Meghan Markle news: Duchess hints at surprising new business move with accommodation and hospitality

Meghan Markle has got big plans for As ever.

It looks like the 43-year-old wants to expand her business to include “hospitality services” and even accommodation in the future.

The Duchess has reportedly applied to extend her ventures to include “hospitality services in the nature of provision of food and drink” and “hospitality services in the nature of provision of temporary accommodation” according to documents viewed by Page Six.

READ MORE: Judge’s shock move in $613m Lively-Baldoni lawsuit

The Sun was the first to report that the Duchess of Sussex was considering the move, after launching the lifestyle brand As ever earlier this year and selling out of her first range of products in under an hour.

The publication speculated this means the royal plans to add hotels and restaurants to her business empire.

This followed the release of her Netflix series With Love, Meghan, in which she showcased her homemaking skills alongside a series of special guests. The second season of the show is currently in production.

READ MORE: Maccas finally adds ‘secret’ item to the menu permanently 

The royal also released the first season of her podcast Confessions of a Female Founder during which she shared her own founder story alongside the likes of Spanx creator Sara Blakley and Bumble’s Whitney Wolfe Herd.

Meghan initially announced she’d be trading under the lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard, however later changed to As ever.

She explained on an episode of her podcast with hair colourist Kadie Lee she had secured As ever as a name “in 2022” and initially partnered with a large company for American Riviera Orchard with the plan to split the business into several sales verticals, starting with one simply called “Orchard”.

“Maybe have the ‘orchard’ be really small,” she explained.

“When that’s not feasible, the name suddenly became this word salad. I didn’t love that so much.”

It was then that she returned to As ever and took time to “focus in the quiet and put our heads down and build on something that no one was sniffing around to even see about”.

Meghan recently hinted she was planning to take some time out to reconsider her future business plans with As ever.

During a podcast episode with Beyoncé’s mother Tina Knowles, the duchess said they didn’t have a plan in place for As ever to scale up.

For a daily dose of 9honey, subscribe to our newsletter here.

Meghan’s life on Instagram: all her best posts so far

“I don’t want you to eat that jam once every six months. I want that to be on your shelf all the time,” she said.

“So for me at the moment, with As ever, it was great. We planned for a year and then everything sold out in 45 minutes.

READ MORE: We got hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE+, here’s what we think

“Yes, amazing – great news. Then what do you do? And then you say ‘OK, we planned as best as we could’. Are we going to replenish and sell out again in an hour? Or is that annoying as a customer?

“I’m looking at it saying ‘just pause’. That happened. Let’s wait until we are completely stable and we have everything we need.”

FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.