Meghan spreads word on her new jam
Duchess sends first product from lifestyle brand to key influencers
THE Duchess of Sussex today launched her new lifestyle brand with its first product — strawberry jam.
Meghan’s firm American Riviera Orchard sent out 50 jars to influencers around the world as part of the promotional effort, with fashion designer Tracy Robbins and Argentine socialite Delfina Balquier among them.
Robbins, whose film producer husband Brian is boss of Paramount, posted a picture of the jam surrounded by lemons on her social media, writing “breakfast, lunch and dinner just got a little sweeter”. She said in a caption: “Thank you for the delicious basket! I absolutely love this jam so not sure I’m sharing with anyone. Thank you M!”
Balquier, the wife of polo player Nacho Figueras, wrote: “Strawberry jam makes me happy. And I love your jam,” tagging American Riviera Orchard’s Instagram page.
It comes a month after Meghan released the first details of her business with an online video showing her in the kitchen and arranging flowers. A trademark application for the firm stated that it wants to sell recipe books, textiles, table-wear as well as preserves and bathroom products.
It is Meghan’s latest venture since she and husband Prince Harry announced they were standing down from royal duties and left the UK to live in California with their children. Previous work included launching a podcast series with Spotify. The streaming firm reportedly paid £15 million for the deal which was axed by mutual agreement after a dozen episodes.
It comes amid hopes of a thaw in royal relations following the news that the King and Princess of Wales are being treated for cancer. Harry flew back to the UK for a brief visit after the King’s illness was announced but did not meet his brother William though he and Meghan wished Kate “health and healing” and said they hoped she would be able to get better “privately and in peace”.
The Duke of Sussex has also been fighting a legal battle over a change to the level of personal security he is given when he visits the UK. He took legal action against the Home Office over the February 2020 decision of the executive committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures that he should receive a different degree of taxpayer-funded protection when in the country. But his initial bid to bring an appeal has been refused after he lost his High Court challenge over the decision.
PRINCE HARRY’S latest court defeat might seem like a trivial battle over legal fees. He has been rightly unsuccessful in his bid to overturn the decision which meant he lost guaranteed Met police protection after he pulled out of royal duties.
But in fact the duke’s failed attempt to pass 50 to 60 per cent of the costs incurred by the Home Office in fighting his unmerited claim tells us much about the preening prince and his selfish disregard for virtually anyone other than himself, his equally self-obsessed wife, and his children.
That’s because when the Duke of Sussex, as he still wants to be called despite ditching his royal role, wasted yet more of the High Court’s time in arguing for the taxpayer to fund at least half of the hundreds of thousands of pounds that the Home Office was forced to spend on the case, what he was really doing was trying to pass on a large chunk of the bill to ordinary taxpayers.
That’s right: instead of having the decency to accept that he’d have to pay up when he lost, the Montecito multimillionaire, for whom the legal expenses will be loose change, wanted taxes paid by everyone ranging from people on the minimum wage to bus drivers, cleaners and pensioners to cover his costs. It’s frankly contemptible. Harry’s whole claim to have been mistreated by the removal of his security protection was, of course, misconceived from the start and every argument he put forward was rejected by the courts.
It’s a sign of his delusion that even the succession of earlier rebuffs from the judiciary didn’t stop him basing his attempt to get off a big chunk of the Home Office’s costs in fighting the litigation on the fantasy claim that he’d achieved “partial success” in his legal action.
But it simply wasn’t true, as yesterday’s High Court costs order reminded him.
It pointed out that Harry had “comprehensively lost” and that there was “no merit” in his claim of partial victory with his judicial review argument failing “on all of the pleaded grounds”.
It was the obvious outcome from the start and the claim should never have been brought. Now it’s time for the penny-pinching prince to pay up.