Once again, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex is getting attention for her lifestyle brand’s latest product drop. Back in July 2025, the rollout of Meghan’s brand, As Ever, faced some hiccups, and the brand has only continued to have a bumpy ride since then. Now, a holiday-themed product launch and its eyebrow-raising price tag has As Ever and its founder under scrutiny yet again — even among her supporters.
Just in time for a very merry Meghan Markle Christmas, As Ever has the ideal offering: an advent calendar. Since advent calendars are a fun activity for the holidays, it’s fitting for a lifestyle brand to have its own. So, what has people up in arms? The brand shared a photo of Meghan opening up the advent calendar on its Instagram account in early October 2026. The caption noted that the calendar is available for pre-order on the brand’s website. The price? $148. At first glance, this may seem steep for an advent calendar, but these days, what’s inside an advent calendar is all over the map. So, of course, depending on exactly what’s behind each door, this price could be more than reasonable for the gift.
Yet, the Instagram caption read, “Inside, discover 24 handcrafted chocolates inspired by our signature spreads and Meghan’s Montecito home and garden. Each piece is finished with a countdown number in Meghan’s own handwriting.” Based on the internet’s reaction, it’s clear that $148 for a box of chocolates doesn’t seem like a fair price to most people.
Meghan Markle clearly wants As Ever to be high-end above all else
“Introducing our first-ever Holiday Advent Calendar, created in collaboration with celebrated Los Angeles chocolatier [Compartés],” As Ever’s Instagram caption began. Compartés chocolates are certainly high end. Their website offers chocolate bars for $12 a piece and boxes of 20 truffles for around $65. Despite the fact that this is some particularly luxurious chocolate, netizens are sill side-eying this advent calendar and its price tag — even on the Royals Gossip Reddit page, where Meghan often has folks supporting her. “People can’t afford groceries, who is spending a Ben Franklin on a handful of candy?” someone wrote on a Reddit post about the product launch. “It’s a nice advent calendar but that price is ridiculous,” added another Redditor. One made a fitting joke about the brand’s name, simply writing, “As if.”
This is far from the first product release that shows that Meghan simply isn’t reading the room. It’s impossible to imagine that she and her team didn’t anticipate this kind of response to a nearly $150 advent calendar. Suffice it to say, Meghan and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex have been plagued by no shortage of scandals in 2026, so one might have guessed that the duchess would try her best to avoid yet another. It seems, however, that Meghan wants her lifestyle brand to be viewed as upscale and bougie, first and foremost. So far, no amount of criticism or backlash has pushed her in a different, less expensive direction.
