New controversy over Meghan Markle

After changing the name of her lifestyle brand, Meghan Markle faces new troubles, including being hindered on Instagram and facing the risk of being sued.

Controversial change

On February 18, Meghan Markle made headlines when she announced that she was renaming her lifestyle brand from American Riviera Orchard (ARO) to As Ever. The move comes about two weeks before Meghan’s Netflix reality show, With Love, Meghan , is set to premiere.

Meghan renames lifestyle brand ahead of Netflix show launch.

“I am thrilled to introduce you to As Ever – the brand I created and poured my heart into. As Ever means ‘the way it has always been’ or some people understand it as ‘the way it always has been’. If you have been following since the days of creating The Tig (Meghan’s lifestyle blog before marrying Harry), you will know this could not be more true for me. This new chapter is an extension of what has always been my love language, weaving together everything I cherish – food, gardening, fun, living deeply and finding joy in every day,” the beauty born in 1981 shared.

In the accompanying video, Meghan revealed that in 2024, she thought American Riviera was a great name because it represented where she lived (a nickname for Santa Barbara County, California). However, she later decided that the name limited the products she sold geographically. So the Duchess of Sussex went back to the name she came up with in 2022 – As Ever.

Just before Meghan’s announcement, people discovered that the ARO store on the e-commerce site Shopify had closed. They also found a new store called As Ever, with a never-before-seen photo of the former actress cooking. The photo is believed to have been taken during the first ARO promotion a year ago.

However, Meghan appears to have made a last-minute change. The previous link, as-ever-store.myshopify.com, now takes visitors to the new domain, asever.com. The cooking photo has also been changed to one of her holding hands with her daughter Lilibet as they skip rope across the lawn in the garden of their Montecito mansion.

The move has sparked mixed reactions from experts. On Mail Online , a branding expert said it seemed like everything was rushed. Meghan had to abandon ARO but still use the old ads, leading people to wonder if she was forced to do so.

The Daily Beast ‘s source called the constant changes before the brand’s official launch “ridiculous.”

Another commented: “You won’t see Kim Kardashian doing this. The last minute name change shows inauthenticity.”

Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told the Express : “Meghan’s early launch of the American Riviera Orchard in 2024 led to trademark issues, which delayed it. The brand name is now As Ever. She must have been desperate to coordinate the launch with the With Love, Meghan series .”

Experts have mixed opinions about Meghan’s change.

Meanwhile, Mark Borkowski, a British public relations and crisis management expert, believes Meghan has a smart tactic to attract attention.

“This is not an identity crisis. This is a business model. Meghan is not wavering. She is wavering on purpose… The more unpredictable she is, the harder it is to take her down. She is trying to be an enigma. The product she is selling? Endless curiosity about Meghan Markle. So maybe she is not losing control of her story, we are losing control,” Mr. Borkowski commented.

Meghan did not comment on the above opinions and locked comments on her personal page.

Barriers for Meghan

After revealing American Riviera Orchard on March 14, 2024, Meghan created an Instagram page @americanrivieraorchard, attracting nearly 600,000 followers. However, Prince Harry’s wife may have trouble doing the same with As Ever. The reason is that the accounts surrounding the name were all used just hours after the mother of two announced the new name.

The @AsEver account already has users but is set to private and has no profile picture. Other variations such as @AsEverByMeghan, @AsEverMeghan, @As.Ever.Meghan or @AsEverMeghan2025… are all available on Instagram.

This practice is reminiscent of the current Duchess of Sussex’s @meghan account. Meghan returned to Instagram at the beginning of the new year and reportedly had to pay other users to get @meghan.

Meghan faced many obstacles on her journey to developing her personal brand.

At the time, branding expert Emily M Austen told Femail it was likely that Meghan or her team negotiated through a third party to own the account under her name, even paying for it.

“Meghan may use a third party, which means her identity is kept secret. Most sellers start with a reference price, which can be between $200-20,000 depending on the buyer’s level of desire,” the expert explains.

As things stand, Meghan may have to pay to purchase an As Ever username if she doesn’t already have one.

Additionally, netizens discovered that As Ever has already been used as a brand name: “There’s also a store in New York with this name. It’s a branded vintage clothing store.”

On February 18, Mark Kolski, founder of Meghan’s namesake brand, announced on Instagram that he had no connection to the Duchess of Sussex or her brainchild. He pointed out that he officially launched the company in 2017 after two years of working on the project. The company is based in New York and New Jersey.

Kolski admitted to feeling helpless in his inability to take any action in response to Meghan’s rebranding, but said he refused to change the name of his clothing brand and was looking into how to proceed.

Mr. Kolski worries that he is a small business that cannot compete with a project that has the power and money of Netflix.

If the name is indeed trademarked, Meghan may have to deal with the headache of changing her name again.

In 2024, she applied to trademark ARO but was denied. She then applied to trademark As Ever in September of that year but was also denied. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the trademark application for the name As Ever is still pending.

Meghan’s other hurdle involved replacing the ARO logo with an image of a palm tree and two hummingbirds, which somehow bears a striking resemblance to the coat of arms of the village of Porreres on the island of Mallorca (Spain).

Mayor Francisca Mora told local newspaper Ara Balears the resemblance was “surreal” and the town hall was considering whether to take legal action against Meghan.

“I don’t know if she visited some agritourism sites and saw the badge, because the photo on her website was taken in Mallorca… I hope more people around the world know that in Mallorca there is a town with this badge,” said Ms. Mora.

In an interview with The Sun , the mayor insisted that she did not want the coat of arms to be distorted because it belonged to Porreres. She pointed out the difference that Meghan’s logo depicts two hummingbirds, while the two birds on the coat of arms are not yet determined to be swallows or doves (historians cannot agree).

“We will ask Meghan to remove the logo from their website,” Ms. Francisca Mora emphasized.