Meghan Markle’s new brand delayed by leadership challenges and staff resignations
Meghan Markle, the wife to Prince Harry, set the internet on a stir on March 14 when a teaser of her new brand; American Riviera Orchard was released. This lifestyle and kitchen brand seems to be inspired by the couple’s residence in a house in California coastal region. However, again, a report from the New York Post, highlighted that the Duchess has been struggling to secure a CEO which has hampered the brands expansion and product release.
A source revealed that Meghan ,43, cannot find the right leadership for the brand and that has been a cause for the hold up.
"The numbers don't lie and to have almost 20 members of staff quitting on them tells its own story. It's unprecedented, even for a startup," another watcher commented. Another insider concurred by revealing that, "The brutal reality is Harry and Meghan are the toughest of taskmasters, they're very demanding and difficult to work for and that puts a lot of people's backs up."
Remarkably, the newly appointed head of staff for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle resigned after just three months. A seasoned public relations specialist named Josh Kettler was hired by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex shortly before their three-day trip to Nigeria in May. But it was revealed a few weeks ago that Mr. Kettler was no longer working for the Sussexes.
Santa Barbara native Mr. Kettler was brought on board to "assist Prince Harry through his next phase" and he went with the 39-year-old father of two on his quick trip to London in May to commemorate the Invictus Games' tenth anniversary.
However, the business of the strawberry jam jars delivered by Ms Markle to only a few of the celebrities in March can be considered as the brand’s starting point strong.” The mother of two also suggested a rose wine line and sent the dog biscuits to her friends.
In earlier this year, the name of the said brand was revealed through a 14-second retro-style video clip which depicted hands of some women arranging flowers, and the duchess of the Meghan Markle cooking something in the kitchen. It ended with a glimpse of a women in a ball gown standing at the end of a colonnade that seemed to go on for ever.
Besides, the official American Riviera Orchard account that is represented on Instagram posted nine enlarged photos of the emblem that is composed of close-ups in total. Its bio also stated that it was written "by Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex. Established 2024."
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
