Meghan Markle’s Charm Offensive for TV Power Couple

Meghan Markle deployed a Hollywood charm offensive this week, by way of her recently launched lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard.

Tracy Robbins, wife of Paramount Studios president and CEO, Brian Robbins, uploaded a post to Instagram on Monday proudly displaying a jar of American Riviera Orchard strawberry jam.

Bearing the enterprise’s luxury-effect branding—which includes the American Riviera Orchard name in Meghan’s stylistic cursive handwriting—Robbins’ photograph of the jar (labeled 17 of 50) showed it nestled in a wooden bowl filled with lemons.

“Thank you for the delicious basket,” Robbins wrote. “I absolutely love this jam so not sure I’m sharing it with anyone :).” She ended by adding “Thank you M!” presumably being a nod to Meghan herself.

Newsweek approached representatives of Meghan Markle via email for comment.

The Robbins’ links with Harry and Meghan are not widely known. However, the couples were photographed together for the first time back in January where they attended the premiere of the biopic Bob Marley: One Love in Kingston, Jamaica.

This sparked speculation that the duke and duchess, who transitioned from working royals to Hollywood industrialists and philanthropists back in 2020, could form a working relationship with Brian Robbins at Paramount.

The jam offering could be a sign of the couples’ strengthening bond, with the personal touch clearly being a hit with the movie and TV industrialist’s wife.

In 2020, Harry and Meghan signed a multimillion-dollar content creation deal with Netflix and have so far released three docuseries projects through them, with two more announced just this month. Paramount+, the streaming arm of the Paramount brand, is one of Netflix’s main competitors.

Since Harry and Meghan’s move to the U.S. where they settled in the exclusive Santa Barbara enclave of Montecito, they have made a series of high-powered social connections. These include neighbors Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey, to feminist activist Gloria Steinem and former tennis pro Serena Williams.

While the full list of the 50 recipients of Meghan’s jam jars hasn’t been revealed, the whereabouts of at least one other have been identified on social media.

Meghan’s close friend Delfina Blaquier, the Argentinian wife of Harry’s polo-playing pal, Nacho Figueras, also posted a photograph of the American Riviera Orchard jam to her Instagram story.

“Strawberry jam makes me happy… And I [heart emoji] your jam @americanrivieraorchard,” Blaquier captioned her photograph. She uploaded a second image showing the jam (numbered 10 out of 50) spread on a piece of toast with its linen cover embroidered with the brand’s logo placed to one side.

So far, details about the American Riviera Brand are sparse. The duchess launched a new website with a single holding page and an Instagram account with an abstract 16-second trailer on March 14. The video showed a figure appearing to be Meghan posing in a kitchen and hallway wearing a ballgown.

What little has been learned about the brand and its potential product lines has come from trademark filings. These have protected the name for sale against a range of commercial offerings, such as stationery, tableware, gardening accessories, jams, jellies, pet food and nut butters.

The exclusive run of 50 jars of jam revealed by Tracy Robbins and Delfina Blaquier is the first glimpse of any real product connected with the brand. Their dissemination to high-powered and close friends and connections is a surefire way to boost the enterprise while staying true to Meghan’s signature personal touch.

Meghan is not the first royal to hand out homemade preserves as gifts. Back in 2016, the duchess’ sister-in-law, Princess Kate, said that she had given Queen Elizabeth II a jar of homemade chutney as a Christmas gift.

“I was thinking, ‘Gosh, what do I give her?’ And I thought back to perhaps what would I give my own grandparents and I thought I’d make her something—which could have gone horribly wrong,” Kate said.

“But I decided to make some of my granny’s recipe for chutney, and was slightly worried about it, but I noticed the next day that it was on the table.”

Neither is Meghan the first royal to commercialize preserves. In the 1990s, when still the Prince of Wales, King Charles III launched the Duchy Originals brand. It has gone through a number of variations over the years and today offers more than 300 products, including jams, under its label. The profits from the venture go towards the work of the King Charles III Charitable Fund.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek‘s royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.

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