PUCK Exclusive: What Insiders Are Saying About Meghan's Brand, As Ever

PUCK is the media outlet that scored the exclusive about Flamingo Estate

PUCK has an exclusive about the current state of As Ever, ahead of their June drop. Credit: PUCK

Happy Sunday!! Just a few days ago, Puck, a highly respected media outlet, came out with an exclusive article about As Ever that’s received little attention in the mainstream media. That’s about to change, I’m sure. It’s written by Rachel Strugatz, the same reporter who broke the story that Meghan wanted to become an investor in Flamingo Estate and be the face of the brand. But, having Meghan as the public face of Flamingo, was a no-go for the brand and no deal ever happened. Meghan walked away with proprietary information about the company, without ever signing a non-disclosure agreement. Sources explained to Strugatz that no protections were ever signed because Meghan was introduced to the brand as a friend of a friend, although they clarified that “friend” was not Oprah. Now, Strugatz is back with an interesting update on As Ever.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Puck, it’s a subscription-based media site that focuses on Hollywood, Washington, Silicon Valley, and Wall Street. Puck is like the smarter, faster little brother to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. Indeed, the legendary, former editor of The Hollywood Report, Matt Belloni, reports now for Puck. We were the first to talk about the Meghan/Flamingo story after reading about it in Puck and then it hit mainstream media like the Daily Mail. I suspect this latest exclusive by them about As Ever will hit in the next day or two. And with her second drop coming this month, Meghan will not be happy. I certainly think the twerking video was released to grab headlines for the June drop. However, the Disney pictures very well could have been released to extend the headlines and keep this Puck exclusive as a murmur in the background.

Here's the highlights from the exclusive Puck article about the latest on As Ever. First, Strugatz points out the chaotic nonsense of Meghan’s personal updates about the products.

On Tuesday, the Duchess of Sussex announced on her podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, that As Ever was on “pause.” Hours later, she posted an Instagram Story informing her 3 million followers that there would be a restock later this month. She urged them to “sign up to find out details and timing!” Last week, Fast Company reported that Markle will “announce new products” during Q1 of 2026, and that the founder wants to “really focus on the hospitality angle.”

While I do think many have been endlessly asking about the jam’s return just to poke her, when she’s clearly doing drops, a common modern marketing tool. I could see very clearly, that Meghan was causing drama about her products to gain free headlines. It’s the shock and awe, the whiplash, that’s been so common in everything they do. Most would advise her not to do that, it reflects badly on her, but I think she thinks, she’s a marketing genius. Puck explains it like this, “One person who knows Markle intimately described the haphazard rollout and disorganized pivot as simply “the Sussex way.”

Stugatz describes Meghan’s jam as “like a jam that my grandmother might have stolen from a two-star hotel”, calling them “a sad mix of white-label pantry items.” White-label meaning another manufacturer has produced them and Meghan has simply added her label, without any real association with the products inside. A money grab based solely on her name, well, at least the royal part of it. In that way, As Ever mirrors many aspects of the Archewell Foundation. During the lead-up to her product debut, so many stories promised exciting things. The jam recipe is her grandmother’s, she’s using fruit from her own garden, etc. And all of those things would have been doable. I was expecting a family recipe and perhaps, a little fruit from her garden, like strawberries and lemons, mixed with fruit from other farms, in the jam. Instead, it’s all white-label, without even a disclosure of the ingredients’ origins. The most basic of basic.

Puck shared this about the much discussed “sell out” within minutes of debuting the first drop of products.

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.

I think they purposefully listed too few units to sell and also, had a larger response than expected. I do think people swarmed the site. I bet they manufactured more product than they listed to sell for some of the items in April. That would be cheaper than doing another manufacturing run for the June drop.

Meghan’s future plans include expanding into clothing, in the coming years. Probably a better fit than cooking and food. Credit: Meghan Sussex

Stugatz also delves into the terms of the partnership between Meghan and Netflix. I think it’s very interesting that Meghan wants to be seen as this female founder and even a CEO. She’s pushing hard on the trifecta that so many women in business right now are publicizing, female founder, with a podcast about business, who also invests in other female-founded businesses. But, again with Meghan, it’s the authenticity issue. Her inability to lead a team and not have an all-out mutiny is the stuff of headlines. But, she’s adamant that she actually runs 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.”) A recent Fast Company piece detailed Netflix’s desire for As Ever to exist on its own, and how they urged her to create a brand that was tied to the show yet not named after it.

I think Netflix wants As Ever to “exist on its own”, not as in, Meghan is running it. But meaning, looking ahead to the future, when the show is no longer airing, Netflix wants there to be enough expansion of As Ever the brand, that Netflix still has something of value. Here’s the heart of it and what I’ve always said. Meghan is not running As Ever. This is purely a Netflix play and Meghan is simply playing CEO.

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.”

I think much of what we have heard about new hires and expanding her team, has not been the real, full story. Netflix is smart enough to see that Meghan has weaknesses and they are willing to workaround those, but this is not in her hands to run. This caveat was added to the story, I think to protect Puck from backlash. Notice, it’s in parentheses.

(“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.)

As with most celebrity brands, the celeb is not running the business. I just find it so interesting that Meghan insists she is. I think that creates more criticism than it’s worth. Maybe she thinks this helps fight the bullying claims, but it does not. It simply adds to the authenticity problem.

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. Netflix has actually produced similar product lines and collaborations to coincide with new seasons of Bridgerton, Stranger Things, and Squid Game. And yet those partnerships seemed to be opportunistic attempts to monetize the long tail of I.P., rather than finance some newfound Goop or Flamingo Estate wannabe.

Meghan hopes that Lili will join her As Ever brand. Credit: Meghan Sussex

What they are saying here is this, Netflix is actually trying to create a brand that will last longer than her cooking show. The show is helping to launch and secure As Ever. But the endgame is to grow As Ever, so that it can live past the cooking show. This would explain Meghan’s very ambitious talk, including adding Lili to the company at some point. Remember, at its heart, As Ever is a play on Meghan, her celebrity. They want to morph that into many product lines.

Puck also points out this, almost like Meghan is purposefully trying to be the cut-rate Flamingo.

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.

I found this especially interesting and it echoes why she wanted to leave the Royal Family. She thought they were making money on her and she was increasing their brand. How very Hollywood of her.

Meghan had watched as others leveraged their celebrity to launch lifestyle brands, and seemingly wanted in. “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.

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.’”

Bravo to Puck and Rachel Strugatz for a great exclusive. Puck never disappoints.