Meghan Sussex: PEOPLE Magazine and pantry products

Meghan Sussex’s well-timed cover for PEOPLE Magazine, right as Oscar buzz dies down (barring a slap or a wrong-picture snafu, people seem to move past the Oscars pretty quickly), is also an indicator of her long and fruitful relationship with PEOPLE and the audience she is courting. Obviously, she couldn’t go to Vanity Fair with their recent-ish article, but I had incorrectly guessed Vogue. Too luxury, maybe? Or she wanted to steer clear of Condé Nast.

The piece is billed as a big deal because we are hearing directly from Meghan, and quite extensively, and it’s meant to kickstart an exciting new chapter. If you have even a passing amount of knowledge about Meghan, there is nothing revelatory here. She is a woman, she is a mom, she is a woman who moms. She likes hugs and hosting, she and “H” are wildly in love. She quotes Archie telling her not to “work too hard” which feels like this tweet: 

https://x.com/Cain_Unable/status/946059977050992642?lang=en

The most personal part is it explains the timing of the launch, as their children are getting to preschool/school age, she has simply had more time to devote to a passion project that is now her main gig. This makes all kinds of sense and school age is a time a parent would be able to “re-up” on their career goals. 

But this is where I stand with Meghan: we are constantly trying to pin things to her that are not there! She is not a women’s right activist; she’s more of an advocate for an intangible kind of mild feminism. She isn’t political, she isn’t anti-monarchist, she isn’t any of the things that people have assumed or want her to be. She has stated over and over again, through her actions and her words, that she is completely happy to be beautiful, wealthy and mild-mannered. This is why she was an excellent royal!!!! And now she is free from all their rules and still behaves in a neutral way, but with warmth. She still dresses in neutral clothing and says neutral things. They should have been on their hands and knees, begging to make it work with her! Truly a natural. 

For As Ever, which is standing by its name despite the issue that was raised last month by another brand with the same name, she’s continuing with the idea that this is her being “imperfect” but in the most perfect way. This is where I fall short on Meghan, a 43-year-old woman who has had a lot of life experience. The “I’m just figuring it out” doesn’t work for me, considering they have been out of the royal family for five years. As a couple, they have signed several multi-million dollar deals with massive conglomerates – not one or two but three! Netflix is her partner. As humans, we are all figuring it out. If you are paid millions of dollars to be yourself on TV, then stop pretending you doing the audience a favour just by showing up and FIGURE IT OUT. Figure your name out. Figure your production schedule out. Her fans are patient but you also have to respect them by figuring it out. 

There’s showing your work, which is breaking down the elements that go into a project, then there’s presenting a polished image as messy and telling us that you are showing us. Meghan is using the “openness” sleight of hand, the same way influencers before have conflated access with vulnerability. She is showing us as much as Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian show us. “Gasp, sputter, how dare you!” But in the PEOPLE interview, she doesn’t even deny this: “I see myself as an entrepreneur and a female founder,” she says, “and if the brand ends up influential, then that’s great.” That’s how most influencers would describe themselves. She beams and she chit chats but true to lifestyle as a genre, there are no firm ideas to hold onto. It’s all so airy, like trying to make a meal out of cotton candy. 

To be completely fair to her game, she is showing us some goods. The first line of products (which you can see on the As Ever website) has launched with jams, honey, edible flowers and baking mixes. This is more comprehensive than I had anticipated and the keepsake packaging is a good if obvious, move. There are no prices yet and that will be a whole other story but I have no doubt these will sell out. She could start at $100 jar (she won’t, but she could) and it would sell out. Like the first batch of celebrity brands, these products will be a certain kind of bragging rights on Instagram. I’ll be watching her show over the next couple of days and will be back with more thoughts on the People Magazine’s Princess.