Meghan Markle has admitted to feeling ‘very lonely’ after stories of her ‘professional separation’ from Prince Harry.
Over the previous six months, the Duchess of Sussex has worked on a number of business ventures, including her Netflix series With Love, Meghan, her lifestyle company As Ever, and her podcast Confessions of a Female Entrepreneur.
While Meghan and Harry have a common Netflix docu-series and the nonprofit organization Archewell, reports surfaced in late 2024 that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were entering into a ‘professional separation’.
According to GB News, the couple is creating their own ‘royal’ domestic structure as they officially divide their professional lives. This includes their own chief of staff.
According to reports, Miranda Barbot, a seasoned political and media consultant who helped re-elect former President Barack Obama in 2012, would work completely for Harry, while Sarah Fosmo, a former aide to Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, will back Meghan.
This does not imply that they are truly separating; rather, the couple will focus on their separate initiatives rather than embarking on them together.
Now, Meghan has spoken out about how running a business can be ‘incredibly lonely’.
“When you only have yourself to answer to, I think it’s two-fold,” Meghan said on this week’s episode of her podcast.
“It can be incredibly liberating and it can be incredibly lonely.”
Meghan also added that while she had initially planned to launch her lifestyle brand ‘by herself’ she changed her mind, explaining: “I… took a complete U-turn because I really believe in what Netflix and their CPG [consumer packaged goods] department are doing.”
Later in the episode, Meghan discussed how she changed the name of her brand from American Rivera Orchard to As Ever.
“It’s no different than… if you have an idea of what you’re gonna name that baby, you keep it so close to your heart until that baby is here and it’s named,” she said.
“Don’t ask anyone’s opinion!” she added, referring to choosing a business name. “It becomes like Survey Monkey at the beginning of a business.”
Speaking of names, the Duchess of Sussex, who has two children with Prince Harry: Archie, six, and Lilibet, three, recently discussed the personal significance of the family’s surname.
In an episode of her Netflix lifestyle series With Love, Meghan, she told her pal Mindy Kaling more about her surname.
“I don’t think anyone in the world knows that Meghan Markle has eaten Jack In The Box and loves it,” Mindy said in response to an admission Meghan made about eating the takeout food.
Meghan pointed out that she found it ‘funny’ that Mindy called her ‘Meghan Markle’.
“It’s so funny you keep saying Meghan Markle, you know I’m Sussex now,” she explained. “You have kids and you go ‘No, I share my name with my children’.
“I didn’t know how meaningful it would be to me but it just means so much to go ‘This is OUR family name. Our little family name’.”
In response, Mindy said: “Well, now I know and I love it.”
