissy Tegan and Abigail Spencer.
The brand was announced in March, but as Markle, 43, has not worked with local jam makers and factories near her home in Southern California on her products, questions arose regarding the team behind the products.
“As far as Meghan being quiet, she’s been in the background working on her entrepreneurial efforts,” said an industry insider. “Both the Netflix project and her brand will come out within the same timeline in the New Year.
“It’s going to be a good year for Meghan specifically, she’s spent the majority of the year doing work behind the scenes to launch a project in the first few months of 2025.”
Markle is aiming to follow in the footsteps of American Queen of lifestyle, Martha Stewart, with her Netflix show, and clips promoting her brand have presented her in the kitchen at a stunning Montecito estate. The 83-year-old has a hit Netflix documentary, called Martha, based on her life.
She filmed her show, which celebrates “the joys of cooking, gardening, entertaining and friendship,” according to Netflix, around California and at the sprawling home of Tom and Sherrie Cipolla, keen philanthropists who are both fixtures on the Montecito society scene.
Rachel Richardson, a former SnapChat exec and writer of the Highly Flammable trends newsletter, said: “Meghan should sit down and watch the Netflix doc Martha and make notes, as it lays out the pitfalls and opportunities afforded to women who run lifestyle brands.
“What Martha has aced her whole career is understanding how to go viral and what platforms help her do that. TV, of course, is a powerful medium and the Netflix show will help her reach millions. But Meghan needs savvy strategies for social media.”
Markle should “eschew her buttoned up vibe”, Richardson said, “If she is forward thinking then she’ll be strategising about live streaming as that’s really having a moment.
The Duchess of Sussex has been taking advice from powerful friends like Claire Waight Keller, the former Givenchy designer who created her wedding dress, and who has signed a big deal with Uniqlo, alongside Victoria Jackson, a QVC star and make-up entrepreneur.
She also joined a host of powerful women including Gwyneth Paltrow and Reese Witherspoon at the G9 summit in the Hamptons in the US this summer.
She is also a financial backer of her longtime colourist and friend Kari Lee’s new hair care line, Highbrow Hippie.
The former Suits actress’ extension request comes just one month after a luxury food and gift retailer called Harry & David claimed the name is too similar to its Royal Riviera product line.
The US Patent and Trademark Office received a protest filing on October 31.
The company’s Royal Riviera trademark is currently registered to the brand’s pear gift baskets, which are grown in Oregon.
In September, the mom-of-two’s trademark application was refused by the USPTO, who warned that businesses cannot trademark geographical locations.
She was given three months to address the response made by the USPTO — prompting her to now request an extension.
She was also told to pay an additional $700 to move forward with the trademark filing.
The Sussexes have not been invited to Sandringham, the King’s country estate, in the UK for Christmas. Instead they are said to be planning a quiet holiday with Markle’s mom, Doria Ragland, and close friends.
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