{"id":562975,"date":"2026-03-25T08:53:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T08:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/562975\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T08:53:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T08:53:15","slug":"almost-an-exact-copy-meghan-markles-global-expansion-plan-for-as-ever-raises-eyebrows-as-products-go-head-to-head-with-king-charles-iiis-royal-food-hall-range","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/562975\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Almost an exact copy&#8217;: Meghan Markle&#8217;s global expansion plan for As Ever raises eyebrows as products go head-to-head with King Charles III&#8217;s Royal Food Hall range"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Meghan Markle has been accused of &#8220;copying&#8221; King Charles III as she eyes a major expansion of her lifestyle brand into the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>The 44-year-old Duchess of Sussex, who currently sells her As Ever products online in the United States, has reportedly set her sights on global growth- <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.skynews.com.au\/lifestyle\/celebrity-life\/registered-meghan-markles-shock-australian-takeover-bid-as-she-files-for-12-as-ever-trademarks-ahead-of-controversial-girls-trip\/news-story\/7e0568bc9ca0281711b8e09fe569538a\" data-tgev=\"event119\" data-tgev-container=\"bodylink\" data-tgev-order=\"7e0568bc9ca0281711b8e09fe569538a\" data-tgev-label=\"lifestyle\" data-tgev-metric=\"ev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">with Australia already trademarked<\/a> and several other markets now in play.<\/p>\n<p>According to reporter Paula Froelich, the UK launch is the most eyebrow-raising move of all, as it would place Meghan&#8217;s range in direct competition with her father-in-law&#8217;s established Royal Collection products.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"poster-img\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0529e620d1bbbc0f05382dbbcabf4b77.jpeg\" data-sctrack=\"op-poster-img\" alt=\"Meghan and Harry\u2019s \u2018exhausted\u2019 neighbours give royal couple \u2018cold shoulder\u2019\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, Froelich revealed in her The Scoop Substack that Markle is also targeting Canada, New Zealand and Mexico, following an international trademark search.<\/p>\n<p>But it is the UK expansion that &#8220;raises the eyebrows the most&#8221;, she said, as Meghan&#8217;s fruit spreads and marmalades &#8220;would go up against King Charles&#8217; (actual) jams and marmalades in direct competition&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In fact, Meghan&#8217;s As Ever products are almost an exact copy of what King Charles sells in his &#8216;food hall&#8217; including teas, jams, honey, wines, chocolate, and gin and shortbread cookies,&#8221; Froelich said.<\/p>\n<p>The Royal Collection shop, which operates at several palace locations and ships globally, offers similar products, with all proceeds going to charity.<\/p>\n<p>By contrast, Meghan&#8217;s As Ever range is priced competitively, though with some arguable differences in value.<\/p>\n<p>For example, a Royal Collection strawberry preserve sells for \u00a37.00 (about AUD $13.45), while Meghan&#8217;s jam is priced at USD$12.00 (about AUD $17.00).<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a Buckingham Palace peppermint tea caddy containing 50 teabags is sold for \u00a314.00 (about AUD $26.90), while an As Ever herbal peppermint tea box with just 12 sachets costs USD$14 (about AUD $20).<\/p>\n<p>The reported expansion comes amid the ongoing strained relationship between Meghan and King Charles, following the Sussexes&#8217; decision to step back from royal duties in 2020 and relocate to the United States.<\/p>\n<p>While Prince Harry, 43, held a private meeting with his father in London in September, Meghan has not returned to the UK since September 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Since leaving royal life, <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.skynews.com.au\/lifestyle\/they-want-the-celebrity-lifestyle-prince-harry-and-meghan-markle-slammed-by-exbutler\/news-story\/4add54bd0d8607af0b9132e7f5160e7c\" data-tgev=\"event119\" data-tgev-container=\"bodylink\" data-tgev-order=\"4add54bd0d8607af0b9132e7f5160e7c\" data-tgev-label=\"lifestyle\" data-tgev-metric=\"ev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the couple have funded their lavish Montecito lifestyle through major media deals<\/a>, including their now-ended $100 million Netflix partnership and the proceeds from Harry&#8217;s 2023 memoir Spare.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"poster-img\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2011e195c82db6be49e0e45bb6cdf295.jpeg\" data-sctrack=\"op-poster-img\" alt=\"\u2018Mr and Mrs Grifter\u2019: Prince Harry and Meghan face backlash over \u2018phoney\u2019 Australia tour\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Meghan&#8217;s lifestyle brand has reportedly performed strongly since <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.skynews.com.au\/lifestyle\/celebrity-life\/fed-up-netflix-boss-ted-sarandos-unfollows-meghan-markles-instagram-account-in-telltale-sign-theres-no-coming-back-to-streamer\/news-story\/e3d5218296a7d90fe6ef915a9a275406\" data-tgev=\"event119\" data-tgev-container=\"bodylink\" data-tgev-order=\"e3d5218296a7d90fe6ef915a9a275406\" data-tgev-label=\"lifestyle\" data-tgev-metric=\"ev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">launching alongside her Netflix project in April 2025,<\/a> with products frequently selling out online.<\/p>\n<p>However, questions have been raised about the true scale of its success- particularly after <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.skynews.com.au\/lifestyle\/celebrity-life\/giving-it-away-for-free-netflix-hq-jampacked-with-unsold-products-from-meghan-markles-as-ever-line-insiders-claim\/news-story\/2611fd810a3f2b73072cd114b6d4cc2b\" data-tgev=\"event119\" data-tgev-container=\"bodylink\" data-tgev-order=\"2611fd810a3f2b73072cd114b6d4cc2b\" data-tgev-label=\"lifestyle\" data-tgev-metric=\"ev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Netflix&#8217;s recent decision to pull funding from the brand<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In his book Betrayal, royal author <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.skynews.com.au\/lifestyle\/celebrity-life\/suffocating-selfimportance-sussexes-brutal-war-of-words-with-royal-author-tom-bower-escalates-ahead-of-new-biography\/news-story\/01fc0ff720cd23ef75c431a66c2c56e8\" data-tgev=\"event119\" data-tgev-container=\"bodylink\" data-tgev-order=\"01fc0ff720cd23ef75c431a66c2c56e8\" data-tgev-label=\"lifestyle\" data-tgev-metric=\"ev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tom Bower claimed the numbers surrounding As Ever&#8217;s performance do not stack up.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While no official sales data has been released, Bower said &#8220;profits were assumed to be dire&#8221; despite claims Meghan had sold nearly one million jars of jam and generated &#8220;profits of $30 million&#8221; last year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Few thought that was credible,&#8221; he claimed.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"poster-img\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/d3c51aabfea03976b278a906924135d6.jpeg\" data-sctrack=\"op-poster-img\" alt=\"\u2018They need money\u2019: Meghan Markle slammed for thousand-dollar tickets\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Froelich also questioned whether there is demand for Meghan&#8217;s premium products in markets already saturated with similar- and cheaper- alternatives.<\/p>\n<p>According to Froelich, one Australian said of the brand: &#8220;I can get everything she thinks she wants to sell here at Target. Why would I buy from her?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a source who spends a lot of time in Mexico added: &#8220;I can assure you nobody is putting flower sprinkles on their guacamole in Mexico. And what is she going to wear in a photo shoot? A $600 sombrero?&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meghan Markle has been accused of &#8220;copying&#8221; King Charles III as she eyes a major expansion of her&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[125147,64,63,447,134,33664],"class_list":{"0":"post-562975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-as-ever","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-celebrities","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-meghan-markle"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}