Revealed: Meghan’s REAL money spinner. No, it’s not jam – but something much more lucrative… as the Netflix deal looks to be back on and is key to making the Sussexes millions, write ALISON BOSHOFF and RICHARD EDEN

Her latest ‘drop’ goods, bearing the faux-heraldic ‘ARO’ emblem of her not-quite-launched brand American Riviera Orchard, consisted of just two jars of raspberry jam and a stylish pack of dog biscuits.

In timing that seems thoughtless, Meghan’s close friend Nacho Figueras, who plays polo with Prince Harry, posted an image of his ARO gifts to Instagram last weekend… just as Princess Kate was wowing the cheering crowd at Trooping the Color in her first public appearance since her courageous announcement that she is battling an unspecified cancer.

The jam, sources close to the Duchess say, will be made from fruit grown in the gardens of the Montecito home she shares with Prince Harry and their children Archie and Lilibet.

Only two pots? Maybe it wasn’t a great harvest.

But regardless of their raspberry harvest, plans are well underway for Meghan’s ‘lifestyle brand’, which will be inspired by the couple’s enviable life in their £10million mansion on the Californian coast.

The center of the new brand will of course be Meghan herself. According to a source with intimate knowledge of the launch, it will sell Meghan as a beacon of inspiration, ambition and feasibility.

Her style will be marketed as affordable and elegant, while her image will be centered on her status as both a family-oriented and a ‘royal’ figure – no laughing in the back, please.

Customers will be urged to embrace their innate elegance and ‘take the everyday to the next level’.

However, we can reveal that the much-discussed jams will not be the first out of the trap as a money spinner for Meghan Inc. They do indeed seem to be some kind of diversionary maneuver.

On the contrary, a source tells us that the priority is instead to launch a… rosé wine.

It makes infinite commercial sense that Meghan’s first product is a wine. She’s following a well-trodden path, as many other celebrities have their own wine ranges, from Cameron Diaz to George Clooney, Kylie Minogue, Francis Ford Coppola and Brad Pitt. As a product, wines are much more ambitiously marketable – not to mention financially lucrative – than simple jam.

Take perhaps the most famous celebrity wine, the Armand de Brignac Champagne, which was owned by rapper Jay-Z until he sold a 50 percent stake to LVMH’s wine and spirits division Moët Hennessy for a reported $300 million. Bottles of champagne – also known as Ace of Spades – can sell for around $800 each, thanks to a strictly limited production run that guarantees its exclusivity.

Meanwhile, Brad Pitt’s critically acclaimed Miraval rosé is flying off supermarket shelves more widely at around £25 a bottle, even without Angelina’s help, while Sting’s organic Tuscan red wine, made from grapes from his own vineyard, is also selling well for about £30..

Even Idris Elba has his Porte Noir champagne, which is on the shelves at Harvey Nichols for £85 a bottle.

Another role model could certainly be Sarah Jessica Parker, whose New Zealand wine range ‘Invivo X SJP’ is big in the US. SJP is not only a shareholder, but has also been involved in the label design on the bottles and blending the vintages to its taste.

Meghan, once a businesswoman, has clearly seen a solid financial prospect in this, her latest potential cash cow.

Regardless of the end result, rosé has long been Meghan’s favorite daily drink, much more so than the chic Italian red Tignanello, after which she named her previous lifestyle website The Tig.

Like a good Cali influencer, she loves a glass of the pink stuff, and is also a fan of every Instagrammer’s favorite drink, a ‘frosé’, which is made by freezing rose wine and turning it into a slushie with strawberries and some icing sugar, for extra sweetness.

Rosé also has emotional connotations – in 2016, during their first dates at London’s Soho House, she and Harry reportedly drank several glasses of it.

It wasn’t just any pink plonk, though: they would have sipped Lady A, the rosé created for Soho House director Markus Anderson and who named the private members’ club after Anderson’s nickname.

The handsome, sophisticated Anderson is one of Meghan’s closest and oldest friends. Not only did he have all the right seats at her wedding, he was also given the confidence to organize her small and super private hen party at Soho Farmhouse.

His bottle of rosé features an image of a Damien Hirst butterfly and was created by the gigantic Chateau de la Coste in France.

Would they make Meghan’s rosé? Well, no one at that company confirmed or denied it this week, and a spokesperson for the Duchess did not return requests for comment on anything related to the American Riviera Orchard.

Complementing the reported wine launch, other products in the first wave of releases are expected to include drink and serveware, barware and other products related to hosting and entertainment. We can expect items in a classic, but expensive style.

Fortunately for Meghan, the launch of her lifestyle brand – which she has been planning for at least 18 months – has now also boosted her relationship with streaming giant Netflix, which has been in the doldrums following the initial success of their Harry & Meghan film . documentary from 2022.

By the time of Harry’s documentary Heart Of Invictus in August 2023, sources were calling the ‘$100 million deal’ with Netflix a ‘dead duck’ due to the couple’s lack of output and apparent lack of ideas.

However, the Sussexes were undeterred and had Netflix buy them the rights to a romance novel, Meet Me At The Lake, in August last year. However, there’s no sign yet of a script or anything else going into production.

Other possible film shooting ideas are said to be in “early, early stages,” according to director Bela Bajaria, who is tasked with making the association work.

Harry managed to spend a few days filming a polo documentary earlier this year. It’s hard to see this turning out to be a blockbuster.

It was expected that the deal would expire softly and not be extended. Netflix would have been happy with that as a reasonable return on the roughly $50 million they would have paid out.

But that was before Meghan’s lifestyle brand wheeze.

Sources say Netflix was not initially involved in Meghan’s plans to launch American Riviera Orchard, but now certainly is – after she was asked by the Duchess to get involved in the production of a cooking show.

The prospect of this has delighted the streaming service. Simply put, Netflix has now boosted Meghan’s plans, which she announced in April in an artfully filmed social media video, and will now focus entirely on the US Riviera Orchard business, taking over all executive roles, deals connects with wholesalers, designers, growers and retailers.

Meghan’s lawyer has now applied to register the American Riviera Orchard brand in the US for several goods, including cutlery, recipe books, tablecloths, napkins, jams, edible oils, plant-based spreads and dairy-based spreads. All applications are still being processed.

It seems Meghan’s future commercial path is clear. Now that Netflix is ​​believed to be on board, both sides seem to be thinking: forget TV: a lifestyle brand could be where the real money lies. The fact is that Netflix already sells hundreds of items – everything from Bridgerton china sold at Primark to Bridgerton tea sets sold at Liberty of London.

There’s a Love Is Blind brand wine after the reality dating show, and Stranger Things lines including pizzas and ice cream.

Netflix says it is the brand of choice for Generation Alpha (i.e. those 14 and under) and its influence is undoubtedly enormous. Executives point out that Netflix was the top streamer in 49 of the 52 weeks in 2023.

And there’s little doubt that Meghan would use a TV cooking show as a showcase for her brand.

The rewards can be enormous: just look at the riches Gwyneth Paltrow has enjoyed thanks to Goop, or Reese Witherspoon’s TV production company Hello Sunshine.

Sources confirm that Meghan began filming in April at a Montecito mansion that she does not own.

That is not without precedent. Some chefs, like Jamie Oliver and formerly Delia Smith, film at home. But others, like Nigella Lawson during the Charles Saatchi years, don’t appreciate the intrusion or the disruption, and may not want to satisfy the most curious viewers with a peek into their kitchen drawer. Lawson famously pretended to host dinner parties with actors in her ‘kitchen’ and ‘garden’, which were actually created in a TV studio in West London.

What can we expect from the performance? Netflix would not comment at all, but it appears it will follow the so-called ‘chop and chat’ format, where the Duchess hosts her friends and conducts bright and breezy interviews while they make dinner together.

Expect some of Meghan’s eternally supportive friends to make an appearance, perhaps tennis player Serena Williams or actress Abigail Spencer. No word on whether good friend and feminist Gloria Steinem will decide to navigate the ideological complexities of plugging into a career that starts in the kitchen. It will certainly be fascinating if she does.

The Duchess has postponed recording interviews for a new series of her Archetypes podcast on the Lemonada platform until next year to avoid a clash, which could provide a clue to the timing.

In due time, we should be able to purchase bedding, pillows, soaps, home decor, fragrances, cookbooks and cookie mixes from American Riviera Orchard. If there’s enough demand, it looks like there will eventually be some sort of physical store, as her trademark application also appears to extend to a space where things can be sold.

Will the world buy what it sells? Naturally. Who would bet against the determined Duchess – and the mighty Netflix?