Driving along the picturesque Route 101 from Montecito to Summerland, bathed in the golden glow of a Californian winter, I reflect on the tumultuous week faced by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Even by their own dramatic standards, this week has been particularly challenging.
I am on my way to explore Meghan’s As Ever pop-up shop, nestled in a chic bookstore by the beach. Here, she offers an array of festive gift boxes, including jam spreads, scented candles, herbal teas, and honey duos. These items are aimed at captivating the interest of the affluent women of the American Riviera. Among the offerings are mulling spice kits priced at £12.50 and tins of flower sprinkles for £11. Even if the pricing seems audacious, the touches of gold velvet ribbons add an undeniable charm.
Yet, before immersing ourselves in Meghan’s offerings, it’s essential to assess where Harry and Meghan currently stand amid their ongoing public spectacle. Unfortunately, to some observers, their once-glamorous image seems to be slipping into the realm of the ordinary.
Their recent appearance at a Kardashian-hosted party at Jeff Bezos’s Beverly Hills mansion exemplifies their predicament. Reportedly, the couple made a misstep by requesting their hosts to remove photos of them from social media following the 007-themed celebration.
This move sent a clear message: the Sussexes perceive themselves as distinct and superior. Such an attitude is unlikely to have been well-received by the Kardashian crowd, despite any polite responses. It likely added a layer of irritation beneath the surface of their public smiles.
That must have gone down like a cup of cold carbs with Kimmy & co; that must have made their Skims steam with pure irritation, despite their polite noises to the contrary.
Then in a trailer to launch her forthcoming Netflix seasonal show, Meghan is seen single-handedly inventing Christmas before invading her own privacy by kissing Harry, boiling up some of her twig tea in a saucepan, tablescaping like a lunatic and making a wreath out of broccoli florets before gurgling: ‘I love the holiday season. It’s about finding time to connect with the people we love.’
This from a daughter who has not had time to connect with her own father for seven years, nor with her husband’s father and brother in any meaningful way, not to mention all those sundry friends and half-sisters who have been iced and diced along the way.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex speaks onstage during the 2025 TIME100 Summit at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 23, 2025
The Duchess of Sussex’s collection of sparkling wine, jams, flower sprinkles and mulled wine kits on sale
Meghan portraying herself as the hostess with the mostest is a little like Cruella de Vil being in charge of a puppy farm – sooner or later the fur is going to fly.
Then on Wednesday came Meghan’s interview with the American edition of Harper’s Bazaar magazine. Clearly any difficult or searching questions were forbidden and instead readers were treated to comic levels of self-importance billowing forth as our favourite jampreneur explained why she is so fabulous.
Do you know what? She makes mistakes, just like ordinary people do. Harry loves her ‘boldly, fully’ and let’s hope she meant that in an emotional way and not an intimate way. She likes to be announced as – booming voice, sound the trumpets – ‘Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’ before she enters a room. Yes, even when there is only one other person in that room and even if that person – I’m theorising now – is Harry.
And she lavishly praises herself for inspiring her children through the medium of raspberries and sugar. ‘I hope they see the value of being brave,’ she said. ‘They saw it when the jam was just a pot on the stove, bubbling.’
Damn that jam. I feel like bubbling myself. You’d think it was the elixir of life, the way she goes on about it – but perhaps for Meghan, it really is that important. The jam is the lodestar of her As Ever brand and it is why I am here at Godmothers, situated in a white 1920s barn in the seaside town of Summerland.
Handily it is close to Harry and Meghan’s home on the Riven Rock estate in Montecito, part of this wealthy enclave. The glamorous bookstore is the dream of literary agent Jennifer Rudolph Walsh and cosmetics mogul Victoria Jackson, who are both friends with local queen of the scene Oprah Winfrey and therefore now firmly a part of the Sussexes’ Montecito set.
Walsh was instrumental in the publication of Prince Harry’s Spare autobiography in 2023 – he calls her his fairy godmother, hence the name of the store – while Jackson is now part of Meghan’s mahjong gang.
A gift set of Meghan’s As Ever signature fruit spread, which retails for $42 (£31)
With its log fire, shearling armchairs and wide plank oak floors, this is no ordinary bookshop and the people who come here are far from ordinary, too. Women in Jenni Kayne chocolate cashmere and carrying £3,000 Dior tote bags peruse the shelves, while men in James Perse suede jackets park their gleaming Benzos outside in this world where everything is tasteful, beautiful, covetous, lush.
To get to Meghan’s spacious pop-up you have to pass a stairwell photo shrine to inspirational godmothers ‘who lit the way’ including Frida Kahlo, Michelle Obama, Gloria Steinem, Joan Didion and Oprah herself. ‘It has kind of a holy feeling,’ Rudolph Walsh says of her bookstore. ‘People walk in and they’re called to their sacred self, and it permeates the whole experience.’
Up on the first floor, nestling next to cookbook corner and with ocean views to the front, Meghan has laid out her wares on oak tables; piles of her gift-boxed jams, her honeys, her teas and her two varieties of scented candles, displayed under glass cloches like precious museum artefacts. ‘Meghan likes the one with mint best because it reminds her of her wedding day,’ says one of the glamorous shop assistants.
I don’t have the heart to tell her that anything minty on the day was probably creepy Uncle Andrew’s mouthwash. For Meghan was so appalled by the ‘musty’ smell of St George’s Chapel in Windsor she wanted to pump in air freshener, a request denied by Buckingham Palace.
Speaking of which, I can’t help but note that Megan has been royally straining with her shop tablescapes, trying to make everything as regal as possible, going for that Downton Abbey vibe Americans love so much.
Jars of her precious jams are displayed on silver salvers – could everyone please curtsey – there are lush bundles of eucalyptus and foliage in silver vases and even a dummy bottle of As Ever sparkling wine – actually filled with water – displayed in a silver ice bucket. The real thing isn’t allowed, as Godmothers don’t have an alcohol licence.
‘Share the Love,’ says a little sign, next to a giant wine box which is the centrepiece of the display. The following words are etched on to the front in bold letters; ‘Thoughtfully Curated by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.’
The nerve! I mean, really. Five years after they fled Europe to escape the tyranny of inherited privilege, Prince Harry and his ambitious wife continue to skate on the thin ice of pure audacity; maximising all the benefits and lustre of the old life they publicly disparaged and claimed to hate, while using their royal titles as commercial tools to boost sales.
The Duchess of Sussex in her Netflix series With Love, Meghan which came out in March
It’s so hypocritical, but it works. There is a frisson of excitement about being close to royalty one can recognise in the customers who crowd around sniffing the candles and wondering if £48 for two jars of honey is a good deal, even if it is made by ‘wow, Duchess Megan’.
Yet my sacred self noted that people were browsing but not buying, while the shop girl wasn’t even sure which product was the best seller. ‘Jam?’ she wondered.
Will this ragbag range of fruit spreads, wines, candles and teas be a royal success? Or will the Duchess of Sussex go down in history as the woman who turned wine into water?
Back home, King Charles and Prince William are considering plans to pare down the monarchy to make it more relatable in 21st-century society. I think we all know where the silver axe should fall first.
