In branding, authenticity isn’t just a buzzword — it’s the foundation of trust. A strong brand identity must reflect both who you are and how you live. It’s about consistency, clarity, and credibility. For Meghan Markle — whose global recognition, royal status, and Hollywood background give her an extraordinary branding platform — these principles have often been neglected.
From the vague elegance of American Riviera Orchard (2024) to the hyper-curated domesticity of the Netflix production, With Love, Meghan (2025), Markle’s ventures have repeatedly struggled to find their footing. And now, with As Ever entering the market this week, the stakes for her personal brand are higher than ever. So why, despite having every tool in her arsenal, does Meghan’s branding consistently fall flat? Let’s break it down — critically, strategically, and honestly.
Authenticity vs. Perception: The Branding Paradox
Audiences today are discerning — they don’t just buy products; they buy into people, stories, and authenticity. When a personal brand doesn’t align with lived reality, the disconnect is instantly felt.
Meghan Markle has consistently framed herself as relatable — even describing herself as a “latchkey kid.” Yet this narrative is challenged by reports of a privileged upbringing. Her father, Thomas Markle Sr., was an Emmy Award-winning Hollywood lighting director who funded her private education at Immaculate Heart High School and later Northwestern University. Family members, including her half-brother, have publicly claimed she was chauffeured to school and lived comfortably — a version of her childhood that contradicts claims of hardship.
This pattern of contrast continues into her adult life.
While Meghan Markle presents herself as a hands-on, hard-working mother navigating everyday chaos, she resides in a nine bedroom, sixteen-bathroom Montecito estate valued at $15 million — supported by a full household staff, including nannies, chefs, gardeners, and security. The result is a personal brand that feels increasingly out of sync with reality.
Furthermore- according to Archewell Foundation’s 2022-2023 records, Meghan and Harry worked an average of just one hour per week. That statistic, combined with reports of “substantial household staff”, undermines her image of being a busy, everyday hardworking parent. It’s not the privilege that turns audiences off — it’s the disingenuous attempt to downplay it.
Spotify Fallout: The Danger of Inconsistency
Meghan’s brand and hard ‘working credibility’ took a further hit in 2023 when Spotify ended their $20 million deal with Archewell Audio after just one season of her podcast Archetypes.
The platform didn’t mince words. Bill Simmons, Spotify’s head of podcast innovation, publicly referred to Meghan and Harry as:
“Fucking grifters.”
The statement hit hard — not just for its bluntness, but for what it represented: a perception that the Sussexes are more interested in doing the bare minimum and monetising their fame than delivering meaningful content. For a personal brand, this kind of reputational damage is devastating — especially when trying to build trust.
After all, when you’re busy “grifting” — who really has time to change flower water daily in a pristine glass vase?
Even Meghan herself acknowledges this in episode 5 of As Ever, stating, “I don’t know anyone who has time to change the water every day in a clear vase.” And yet, the contradiction lies in the performance: hours before spent curating a picture-perfect floral arrangement from a high-end flower market, all while wearing a $936 Max Mara camel coat — not the go to look for a quick supermarket flower run to Asda. It felt less like a slice of everyday life and more like a soft-focus lifestyle advert — another example of how her brand often speaks to relatability while visually projecting something entirely different.
“This isn’t my house,” Meghan casually remarks in With Love, Meghan, referring to the French country-style $8 million rental property where much of the series was filmed. Though more modest than her real Montecito estate, the home was still far from average — featuring an expansive herb garden, a chef’s kitchen with a $19,000 Thermador range and $750 copper pans, a colony of bees tended by a professional beekeeper, rescued chickens, and even a food dehydrator on standby.
Her reasoning? The actual family home — complete with a tennis court, tea house, rose garden, and two-bedroom guesthouse — would be used later to host the gathering she was preparing for. But instead of offering a more authentic glimpse into her life, the decision reinforced just how curated, stylised, and deliberately distanced from reality her personal brand has become.
American Riviera Orchard: Beautiful Branding Without Substance
Let’s rewind a little- when American Riviera Orchard launched in 2024, it promised elegance and West Coast sophistication. Inspired by Meghan Markle’s life in Montecito (dubbed the “American Riviera”), the brand teased high-end lifestyle products with floral script and soft golden-hour visuals.
But beneath the gloss, something vital was missing: clarity.
• Was it food? Home-ware? Skincare?
• The Instagram account, though visually pleasing, revealed nothing of substance.
• A vague aesthetic replaced a clear value proposition.
Even the name — poetic as it is — lacks direct product association. Early reports suggested the brand may include raspberry preserves, herbal teas, edible flower sprinkles, and shortbread cookie mixes, yet none of this was clarified at launch. Audiences were left guessing — and guessing leads to disengagement, not curiosity.
Takeaway: If your brand can’t explain what it offers in a sentence, it’s not ready to launch.
With Love, Meghan: The Relatability Problem in High Definition
The Netflix docu-series With Love, Meghan (March, 2025) was meant to showcase a softer, more personal side of Meghan Markle — a hands-on working mother creating special moments for her friends and family. Instead, it became a case study in over-curation.
The Rainbow Fruit Platter Incident
One of the most-discussed scenes showed Meghan preparing a vibrant fruit platter at breakfast time for her children.
The problem? The ingredients look like it included:
•3 punnets of strawberries
•2 punnets of raspberries
•A pineapple
•A punnet of blueberries
•Several kiwis
•Nectarines
•Banana
•Satsumas
•And, notably, dried flower petals (available on her e-commerce website)
In a time when shopping prices are soaring and many people are juggling two jobs just to cover rent or mortgage payments, Meghan’s serene morning routine — artfully peeling and arranging a rainbow fruit platter — didn’t come across as inspiring. It felt tone-deaf. For most parents, mornings are a chaotic obstacle course of “Where’s your book?”, “Shoes on, now!”, “Go for your wee!”, “Please just eat something!” — all delivered at full volume between toothpaste battles and lunchbox negotiations. Her polished portrayal was less a glimpse into real life and more a curated fantasy, starkly removed from the daily reality of the audience she’s trying to connect with.
The One-Pot Pasta Controversy
In another moment, Meghan demonstrated her “go-to” one-pot pasta recipe. But her unconventional method — cooking dry spaghetti in minimal water inside a skillet — ignored basic culinary norms. Critics pointed out that the result would likely be unevenly cooked and overly starchy. The deeper issue? It felt performative — like something she read about, not something she actually cooks frequently for her family. These small details matter. They’re the difference between audiences believing you or rolling their eyes.
Additional Credibility Hits
Meghan’s attempts at everyday relatability were further undermined by moments that felt overly staged or out of touch.
Take the green waffles Meghan made for her children to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day — fans quickly pointed out that the waffle maker shown didn’t match the final product, sparking accusations that the scene was fabricated. It raised doubts about whether Meghan was genuinely engaging in these domestic tasks or simply performing them for the camera.
Then there was the much-discussed wardrobe pairing of a $1,325 Loro Piana cashmere sweater with $50 Zara trousers. Rather than reading as relatable “high/low” fashion, it came across as carefully orchestrated styling meant to signal accessibility — while surrounded by clear indicators of privilege, like a private chef, an on-staff beekeeper, and a pristine kitchen where she cooks in white cashmere without an apron.
Comedian Katherine Ryan summed it up best, calling the show “very manicured and very forced.”
The result? A brand narrative that looked beautiful on the surface — but felt hollow at its core.
As Ever: A Strong Start — But Can It Last?
With all this said, Meghan Markle officially launched As Ever this week — a rebranded evolution of her previously teased venture, American Riviera Orchard. The new lifestyle brand introduced its first collection of products, including artisanal preserves and curated home goods, and reportedly sold out in under 24 hours. On the surface, it looks like a major win…
But there’s a catch: no sales figures or product quantities were disclosed. Without transparency around the number of units released, it’s unclear whether this “sell out” reflects true demand — or a classic scarcity tactic often used to inflate hype. This could be in part, because Netflix’s With Love, Meghan often felt less like an intimate docuseries and more like a carefully staged eight episode advert for her lifestyle products — subtly laying the groundwork for her As Ever brand with curated visuals, recipes, and domestic rituals that now feature on her sold out website.
I think we’ve seen this one before, and I didn’t like the ending.
Celebrity brands like Jessica Simpson’s edible beauty line, Kylie Jenner’s skincare, or even Reese Witherspoon’s Draper James enjoyed strong launches — but struggled to maintain momentum. Why?
Because the initial excitement wasn’t supported by a long-term identity strategy.
If As Ever is to succeed beyond launch day, it needs to build more than buzz — it needs authentic substance and a clear identity.
Why Goop Wins: The Power of Unapologetic Branding
Compare Meghan’s brand to Goop, and the contrast is stark. Goop was founded in 2008 by Gwyneth Paltrow as a weekly lifestyle newsletter offering wellness tips, recipes, and personal reflections.
Since then, it has evolved into a full-fledged lifestyle brand encompassing beauty, wellness, fashion, e-commerce, publishing, and events.
As of its most recent valuation, Goop is worth an estimated $250 million (as of 2018), following a $50 million Series C funding round. The company has continued expanding into new product lines and international markets, although it remains privately held, so exact current figures are not publicly disclosed.
Goop’s value lies not just in its revenue, but in its strong, polarising brand identity — built on unapologetic elitism, wellness innovation, and a founder who fully owns her persona. Gwyneth Paltrow, too, comes from Hollywood privilege. But unlike Meghan, she has never tried to disown that. Instead, she built her brand around it.
1. Radical Transparency About Wealth
“I am who I am. I can’t pretend to be somebody who makes $25,000 a year,” Paltrow once said. That honesty is disarming — and it works. Goop is for the few, not the many. That exclusivity is the brand’s identity.
2. Clear Audience and Product Strategy
Goop knows its customer: high-income, wellness-obsessed consumers willing to spend for perceived quality.
Their offerings reflect that:
•$98 vitamin D supplements
•$250 body creams
•A $7,999 infrared sauna
•The infamous $75 “This Smells Like My Vagina” candle
•Even a $2,000 gemstone-filled “Rainbow Mat” for meditation and infrared therapy
These aren’t everyday purchases — and they’re not meant to be. And importantly, Goop doesn’t pretend they are.
3.No Pretence of Relatability
What sets Gwyneth Paltrow apart — and what makes her brand Goop so effective — is her complete refusal to play the relatability game. She doesn’t attempt to blur the lines between her reality and that of her audience. Instead, she embraces her privilege, eccentricity, and elite status unapologetically, building a brand that’s aspirational by design.
A perfect example? Paltrow reportedly once quipped to a yoga instructor, “You have this job because I’ve done yoga before.” While on the surface this sounds wildly self-important, it landed not as arrogance, but as self-aware satire — because she’s never claimed to be humble or grounded. She knows her influence. She owns it. And crucially, she never tries to be “just like us.” This unfiltered confidence is part of what gives her brand its edge. Whether she’s selling $250 face creams or a $7,999 infrared sauna, the Goop audience knows exactly what they’re getting: a luxury wellness experience curated by someone who lives that lifestyle every day. Paltrow’s strength lies in her clarity — she doesn’t dilute her identity to appeal to the masses, and as a result, she’s earned loyalty from those who see her brand not as a mirror, but as a window into a lifestyle they admire.
Why Meghan’s Brands Are Criticised While Goop Thrives:
The difference is simple: Gwyneth Paltrow’s brand owns its truth. Meghan Markle’s brand tries to obscure it. Gwyneth Paltrow has built Goop into a global brand worth hundreds of millions by doing something radically simple: telling the truth about who she is.
Gwyneth doesn’t pretend to be relatable. She doesn’t hide her privilege. She owns it. Whereas Meghan attempts to blend aspiration with relatability, resulting in brand confusion. Gwyneth on the other hand, embraces elitism and delivers clarity, consistency, and candour. Even when Gwyneth Paltrow says something controversial — even tone-deaf — it rarely dents her brand. A prime example is her now-infamous remark comparing motherhood as an A-list actress to being a working mum with a more conventional job.
She said: “I think to have a regular job and be a mom is not as… there are challenges, but it’s not like being on set.” The backlash was swift. Critics pointed out the obvious privilege of comparing long hours on set — with access to nannies, chefs, assistants, and luxury accommodations — to the daily grind of working parents juggling school runs, unpaid labour, and commutes with no support system in place.
And yet, Goop didn’t suffer.
Why? Because Paltrow has never pretended to understand the average lifestyle. Her brand isn’t built on relatability — it’s built on unapologetic aspiration.
Her audience doesn’t expect her to empathise with a 9-to-5 existence. They expect her to curate a lifestyle they can aspire to, even if it’s wildly unattainable. Paltrow’s power lies in consistency. She owns her world, flaws and all — and that unwavering self-awareness is what makes her brand not only survive controversy but thrive because of it.
Markle’s ongoing efforts to craft a relatable personal brand stand in stark contrast to Gwyneth Paltrow’s unapologetic embrace of her privilege and elite status. Where Paltrow leans confidently into her affluent reality — building a brand that thrives on exclusivity and aspiration — Meghan continues to present a curated version of everyday relatability that many view as inconsistent with her actual lifestyle. This disconnect between image and reality creates a sense of inauthenticity, positioning Meghan’s brand as performative rather than personal, and ultimately weakening the trust needed to build long-term engagement.
What Meghan Could Do Differently: A Strategic Brand Reset
If As Ever is going to be more than a fleeting headline, Meghan Markle needs a clear, consistent, and authentic brand strategy. Here’s the refined blueprint:
• Own the Aspiration — Stop Faking Relatability
Meghan’s life isn’t relatable — and that’s okay. Instead of pretending to be a typical mum, she should lean into her real lifestyle: elegant, intentional, and aspirational. People don’t expect her to live like them — they want to see the version of life they aspire to. Authenticity
doesn’t mean modesty; it means truth.
• Clarify the Product and Purpose
Confusion kills brands. As Ever needs to clearly communicate what it offers and why it matters. Whether it’s artisanal pantry goods or curated rituals for elevated living, the value proposition must be specific, emotional, and consistent — not just beautifully packaged.
• Tell Her True Story — Unfiltered
Meghan’s real story — of reinvention, motherhood, and public pressure — is powerful. But right now, it’s hidden behind polish. Strategic vulnerability, not performance, builds emotional connection. A brand rooted in real, imperfect identity is far more compelling than one that feels curated.
• Pick a Lane — Luxury or Wellness-for-All
Trying to be both exclusive and accessible creates confusion. Is Meghan a high-end tastemaker or a relatable lifestyle guide? Each requires different tone, visuals, and pricing. Great brands know their audience and speak directly to them — not to everyone.
• Be Consistent, Everywhere
From visuals to messaging, tone to partnerships — As Ever must present a united front. The mismatch between designer cashmere, curated fruit platters, and talk of everyday chaos creates a credibility gap. Every brand touchpoint should reflect the same story.
• Forget Likeability — Be Believable
The strongest brands aren’t the most liked — they’re the most trusted. Meghan doesn’t need to appeal to everyone. She needs to create a brand that feels real, focused, and self-aware. When the story aligns with the life, trust — and loyalty — follow.
The Bottom Line:
As Ever has potential — but it won’t thrive on aesthetics alone. To build a lasting brand, Meghan must stop trying to be everything and start being authentically herself.
The Branding Lesson Every Business Can Learn
Whether you’re a celebrity launching a lifestyle line or a local business finding your voice, one truth remains:
Your brand will only succeed if it aligns with your real identity.
At Hera Creative Design, we build brand strategies grounded in who you are — not who you’re pretending to be. We believe the most powerful branding isn’t about perfection. It’s about precision — in tone, in story, in values.
The Fork in the Road for Meghan Markle
Meghan Markle has everything a personal brand needs to thrive — visibility, influence, and reach. But she must decide:
• Will she continue curating a brand built on contradictions?
• Or will she build one rooted in clarity, confidence, and truth?
Because as long as her branding sits between aspiration and relatability, it will struggle to land short term and accomplish longevity. But if she picks one, leans into it, and owns it unapologetically — she may just find the brand breakthrough she’s been chasing.
Final Thought: The Longevity Litmus Test
The true test of a brand isn’t how it launches — it’s how it lasts. Scarcity-driven sell-outs are impressive headlines, but they don’t build sustainable equity. As of now, Meghan Markle has the visibility, the team, and the influence. What she needs is to decide who her brand really is — and commit to it.
