Middletons at Ascot; Meghan's Podcast Interview with Emma Grede + Launch Day 2.0 for As Ever

On Wednesday, The Princess of Wales was scheduled to attend Ascot, but about an hour after Ascot published the carriage list—which included Kate—Kensington Palace issued a statement that the Princess would not make the event. I got a push notification from the Telegraph, which highlights why—when possible—Kate does not announce her engagements in advance.

Carole Middleton and her daughter-in-law Alizée did appear at Ascot, though, both looking fantastic. If you are a longtime fan, you will recognize Carole’s Jane Corbett hat, which she has worn to Royal Ascot before.

Both Carole and Alizée were pictured mingling with the royals and friends and having a wonderful time.

Someone on Instagram asked if I am worried about Kate, and I don’t feel there is a lot of cause for concern just from this. She is in the first year after completing chemo, and I am not surprised that after her very busy Saturday and Monday (and probably a busy Father’s Day), she needed a break. Chemo is a lot to recover from in itself.

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But today, we are talking briefly about Meghan. The Duchess of Sussex has gone on another podcast in the run-up to her restock (which she is, interestingly, billing as a seasonal drop). This one is making lots of headlines, so I am going to listen to the full episode. When I started it—only ten minutes in—my head was spinning.

Emma Grede—the podcast’s host—asks Meghan if she has any entrepreneurs in her family, and Meghan explains that her grandfather owned an antique store. She was “always” and then she corrected to “oftentimes” at his store after school watching him run the business and being imbued, I guess, with the entrepreneurial spirit. What? Has anyone ever heard of this antique-store-owning grandfather? Meghan told us she was a latchkey kid who ate frozen dinners in front of the tv at her mom’s house. Now, we are supposed to exchange that image for this new one where she was learning at the feet of her grandfather, whom she has never once mentioned until this very moment. Meghan’s story constantly adapts to the needs of the moment.

Meghan talks as if she has a busy and thriving start-up. Yet, for an hour or two back in March, she sold some jam jars and cookie mixes, and she hasn’t produced a single thing since, except, I suppose, for aspirational newsletters and kind of random garden-themed social media posts. About 20 minutes in, she explains that after they sold out, she realized simply restocking the jam would only result in another sell-out, and she didn’t want the customer to get fatigued. So they have been working to radically expand the product line and scale up the inventory.

Interestingly, we have arrived at the second launch day of Meghan’s As Ever products. At 11am Eastern/8am Pacific she will restock “items you love and some new surprises.” Will it sell out again within an hour? We will find out later this morning.

I have finished the interview with Emma Grede, so I will write a more complete post on that, too.