Meghan says she has made ‘mistakes’ amid backlash over Netflix lifestyle show and brand As Ever
24 April 2025, 02:44 | Updated: 24 April 2025, 06:37
The Duchess of Sussex admits she has made 'mistakes' when launching three ventures - including her lifestyle show With Love, Meghan.
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The Duchess of Sussex, 43, has launched three ventures in close succession – her Netflix lifestyle series With Love, Meghan, her company As Ever, and more recently, her Lemonada podcast.
Meghan addressed the backlash she faced at the TIME100 Summit in New York City on Wednesday.
She said that due to being occupied with releasing “three products at the same time”, she gave herself “the space and grace to make mistakes” as she “knows she’s not going to get it right” every day.
She continued: “There were three projects that we were launching really at the same time. The past year-and-a-half have been incredibly busy and ambitious.
“Then you see it all come to life and try to give yourself the space and the grace to make mistakes, to know you're not doing it right every day.”
The former royal also admitted she had been concerned her new series would turn into a “reality show” about her life.
“I said, "How are we going to do a cooking show or a crafting show that doesn't feel like a typical stand and stir [show]," which we all remember from back in the day.
“I didn't necessarily want to do that, and I didn't want a reality show.”
Meghan also added that being a mother to her two young children - Archie, five, and Lilibet, three - puts the world into 'perspective'.
“Something that is seemingly so big somehow becomes so microscopic in importance compared to what's happening with my children.”
She also stressed the importance of role models: “[It's important] for young men to be raised with a confidence and sense of self that is going to empower the women around them too.”
The remarks come as the Duchess of Sussex branded American Riviera Orchard, the former name of her lifestyle business, a “word salad”, adding: “I didn’t love that so much.”
Meghan ran into trademark issues when the US Patent and Trademark Office said geographical locations could not be patented, and she eventually renamed her venture As Ever.
In the latest episode of her podcast Confessions Of A Female Founder, Meghan insists it was “really just helpful to have that quiet period” before her As Ever name was unveiled, “when no-one was sniffing around”.
The duchess recorded a conversation with her own hair colourist and “dear friend” Kadi Lee, co-founder of hair wellness brand Highbrow Hippie, which Meghan reportedly invested in last year.
Read more: William and Kate to spend 14th wedding anniversary visiting remote Scottish island
The former Suits actress said: “I had secured As Ever as a name in 2022, and then, as everything started to evolve last year, and bringing in a partner the size that it was, it was just so interesting.
“You remember, I said ‘I like American Riviera as an umbrella’, and then be able to have verticals beneath it.
“And maybe have the Orchard really small. But when that’s not feasible … suddenly it became this word salad. I didn’t love that so much.
“I was like ‘OK, let’s go back to the thing that I’ve always loved. Let’s use the name that I protected for a reason that had sort of been under wraps’.
“And then we were able to focus in the quiet and put our heads down and build on something that no-one was sniffing around to even see about.
“It was really just helpful to have that quiet period.”
Meghan greeted Lee by saying: “Disregard the state of my hair right now. I’m so excited I’m seeing you next week. I should have a baseball cap on.”
The duchess said the pair met in 2020 – the year of Megxit when Meghan and the Duke of Sussex quit the working monarchy for a new life in the US – and told of her attempts to dye her own hair at home during the pandemic.
Meghan said: “It was 2020 – it was very much 2020.”
She added: “My family had just moved to California. We were staying in our friend’s home and, because it was the pandemic, I kept ordering boxed hair dye, and I thought I’m gonna look just like she does on the box.
“And instead it was this very inky, almost Elvira-esque black hair.”
Lee, who was called in at the time to help Meghan with her hair, said: “I remember meeting you guys, and you were so warm and both you and H wrapped us up in these big bear hugs and I was like ‘I don’t even know these people and I’m not a hugger but let’s do it’.”
Reflecting on having to close her hair salon during the pandemic, Lee added: “It felt like such whiplash and it felt like, gosh we cannot get a break, you know?”
Meghan laughed and added: “Oh, I understand.”
