Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: Getty Images, As Ever
Meghan Markle’s website lists a lot of tips on how to use her As Ever products, but she may have left out the most important one. Apparently, in addition to using her crêpe mix to whip up a simple after-school snack for the kids and reusing her jam jars as pen holders you can ship a box of As Ever treats to your estranged father-in-law as a way of saying, “sorry about that tell-all Oprah Winfrey interview!”
That’s how the Duchess of Sussex is using her new food products, if you believe the latest royal gossip from Fox News Digital. Royal correspondent Neil Sean told the outlet that Meghan sent King Charles an As Ever sample box, according to a “very well-placed source”:
U.K. royal correspondent Neil Sean claimed to Fox News Digital that, according to “a very well-placed source,” a “sample box of delights from As Ever has been delivered to Clarence House with a note.” Clarence House is the London residence of King Charles III.
Fox News Digital reached out to a spokesperson for Clarence House, as well as Archewell, which represents the offices of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, for comment. The insider’s claim has not been verified.
“An As Ever gift box [was sent], which included the… jams, honey, crêpes mix and various assortments, according to a very well-placed source,” Sean told Fox News Digital. “This was a gifted idea from… the Duchess of Sussex.”
To me, this seems like a weird and passive-aggressive move. It says, “here’s a sample of what I’ve been cooking up with Prince Harry, now that we’re free from the prison that was life as a working royal!” But royal experts cited by Fox News disagreed, casting it as an effort to “rebuild bridges:”
Several royal experts told Fox News Digital that, if true, this would be Meghan’s way of “building bridges with the royal family” following her royal departure with Prince Harry in 2020.
“I understand how she may not feel respected still, but tiny gestures like this are her way of showing compassion for what the king is going through and helping to rebuild bridges between Prince William, Prince Harry and the king,” royal expert Ian Pelham Turner told Fox News Digital.
Honestly, this is all pretty hard to swallow. Sure, at one point Meghan seemed to get along quite well with her father-in-law; then-Prince Charles walked her down the aisle at her 2018 wedding. And their 2021 interview, the Duchess told Winfrey that she went into the British royal institution “naively,” as she “didn’t grow up knowing much about the royal family” and didn’t even Google Harry when they started dating. But surely after all the “Megxit” drama — including a Netflix documentary and Harry’s multiple lawsuits — she’s no longer naive enough to think that raspberry spread and “flower sprinkles” have the power to heal the rift between the royals.
Unfortunately, we may never learn the truth. It seems unlikely that Buckingham Palace will release a statement on the king’s alleged receipt of As Ever samples, and Charles isn’t the type to post a jam unboxing on Instagram.
