Meghan Launches $165 As Ever Set as King Defines Sussex Role

Meghan Markle has pressed ahead with promotion for her lifestyle brand, shortly after King Charles signalled that the Sussexes will be regarded as private citizens rather than working members of the Royal Family.

The latest image is believed to have been taken at the couple’s Montecito home, with Meghan appearing in the same shirt, linen skirt and wide-brimmed straw hat seen in an earlier shoot.

In the garden scene, Meghan is shown affectionately stroking Pula, the black Labrador she and Prince Harry adopted soon after their 2018 wedding, while collecting fresh produce.

The Duchess wore a high-waisted pencil skirt by Posse, priced at around $320, paired with a striped silk shirt from Matteau worth $775.

Her face was mostly shaded by Sarah Bray Bermuda’s $200 “Wildflower” sun hat as she enjoyed the sunshine beside Pula, whose name carries special meaning for the couple.

Pula is the official currency of Botswana, the country where Harry and Meghan travelled together on their first trip as a couple after they began dating in 2016.

Meghan captioned the Instagram post: “Long weekend plans with As ever”.

The latest post comes two days after Meghan promoted her famous strawberry spread and a new sparkling wine that sells for $55-a-bottle. 

The ‘celebratory’ Napa Valley Reserve Brut blends pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot blanc fruit and can currently only be purchased in a bundle of three. 

She has also continued to send out PR packages to influencers after unveiling a new blackberry spread, as New York-based lifestyle creator Olivia McDowell posted a photo of the As Ever jar, one of the brand’s scented candles and a note from the Duchess. 

In addition to her lifestyle brand, which Meghan launched last February, the Duchess is believed to be mulling a return to charity work once her children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, have settled into their new life in the UK. 

A source close to Meghan said ‘she wants to pick up with a lot of people’ now she is back.

It is understood to include Smart Works, a charity supporting unemployed, vulnerable women looking for jobs, which Meghan is wishing to rekindle public support for.

She held four patronages after she wed Harry in 2018, but Smart Works was the only one she continued to support after she stopped working as a royal.

Meghan is expected to be photographed and publicised working with the charities. The Duchess and Harry are considering creating a ‘fair’ structure for any media coverage after withdrawing from the royal rota system following their self-imposed exile in 2020.

‘She is thinking about plans for how she can get more involved and support the causes she was supporting and was passionate about again, and new causes too,’ the source told The Sunday Times.

Prince Harry’s wife is also likely helping Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, get set up for their first week at school while ‘unpacking’ and ‘getting over the jet lag’ after relocating from their Montecito mansion in California nearly two weeks. 

Harry and Meghan are said to be trying to avoid being spotted as they buy school uniforms and pencil cases for the children before they enrol next week.

However, the school run is believed to be their ‘biggest area of concern’ as ‘it creates the most dangers’, with Harry and Meghan still pushing for 24/7 armed police protection now that they are back in the UK. 

The Royal and VIP Executive Committee (Ravec), the Home Office body responsible for decisions on royal security, is reportedly due to meet as early as today to discuss arrangements for the Sussexes.

But last night the King ruled out any role for Harry and Meghan within the Royal Family in the lead-up to the crunch security meeting.

King Charles’s letter told more than 100 ‘senior stakeholders’ across the country that his son and daughter-in-law are not working royals, with a reminder that their HRH titles remain on ice.

It comes after sources close to the couple repeatedly briefed select media about plans for their new life back in Britain.

They include a resumption of public engagements with the media invited to attend. Some of the couple’s friends have even boasted that Harry has finally secured the ‘half-in, half-out’ deal he always wanted – with the freedom to mine lucrative commercial opportunities while undertaking limited official duties by the ‘back door’.

That model was firmly rejected as unworkable by his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, at the so-called ‘Sandringham Summit’ of January 2020, which led to the Sussexes quitting not only royal life, but also Britain while embarking on a series of very public attacks on the institution.

Now the King has moved decisively to quash speculation over their return, and publicly reinforce the boundaries laid down by his late mother.

And he makes clear that Harry and Meghan’s public appearances should not be treated as royal engagements and no public money should be spent on them.

A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess said they are ‘surprised’ by the King’s unprecedented letter in a statement issued to the media, claiming the couple had not been told about it in advance. 

Palace sources have told Our News Outlet that this is ‘incorrect’, insisting Harry and Meghan had received the letter before it was released publicly. However, they were not consulted on its contents. 

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who returned to Britain a fortnight ago, are also understood to be concerned that the timing of the King’s announcement may be linked to a crucial meeting on their security arrangements.

A spokesman for the Duke and Duchess said: ‘We were a little surprised not to have been told about this in advance.’ The publication of the letter had caught the couple off guard, he said.

Palace sources told Our News Outlet the release had nothing to do with the security issue or any Ravec meeting. The letter was ‘shared’ with Harry’s team and then released publicly in the interests of ‘transparency’.

Publication of the letter came as Prince Harry conducted his first official outing on Monday since arriving back in Britain – and will be seen by many as particularly timely.

He was pictured smiling at the Tower Bridge Studios in London and signing a mural on a wall during a pseudo-royal engagement. He is reportedly working on a ‘mystery project’.

A source told People: ‘He [Harry] was very, very pleasant to everyone. And he was very pleased to sign our celebrity wall. It was all very relaxed.’