Meghan Markle acknowledged that “people started taking it very personally” after she numbered the samples of jam she sent to A-list friends.

The Duchess of Sussex discussed the soft launch of her lifestyle brand with Mindy Kaling in the second episode of her cooking show, With Love, Meghan.

Meghan sent jars of jam to her celebrity friends, including Kaling, with labels numbered from one to 50.

“When I received that in the mailbox of your preserves, it was probably one of the most glamorous moments of my life,” Kaling said. “But then I looked at the label and it said there were, like, 50.

“And then I of course as a very hierarchical person was like who are these other 50? Does having a lower number make me more special?”

“I did not think about it?” Meghan replied. “So it wasn’t ranked?” Kaling said. “It was not a ranking? Just a random?”

“It was not a ranking,” Meghan said. “Just a let me share them… people started to take it very personally.”

“People like me,” Kaling replied. “I straight up went on and went to look at who the other people are and what numbers they have.”

Meghan also revealed who got jar number one: “I did save one of 50 for my mom…. felt like the right thing to do.

“And then I just thought anyone who got one of those 50 jars that I was making on my stove in my actual kitchen in my house felt like, ‘well, I want to share this with you.'”

When Meghan first launched her lifestyle brand it was called American Riviera Orchard, but she announced last month that she was renaming it As Ever.

The move came after hit copyright snags and she told followers on her Instagram account it would have limited her to produce from Santa Barbara, sometimes referred to as the American Riviera.

As Ever now has its own website, but no produce is yet on sale, with the full store expected to go live in the spring.

“Cat’s out of the bag, I’m shocked we’ve kept this a secret for so long,” Meghan said in her Instagram video relaunching the brand.

“‘As Ever’ means ‘as it’s always been’ or some even say ‘in the same way as always.'”

Williams Brown is chief royal correspondent for Regalrumination.com, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly , at and read his stories on Regalrumination.com’s .

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