Meghan Markle ‘Struggling’ to Find CEO for American Riviera Orchard

Meghan Markle’s lifestyle brand Amer­i­can Riv­iera Orchard is strug­gling to get off the ground as she’s hav­ing an issue find­ing a CEO, accord­ing to a report.

The Duchess of Sus­sex, 43, unveiled her new busi­ness ven­ture in March, teas­ing its impend­ing launch. But six months lat­er, there’s still no release date or infor­ma­tion about the prod­ucts that cus­tomers can expect to be up for sale.

Unprecedented Staffing Challenges

A source has sug­gest­ed that the delay has been a direct result of Markle’s strug­gle to hire a CEO. “The num­bers don’t lie and to have almost 20 mem­bers of staff quit­ting on them tells its own sto­ry,” a source told Clos­er. “It’s unprece­dent­ed, even for a startup.”

The insid­er added, “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.”

Lack of Leadership and Marketing Concerns

While prod­ucts from her brand are not avail­able to buy yet, Markle has sent out jars of straw­ber­ry jam and dog bis­cuits to an exclu­sive group of celebs in recent months. How­ev­er, the brand’s future remains uncertain.

“It’s unclear what lead­er­ship she has in place at this point, too,” brand­ing strate­gist Lucie Greene told the Sun. “If the brand is direct to con­sumer, ver­sus whole­sale, there will need to be a sub­stan­tial mar­ket­ing bud­get for con­sumer acquisition.”

The report comes just weeks after the cou­ple’s chief of staff, Josh Ket­tler, quit after just three months on the job, mak­ing him the 18th staffer to hand in his resignation.

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