Meghan Markle's latest commercial venture has shattered any lingering doubt that she lives in a parallel universe detached from the realities facing ordinary households, according to an opinion piece by Emily Wright. The Duchess of Sussex has launched a new advent calendar under her As Ever brand, priced at £112 for a box of 24 chocolates.
The luxury calendar, inspired by the garden of her £11 million Montecito mansion and crafted in partnership with a boutique Los Angeles chocolatier, comes to an eye-watering £4.66 per chocolate. To market the indulgence, Meghan shared an Instagram video of herself driving around in a golf buggy, beaming as if a £112 box of sweets is the most natural household expense during a global cost-of-living squeeze.
A growing pattern of tone-deaf ventures
This is not an isolated lapse in judgment but part of a growing, tone-deaf pattern. Earlier this year, Meghan hosted a luxury "women's wellness retreat" in Australia, where attendees were asked to pay up to $3,000 AUD (around £1,400) - with standard tier tickets requiring guests to share a hotel room with a complete stranger - just to hear her deliver a keynote address on "connection" and "uplifting women".
While British families weigh up heating bills and ordinary workers stretch their paycheques, the Duchess continues to position herself as a champion of everyday people while attaching royal prestige to outrageously priced products and events.
Hypocrisy and detachment
The hypocrisy is staggering, the article argues. The public is endlessly told the Sussexes want to be grounded and relatable, yet every new venture tells the exact same story - slapping an eye-watering price tag on basic luxury and dressing it up with soft-focus buzzwords like "sweetening each day".
If this is her idea of connecting with everyday people, the piece concludes, it is an absolute joke. A £112 box of Montecito-inspired chocolates does not prove Meghan's commercial genius - it simply highlights how far removed she remains from the real world. Extraordinary? Perhaps. Surprising? Not anymore.
