Meghan Markle used a Princess Diana-themed tea tin along with a quintessentially British phrase to help promote her As Ever brand.
The Duchess of Sussex, 43, reposted a photo on her company’s official Instagram page of a fan showing off they had made ‘As Ever’ shortbread cookies.
The plate of cookies was pictured alongside a commemorative Princess Diana tea tin, which is being flogged for £6.99 on New English Teas.
The Instagram post also featured a peculiarly British post with the caption: ‘I made the @aseverofficial shortbread cookies. So good and great with a spot of tea.’
Her repost has been widely shared on social media, with critics accusing her of showing ‘sudden Anglophilia’ after leaving Britain with Prince Harry when they stepped down as royals and moved to California in 2020.
Others claimed the tea tin was ‘tacky’ and quipped: ‘A spot of tea’? No one says that. She’s watched too much Mary bloody Poppins.’
The Duchess reposted a series of her fans using her As Ever products and recipes, including one which said: ‘This tea is divine! Please make & release more soon @aseverofficial.’
Critics claimed she reposted it to show there was a ‘demand’ for her As Ever herbal lemon ginger tea.
Meghan launched her lifestyle brand on April 2, coinciding with the release of her Netflix series, ‘With Love, Meghan’.
Meghan Markle (pictured) used a Princess Diana-themed tea tin along with a quintessentially British phrase to help promote her As Ever brand.
The Duchess of Sussex , 43, reposted a photo on her company’s official Instagram page of a fan showing off they had made ‘As Ever’ shortbread cookies. It featured a Princess Diana tin and the phrase ‘spot of tea’
Sharing the photo of a Princess Diana tea tin is the latest homage Meghan has paid to her late mother-in-law who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997.
Meghan has often styled herself on Prince Harry’s late mother, wearing similar dresses and jewellery as well as a Northwestern sweatshirt which Diana wore regularly in public in 1996.
Meghan released her line of long-awaited items last month, first teased a year ago under a different name, as she continues to rebrand herself as a ‘domestic goddess’.
It features a wildflower honey with honeycomb priced at a staggering $28 (£21.60) and some flower sprinkles at $15 (£11.60), while a jar of raspberry jam sets punters back $14 (£10.80).
Other goods in the Duchess’s lifestyle range included shortbread and crepe mixes – both being sold for $14 – and various herbal tea mixes for $12 (£9.30) each.
Elsewhere, the Duchess is also selling everything but the kitchen sink from her Shopmy online account, where customers can get their hands on affiliated products seen on her Instagram feed, including copper pots and pans for the princely sum of almost $900 (£690).
As part of a rebrand, she has also released ‘With Love, Meghan’ on Netflix – which has been renewed for a second series – and a podcast called Confessions of a Female Founder.
In her latest podcast episode, Meghan revealed having children was ‘not the way I envisioned it’, adding that it is ‘so important that my kids see me as a working mom’.
Meghan reposted a series of photos on As Ever. Critics claimed she reposted this one to show there was a ‘demand’ for her products
In another post, someone shared they were attempting to make Meghan’s foccacia recipe
She said she had a vision that she was ‘going to give a speech with a baby on my hip’ before she became a mother to Prince Archie in May 2019.
Speaking on the podcast, she added that the reality was different and she ‘had a lot of external things happening’.
Meghan discussed motherhood with Cassandra Thurswell, the founder of Kitsch which is a brand creating eco-friendly hair care and beauty accessories for women.
The Duchess – who gave birth to her second child Princess Lilibet in June 2021 – also spoke during the new episode about how she ‘likes to show up for people’.
She said: ‘For myself, especially when they are baby babies… before I was a mom – I’ve always wanted to be a mom – before I was a mom I was like, ‘oh gosh, I’m going to give a speech with a baby on my hip’. I had a whole vision. I was like, I’m just gonna…
‘And then you fast forward, granted I had a lot of external things happening by the time I had both pregnancies and both babies, but it was not the way I envisioned it.’
Meghan has previously emulated Diana, wearing a sweater from Northwestern University matching her late mother-in-law’s from the 1990s
Princess Diana wore a matching jumper in 1996 having visited Northwestern the year before to support a cancer fundraiser
She later added: ‘For me it’s so important that my kids see me as a working mom.’
The chat with Ms Thurswell, which came out this morning, is the penultimate part of Meghan’s Lemonada Media podcast which has been releasing a new episode each Tuesday since April 8.
Previous podcast episodes have included interviews with Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd; Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani; and Highbrow Hippie co-founder Kadi Lee.
Others were IT Cosmetics co-founder Jamie Kern Lima; Clevr Blends co-founder Hannah Mendoza; and Heather Hasson, co-founder of medical scrubs brand Figs.
