Meghan Markle unveils new brand American Riviera Orchard

By Pol Allingham, PA

Meghan Markle has launched a new business venture with an Instagram teaser.

A vintage-style video of Meghan cooking and arranging white hydrangeas and roses was posted to the new American Riviera Orchard Instagram account on Thursday.

The brief video is set to Nancy Wilson’s I Wish You Love and closes with the brand’s logo, American Riviera Orchard, written in fine gold script above the word Montecito – a celebrity enclave near Santa Barbara in California where Meghan and Britain's Prince Harry live.

Little information has been released about American Riviera Orchard but a trademark application filed on February 2 this year shows the company wishes to offer downloadable and printed recipe books, table wear, textiles, and jams and marmalades, according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office website.

The account had 100,000 followers just three hours after its first post.

The launch comes as the Prince and Princess of Wales face intense scrutiny, after Kate publicly apologised and confessed to digitally editing a family portrait taken by William and released by Kensington Palace to mark Mother’s Day.

Meghan has not run an Instagram account since the Sussexes stepped back from royal life four years ago.

Previously, they ran a joint account @sussexroyal but announced they would stop posting in March 2020.