Unsold Jam and Surplus Tea: Netflix Offices 'Overrun' with Meghan Markle's Failed Stock

Netflix's Hollywood offices are reportedly 'overrun' with unsold jam jars, tea blends and candles from Meghan Markle's 'As Ever' lifestyle brand, highlighting the collapse of a once-lucrative partnership in March 2026. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry, 41, and Meghan, 44, saw their £75 million streaming deal sour after producing a string of underperforming shows, leaving the streamer to offload excess inventory to staff for free.

The couple inked the massive Netflix pact back in 2020, fresh off their Megxit from royal duties, promising a flurry of tell-all documentaries and lifestyle content. What started as a glamorous exile to Montecito, California – complete with Ted Sarandos lending them his Santa Barbara guest house during renovations – has devolved into a string of commercial misfires. Netflix co-CEO Sarandos, who once championed their projects, quietly unfollowed both Meghan's personal Instagram and the 'As Ever' account last month, a snub echoed by content chief Bela Bajaria.

'As Ever' Overrun Hits Netflix Hard

The 'As Ever' brand, renamed from the troubled American Riviera Orchard over trademark woes, launched in April 2025 tied to Meghan's cooking series With Love, Meghan. Netflix bankrolled the venture, envisioning expansions into wine, china, retail pop-ups and even a cookbook, but sources say Meghan balked at strategy sessions, walking out of key Zoom calls. Products like $14 jams, $89 sparkling wine and flower petal sprinkles flooded offices in Netflix's Icon tower and Epic building in LA, with staff carting off armfuls – one insider spotted a colleague leaving with ten items.​

Variety estimated the surplus at $10 million (£7.9 million), though spokespeople for Archewell and Netflix downplay it as routine sample giveaways from promotional closets. Main inventory shipped to an external warehouse ages ago, they insist, leaving only gifting stock behind. The optics still sting, with Page Six reporting card tables piled high with unsold goods in break rooms, a far cry from the hype.

'The issue was sales in the end,' one source told Variety. 'The product was not taken up in the way that people had hoped. The jam thing became totemic. There was just all this jam.'

Little wonder, as With Love, Meghan's first season last year drew widespread criticism, and its second season, along with a planned 2025 Christmas special, failed to reach Netflix's top 1,000 shows. No third series is planned, confirming the writing was on the wall. On 6 March, 'As Ever' announced independence from Netflix, with a spokesperson saying, 'As intended from the beginning, Meghan will continue to develop the brand and move it forward independently.'

Netflix responded politely, 'We look forward to celebrating her efforts in bringing happiness to households globally.' Yet Bela Bajaria's recent mention of ongoing 'movies in development' and an 'amazing doc' appears largely diplomatic smoke.

Failed Stock Echoes Sussexes' Broader Woes

This is not isolated – it reflects the Sussexes' pattern of high turnover. Since Megxit, they have cycled through 22 to 25 staffers and 11 publicists in five years, amid whispers of a toxic workplace. Their Netflix output has struggled: the 2023 Harry & Meghan docuseries blindsided executives with Oprah revelations just months into the deal, Harry's polo film drew little interest, and nothing else gained traction.

The original five-year £75‑100 million contract lapsed last summer, downgraded to a minimal 'first look' arrangement, giving Netflix priority but no guaranteed payment. Ted Sarandos, once a close ally, now embodies the cold shoulder. Reports suggest Hollywood figures are 'fed up,' mirroring Archewell's internal exodus. Meghan's Instagram return in early 2025 included him among 450 follows – until it did not.

The irony is hard to miss. When Harry traded army fatigues for charity galas and Meghan charmed Britain in 2016, the fairy tale seemed real. Now, Megxit fuels Netflix flops, wellness platitudes and family‑skewering memoirs that leave the public – and apparently Netflix – thoroughly jaded. Jam jars gathering dust symbolise it all: lofty ambitions grounded in a jam‑packed warehouse.