Meghan Markle insiders defend As Ever’s growth despite revealing traffic figures

Netflix withdrew its equity stake in As Ever this March

Meghan Markle’s lifestyle venture, As Ever, has drawn fewer than 400,000 American visitors to its website since the start of the year, fresh data has revealed.

This figure falls short of the 650,000-plus product units exposed by a technical glitch on the site earlier this year.

The Duchess of Sussex established the brand in 2025, promoting it alongside her Netflix programme With Love, Meghan, which will not return for a third series.

Actual sales figures remain unpublished, creating a divide between fans who insist her merchandise is performing well and detractors who claim stock sits unsold.

Meghan Markle insiders have defended As Ever’s growth despite revealing traffic figures

 | GETTY

Analysis from digital intelligence platform Similarweb puts the precise American visitor count at 392,114 between January and May, while total global traffic exceeded one million.

The inventory figures came to light after online investigators discovered a flaw in the website’s design that imposed no cap on basket quantities.

When users attempted to add vast numbers of products, the site automatically reduced orders to match available stock levels, inadvertently revealing precise inventory data.

This information surfaced on Reddit on January 3, 2026, with the total stockpile valued at approximately $21.8million (£16.3million) based on retail prices rather than production costs.

A collection of fruit spreads that can be purchased from Meghan Markle’s As Ever brand | AS EVER

Among the most substantial holdings were nearly 90,000 candles worth roughly $5.7million (£4.2million) and 80,000 containers of edible flower sprinkles valued at around $1.2million (£899,000).

Her raspberry jam had sold out at that point, indicating some products were indeed moving, though considerable quantities of other lines remained in storage.

The streaming giant withdrew its equity stake in As Ever this March, ending its investment after approximately 12 months.

This departure followed a difficult period for the accompanying television series, with the second season and a December 2025 festive special both failing to rank among the top 1,000 most-watched programmes during the latter half of last year.

Since stepping back as a working royal, Meghan has focued on her lifestyle brand | INSTAGRAM/@MEGHAN

The initial season had attracted harsh reviews from critics, including those in America.

Despite these setbacks, a source with knowledge of As Ever defended the venture’s trajectory, telling Newsweek they expected it would “double in size this year. By any measure, for any startup, you can’t deny that is anything but a success. People are obsessed with wanting her to fail.

“The commentariat are clouded by their own prejudice and a need to perpetuate a narrative that her business is a failure, because they pegged her that way from the start and they can’t take being wrong.”

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle met in 2016 and now live in the US | GETTYThe couple have faced mounting pressure since early 2023 to demonstrate their appeal to American audiences, following a decline in their stateside popularity after the release of their Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan and Prince Harry’s memoir Spare.

Their split from Spotify the following year intensified questions about whether their commercial ventures outside royal life could prove viable.

Meghan’s shift towards lifestyle content began in 2024 with the preliminary launch of American Riviera Orchard, which involved distributing jam samples to celebrity acquaintances who subsequently shared them on social media.

CRE:  https://www.gbnews.com/royal/meghan-markle-news-as-ever-traffic-figures