The Duchess of Sussex has been criticised this week for launching the debut product from her new luxury brand while members of the British Royal Family battle cancer.
The 42-year-old released a small run of handmade strawberry jam from her American Riviera Orchard range, with the poor timing being called out as “insensitive”.
The new business venture is believed to be part of Meghan and Prince Harry’s public rebrand after they lost their official Royal titles and some lucrative contracts with Spotify and Netflix.
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But with just 50 jars of the new jam being made and handed out to Meghan’s close friends, Daily Mirror Associate Editor, Russell Myers said maybe the public reaction is “a little unfair”.
“It seems you can’t even make jam in the world without being labelled shameless and a grifter,” he told Today.
“It’s been a pretty tumultuous time for the Royal Family, of course, the King is undergoing treatment for cancer and so is the Princess of Wales, so they’ve been pretty quiet and yet the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are trying to ‘make hay’ from jam, it would seem.”
With a recent appearance at the Polo and a revisited Netflix agreement with two new series planned, it seems to be a wait-and-see situation as to whether Harry and Meghan’s rebrand works out.
But Russell said they still aren’t out of the woods just yet with other scandals that have been plaguing them.
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“Harry’s had court case after court case, he’s facing a $2 million bill for his latest matter and he’s lost the latest round of his UK security row with the British Government, so there’s a lot of pressure on their shoulders,” he said.
“I suppose they’ve had a few years in the wilderness and it hasn’t worked out too well for them on Netflix or Spotify, but maybe some of the jam making will find their fortune – however, I’m not too sure it’s going to be bringing the big bucks anytime soon.”
See what else Russell had to say in the video above