'I Smell Another Flop': Meghan Markle Ridiculed for Adding Rosé Wine to Luxury Brand American Riviera Orchard

Meghan Markle is expected to be the next celebrity to launch her own alcohol brand, as reports claim the Duchess of Sussex created a rosé for America Riviera Orchard.

"Imagine going from having one of the largest & most influential platforms handed to you, where you could do an incredible amount of good..to selling cheap wine as a cash grab. Going from HRH to WTF," one critic wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"Also, it spells out in the article how bloated the celebrity rose wine market already is and it's filled with more notable, marketable, trusted names than Meghan Markle," another penned. "It'll be a shocker if she could actually give Brad Pitt's rosé wine a run for its money. I smell another flop."

OK! previously reported the former actress, who returned to Instagram in March, sent jars of jam to celebrities such as Chrissy Teigen and Kris Jenner to promote her company. However, during Trooping the Colour, close friend Nacho Figueras posted a snapshot of the product to Instagram.

Figueras' photo led to criticism, as Kate Middleton fans thought the duchess attempted to distract from the princess' return to the spotlight.

"While I am sure the gift packages came with notes requesting social media coverage, you can’t tell Nacho Figueras what to do, so I think it’s certain the timing of his post was his own idea," a source told an outlet. "The larger point here is that the American Riviera Orchard campaign has been phenomenally successful and cost Meghan nothing."

"It is a textbook social media campaign. The only problem is that there still seems to be nothing actually for sale, so what is it all for? I guess we will find out," they added.

Although American Riviera Orchard's website went live in March, the brand has yet to retail products, and biographer Angela Levin suggested the former actress is struggling to adjust to running her own business.

"She is very upset about what is happening with this American Orchard Rivera, [and] she is not happy about how it has been received. The jam was a bit of a laughing stock, she sent it off to about fifty friends and only a few replied," Levin told GB News.

"Everyone said that she is in a jam. It is not moving forward. She has had a lot of trouble finding a CEO to run it for her and she is having a lot of trouble finding a chef. Some of them have gone along to see how it is but they say she is so meticulous about everything," she continued. “She's so demanding and they don't really want that. These are chefs who have good jobs, and they're not people who are learning."

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According to Levin, the company is at a standstill.

"So it's a bit of a stalemate, but she has got 150 things on her link, and she's applied for a global patent," Levin explained. "Some of the things [she will be selling] are fabric gift wraps, cocktail napkins, meditation maps, pillows for household pets, a whole range of things from A to Z."

"We'll have to see how she gets on. I think she's she's finding it much more difficult than she thought," she shared. "I think she thought she would sail in and everybody would think it was wonderful, which I think she does a lot about herself. But actually it's jolly hard work."

GB News reported on Meghan's wine.