There are few things funnier than “the Mail throwing a tantrum over the Duchess of Sussex doing something that everyone else does.” Meghan wore pants – cue hysteria. Meghan cradled her baby bump – contact the authorities. Meghan wore a red dress – let’s write scathing, faux-scandalized stories about it for a month. Meghan ate avocado toast – she’s fueling genocide! Well, the current tantrum is about Meghan’s successful business, As Ever. If you can believe it, Meghan hasn’t personally informed the Mail about any part of her jam production. Even worse, the crack team of investigative journalists they sent to California are getting nowhere when they barrage jam-manufacturers with questions about Meghan!
It is unquestionably the Duchess of Sussex’s most famous product, and the one she lovingly refers to on her As Ever website as ‘where it all began’. Yet, three months on from the public launch of her in-demand raspberry spread, mystery still surrounds the provenance of the £6.50-a-jar product. There is no indication on the label of the pricey jar – not, technically, a jam because of its high fruit content – as to where it is actually made. Indeed, one expert has gone so far as to describe it as ‘purposefully vague’.
Such is the deepening mystery around it that, over several months, The Mail on Sunday spoke to scores of jam manufacturers, fruit growers and packaging companies in a bid to track down its origins. Some were close to the £14.5 million Montecito mansion Meghan shares with Prince Harry and their children, Archie and Lilibet. Others were thousands of miles away on the opposite coast of the US. Intriguingly, despite global publicity and an almost obsessive interest in the spread from Meghan’s fans, the trail went cold.
No one in the industry could shed any light on where the spread comes from – from the berries it contains all the way to its production sites. It leads to an almost inevitable question: What is Meghan trying to hide?
The Duchess has gone to great lengths to portray the preserve as an artisanal product, with her As Ever website claiming it is ‘inspired by the recipe Meghan crafted in her home kitchen’.
There was an enchanting video posted to her Instagram Stories showing a bubbling pot of the jam and featuring four-year-old Lilibet. Meghan is heard asking, ‘What do you think, Lili?’ to which the adorable toddler responds, ‘I think it’s beautiful.’The one thing that seems certain is that it isn’t Meghan producing the vats of product necessary to serve her customers. The sheer numbers alone means no one woman could. So why the secrecy? Might the ‘organic’ range have a rather high carbon footprint?
As one professor of sustainability told us: ‘It’s possible the berries are picked in one place, trucked to a jam factory miles away. Then put on another truck and sent to a shipment centre. That’s a large carbon footprint for each tiny jar.’
LOL, “What is Meghan trying to hide?” These people are equal parts stupid and disgusting. Obviously, the Mail contacted berry-farmers and went so far as to suggest that undocumented immigrants are picking berries for As Ever jam. At no point does the Mail acknowledge that their stalking of Meghan is a huge reason why there are scant details about the production – as soon as the Mail finds out any part of the supply/production line, they’ll print that information AND begin a harassment campaign against everyone involved. It reminds me of the Mail sending a reporter to stake out As Ever’s mailing address. Remember that?
Meanwhile, the Mail did discover the vineyard supplying As Ever’s rosé. They ran an exclusive about it – it’s the Fairwinds Estate, which makes “bespoke wines for celebrities.” She apparently chose Fairwinds to support California businesses after so many devastating wildfires and natural disasters.
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Photos courtesy of As Ever’s IG and screengrab from the Aspire pod.
