Meghan Markle’s new lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard is not the only business of its kind owned by an A-lister – as Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop and Martha Stewart’s empire are set to be the Duchess’s competition

As the Duchess of Sussex launches her new company American Riviera Orchard and makes a sensational return to social media, she is entering a somewhat crowded field of lifestyle gurus.

Mother of two Meghan, 42, launched the website and Instagram account for her Montecito-based brand after months of speculation about what her new venture could be.

An insider told the Daily Mail that Meghan’s new company will be a “lifestyle and cooking brand” centered around her passions.

It’s a subject Meghan has a lot of experience with, having run lifestyle blog The Tig from 2014 to 2017, when she got engaged to Prince Harry.

The hugely popular website, which the Duchess ran alongside her role in legal drama Suits, documented her travels and featured food and fashion recommendations, plus guest posts from her famous friends.

However, as Meghan prepares to relaunch herself in the lifestyle space, she will be dealing with giants of the movement who are long established in the field and have big names behind them.

How will American Riviera Orchard compare to its rivals? FEMAIL looks at the competition…

Gosh

Speaking to the Independent Last year, Omid Scobie briefly discussed Meghan’s plans to return to the lifestyle, but he stopped short of comparing the duchess’ brand to Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop.

Instead, he said Meghan focused on being “more accessible,” which may be a nod to some of Goop’s high price tags.

The author said, “I’m not intentionally mysterious. I always think about Goop, but when I suggested it to someone with some knowledge, they said, “Oh no, this isn’t about selling products.” So who knows? The next Martha Stewart?’

Founded in 2008 by Paltrow, Goop sells lifestyle and wellness products, has a clothing line and also offers a beauty and skincare range.

The prices aren’t cheap, however, as garments sell for hundreds of dollars each on Goop.

Although Goop appears to have been largely successful in the fifteen years since its launch, it has sparked several controversies.

Shortly after the brand was founded, it agreed to pay $145,000 in civil damages after claiming that its rose quartz and jade “eggs,” made to be placed in the vagina, could have health benefits.

The fine came after a task force investigation found that some of Goop’s health claims were unfounded.

Paltrow also received criticism when she launched a candle called ‘This Smells Like My Vagina’, but the product sold out quite quickly.

Compared to Goop, it looks like Meghan’s lifestyle brand will focus more on food and drink, and may even be more affordable, as Scobie revealed she wants to produce something “accessible” for people.

Martha Stewart

While Scobie resisted comparing Meghan’s brand to Paltrow’s, he instead drew comparisons to Martha Stewart, an American businesswoman whose brand began in 1976 when she founded a catering company.

What followed was a series of cookbooks, cooking shows and products that came together to create her eponymous brand, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

The company is a diversified media and merchandising company and acts as an umbrella for all the businesswoman’s ventures.

Stewart has long been known as a lifestyle guru thanks to her content, which provides people with recipes, DIY and craft tips, and wedding planning advice.

Her website includes a blog with shopping recommendations for kitchenware and clothing.

Stewart’s magazine, Martha Stewart Living, has an editorial team of seven, led by Allie Giordano as Managing Director.

Martha’s lifestyle career started in the kitchen, a place close to Meghan’s heart as someone who used cooking to bond with the survivors of the Grenfell Tower disaster when she was still a working royal.

She has also contributed recipes to charity cookbooks – and last year she shared her lemon tart recipe with The World Central Kitchen Cookbook: Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope.

As the Duchess’s new lifestyle brand takes shape and Scobie suggests Meghan could be ‘the next Martha Stewart’, American Riviera Orchard may be taking notes from its lifestyle rival.

Editorial

90210 actress Tori Spelling is another celebrity who jumped on the lifestyle blogging train in 2011.

In a conversation with Look to the Stars, Tori – who was pregnant with her third child at the time – outlined her plans for the website – which overlaps with many of Martha Stewart’s substantive pillars.

She explained, “The idea for this site came from my desire to share ideas and inspiration to take your everyday life to the next level.

‘From fashion, crafting, home decor, cooking, parenting to relationships, I’ll share ideas, tips, advice and how-to’s on living a more inspired life.’

In addition, Tori also launched a shopping site called InvenTORI – where readers could purchase items she had in her home.

In the first year, Tori documented her fourth pregnancy on the blog, but later mentioned it People that she had glossed over some of the complications she faced when expecting her son Finn.

In 2012, Tori was diagnosed with placenta previa at 20 weeks, a condition in which the placenta covers the cervix and causes internal bleeding.

The star was rushed to hospital where she was treated for ten weeks, followed by four months of bed rest, and was even close to having her pregnancy terminated to save her life.

She explained, “It was hard because blogging is so personal and I’m so open with everyone.

“I’m writing about Stella’s fourth birthday, but no one knows I’m in a hospital bed.”

Although Tori has been at the forefront of celebrity blogs, editTORIal has declined significantly in recent years.

Currently there are no recipes available under ‘cooking’ and the ‘home’, ‘style’ and ‘entertainment’ sections have also been deleted.

Jessica’s world

In addition to her singing and acting, Jessica had made a name for herself on the MTV hit series Newlyweds, which also starred her ex-husband Nick Lachey.

However, Bloomberg calls her the original “influencer” as a result of her wildly popular fashion range in the 1990s, the first celebrity line to earn $1 billion in sales.

Describing how she knew they had a winning formula, Jessica said: ‘People came in a scarf (like she wore in Newlyweds).

“And everyone was definitely wearing the Juicy sweats.”

In 2018, Jessica Simpson made the leap into lifestyle blogging when she added ‘Jessica’s World’ to her website – which hasn’t achieved the same success as her fashion collection.

The star’s posts include highlights from family gatherings and events she attended in her Nashville area.

Like Lauren Conrad before her, the singer also employed a team to write most of the blog’s content, including TV recommendations, gift guides and beauty posts.

Following Martha Stewart’s cooking crown, the star also shared guest posts from food bloggers and has created a store for her readers to browse.

But unlike Martha and Gwyneth’s website, Jessica’s blog is updated on average once a month and the star has made little effort to promote the posts, instead focusing on her clothing range.

Chrissy Teigen

Chrissy Teigen’s cooking brand, which recently expanded to include loungewear, started when the model and mother of four showed off her cooking skills on social media.

From 2015-2016, she also served as a food stylist on Tyra Banks’ daytime show FABLife.

The businesswoman, who is married to John Legend, launched her first Cravings cookbook in 2016, which became a bestseller.

She followed it up a few years later with her second Cravings book, Hungry For More, which also hit the bestseller lists.

That same year, in 2018, she launched her very first line of Cravings cookware, which was stocked at Target.

The partnership lasted three years until 2021, when the store stopped selling Teigen’s products. Both the model and the store said it was a “mutual decision.”

However, the Cravings line still lives on, with Teigen expanding into loungewear and bathrobes in the past year.