Surprising amount Meghan Markle is making from her business

Daniela Elser

We know this thanks to a new report that claims to have cracked the Rosetta stone that is just how much the duchess’ As Ever lifestyle range is making. Ever since it launched in April 2025, a sunlit Californian fantasy of crisp white linen and serenely hand-curated lemons, the company has never released sales figures. Many have wondered: is Meghan shifting her jams by forklifted pallet or by single, solitary jar?

Love royal news? Download our new app for more coverage

Now we have some indication, thanks to the sleuthing of the Daily Mail’s Alison Boshoff who has reported that the Duchess of Sussex has sold more than 1000 units of her $212 advent calendar stuffed with goodies from Los Angeles chocolatier Compartes.

Boshoff has reported on her Substack that, in the last month, Meghan has shifted more than 300 jars of flower sprinkles, a combined $6300; more than 700 jars of honey, bringing in at least $31,000; more than 2500 jars of jam, worth at least $43,000; and more than 375 candles, at upwards of $34,000.

Based on these figures, per Boshoff, As Ever sales would total $1.7 million-a-year.

(As Ever uses Shopify for fulfilment and Boshoff has said she was able to see these figures via the Shop app).

Boshoff went to Shopify analysts at Winning Hunter which said that, based on As Ever website views and other metrics, their estimate was that As Ever was bringing in between $1.1 and $1.9 million a year.

However, a friend of the Sussexes told her that the Shop data “is incomplete and doesn’t give a true picture.”

For now though, let’s consider that estimate of $1.7 million. Now, my knowledge of the jam business is nothing more than a forgotten jar of Bonne Maman raspberry somewhere up the back of my fridge, so I don’t exactly feel qualified to wildly speculate on the margins of the spreadable market. Boshoff figures a 50 per cent margin, meaning that Meghan would be banking about $850,000 annually.

Yes, that is a far sight more than most people earn chained to a keyboard and perma-slaves to the tyranny of Microsoft Teams, but then the Sussexes’ expenses go far beyond a median mortgage and occasional family trip to the Goldie. Again, estimates vary but sit somewhere between $4 and $6 million annually, and which includes the repayments on their $20 million Montecito home and their multimillion-dollar annual security bill.

Based on As Ever sales alone here, the maths is not quite mathing.

But maybe we are worrying for nothing. In January, one As Ever shopper accidentally tried to order a six-figure quantity of an item, only to be shown, thanks to a website glitch, the number of units left in stock. Given that sources close to the duchess’ business suggested to The Timesthat ­the original purchase order of one million units, then, subtracting the remaining stock threw up something extraordinary: In less than a year, Meghan had sold 862,535 jars of her jam, generating more than $50 million in sales.

So perhaps, no matter the figures now, Jam Inc has already laid a nice fat golden egg that is earning compound interest.

None of this though, answers the greater existential question for Meghan and that nice husband of hers manfully making himself a spirulina smoothie, Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, which is, how will they earn money going forward?

By which I mean, the seven figure pay-the-bodyguards money or the money they will need for the $19 million British home that, according to Boshoff, they are now searching for. (Their simple requirements: A minimum of nine bedrooms and lots of land.)

A fresh blow for the Sussexes’ TV dreams came in recent days with the ousting of Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria who was, a source told The Times, “their biggest champion”. The big names that Bajaria had signed up, such as the Sussexes, “will face new scrutiny and reviews”.

Unfortunately, so far the duke and duchess have not covered themselves in streaming glory, their only ridgy-dig hit their 2022 series Harry & Meghan, in which they did more damage to Buckingham Palace than the Luftwaffe ever managed in years of dropping bombs on the regal back lawn.

Harry is currently at work on a documentary about his mother Diana, Princess of Wales, to mark the 30th anniversary of her death next year and without any need to resort to scrying crystals, I can tell you it will likely be a global hit.

But man cannot pay his mortgages forevermore on one-offs alone and after this Diana doco, what does he have left to sell? It feels a bit like some titled grandee slowly selling off great-great-grandpapa’s Reubenes one-by-one to pay the school fees.

Nor have podcasts proven to be the Sussexes’ milieu, with Meghan doing two separate series that never went any further and Spotify having parted ways with them in 2023.

Of books, well Spare clearly sold like the proverbial but if the Duke of Sussex decided to do some more gut-spilling then would see the door slam firmly shut on any chance of him making up with daddy dearest King Charles, which is reportedly one of the reasons the Sussexes moved back to the UK.

Same goes for a Meghan tell-all, which would surely earn her tens of millions of dollars, at least, but would also be the death knell of her ever being allowed to cross the threshold of Sandringham ever again.

At least the duchess has her acting career. In August, news.com.au’s Bronte Coy exclusively reported that Meghan had been offered an acting role in a major production, with the duchess later being linked to Netflix’s The Gentlemen. That role never came to pass and we’re not sure what’s next for Meghan’s reported small screen comeback.

The duchess is now reading TV scripts across a range of platforms and for films but has become “very cautious” in case her potential involvement is leaked, a friend told The Telegraph.

“Everyone knows that whatever Meghan’s first film or show turns out to be, it’s going to attract huge interest. The prospect of seeing her return to acting will drive big audiences, and ultimately, someone – whether it’s Netflix, Amazon or another studio – is going to make a lot of money from it.”

(Interestingly, given the musical chairs at Netflix, Amazon has just signed on as the big money sponsor of next year’s Invictus Games.)

Seemingly the Sussexes are open to other commercial opportunities too. This month the online learning platform MasterClass released a class with Harry and American neuroscientist Dr Mary-Frances O’Connor called Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss. Harry was reportedly paid $143,000 and will also receive 30 per cent of any subscription revenue generated.

There are no end of other ways the duke could monetise his unique skills similarly, like man necklace repair (after your older bro shoved you onto a dog bowl), stepmother avoidance (if she’s on her third shiraz and she is tetchily waiting for her favourite mare to foal) and creative ways to hit redial (when your Pa’s private secretary is blocking your calls).

In the meantime, there have been reports that As Ever is set to expand to the UK but that might not exactly equate to vastly more zeros being added to spreadsheets given how divisively the Duchess of Sussex is viewed there. Is Britain ready to be decorated with thoughtfully strewn flower sprinkles? I can think of one Queen and her Jack Russells for whom it will be a very firm no.

Daniela Elser is an editor and commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with Australia’s leading media titles.