Duchess admits she ‘didn’t love’ American Riviera Orchard name, reveals behind-the-scenes rebrand
Meghan Markle has finally addressed the buzz surrounding the name change of her lifestyle brand, revealing why she moved away from American Riviera Orchard in favor of As Ever. The Duchess of Sussex cleared the air during the latest episode of her podcast Confessions of a Female Founder, released on April 22.
Joined by her close friend and entrepreneur Kadi Lee, Meghan opened up about her branding journey, revealing that As Ever had been in the works since 2022. She admitted that she was never fully comfortable with the original name, calling it a “word salad.”
“I had secured As Ever as a name in 2022,” Meghan said. “And then as everything started to evolve last year… I said, ‘I like American Riviera as an umbrella,’ and then have the 'Orchard' really small. But when that’s not feasible… suddenly it became this word salad. I didn’t love that so much.”
The former actress explained that once it became clear that American Riviera Orchard wasn’t working, she returned to the name she had long “protected” and kept “under wraps.” She said she and her team put their “heads down” to quietly build the brand in a way that avoided premature attention.
Meghan also spoke about how valuable the quiet development phase had been, especially after “spending so many years working on something, building it, and the pivots that you had to take with it.”
In February 2025, Meghan officially introduced As Ever via a personal video message. The brand’s first product launch on April 2 was a sellout success, with items disappearing from her website in under an hour.
