Why Meghan’s rose wine launch has Diana fans rolling their eyes

Earlier this week, Meghan Markle made the grand announcement she would soon be launching her lifestyle brand’s first ever wine.

The Duchess of Sussex, who revealed her love of a tipple on her recent Netflix show, has unveiled her first foray into the market with a Napa Valley rosé wine.

It is sourced from the famous region of California, up the west coast from her Montecito mansion, and has been described as having ‘soft notes of stone fruit, gentle minerality and a lasting finish’.

The glossy announcement, which was shared via the official As Ever Instagram account, came with a sun-drenched image of a bottle elegantly styled poolside, flanked by two glasses and ripe apricots.

But the piece of information about the wine that piqued the interest of most royal watchers was not the ‘bespoke blend’ of flavours, it was the date they would be hitting shelves.

Described by the brand as ‘launching just in time for summer entertaining’, it will be available to buy on July 1.

However there is just one major problem, as was quickly pointed out by hundreds of people on social media, because that is the day Princess Diana would have turned 64.

Royal commentator Victoria Arbiter replied to the post on social media with exasperation by simply writing: ‘July 1st, Diana’s birthday…’.

A slew of royal fans also complained at the timing, with one claiming Meghan was ‘literally dining out on Diana’s memory’, and another said the choice was ‘tacky’.

And although the price tag of the wine is yet to be confirmed, another royal watcher claimed: ‘She is using Diana to flog cheap wine.’

‘Nothing if not predictable by now,’ said another, as one chimed in ‘she is incredibly tone-deaf’.

The Sussexes have long shown little respect for the tightly regulated royal calendar and would regularly make news while other members of the family were on engagements – a big royal no-no.

Meghan didn’t mention the late royal in her post announcing the wine, but the Duchess has previously spoken about her late mother-in-law, describing her as ‘someone I wish I’d had the chance to know’. 

To celebrate the day she was born, July 1 is often used by friends and family of Diana to share memories and talk about her impact.

Last year Sarah Ferguson shared a touching tribute to her ‘dear friend’ and former sister-in-law by calling her a ‘kindred spirit’ and ‘pillar of light and love’.

And a few years prior the Daily Mail’s celebrated royal correspondent Richard Kay and close friend of Princess Diana published his own heartbreaking tribute to her legacy.

Her birthday was still such an important date that it managed to get both of her sons, now sadly estranged, to one of her favourite spots for reflection in 2021.

Despite having barely spoken to each other and having an ‘incredibly strained’ relationship after two years of rows since the couple’s decision to emigrate to America, both William and Harry attended the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace. 

They had gathered, along with Diana’s brother and sisters, to unveil a new statue of the Princess 24 years after her death in that horrific car crash in Paris in 1997.

William and Harry put aside their personal differences and stood shoulder-to-shoulder to unveil the bronze statue of their mother.

In a very rare joint statement released that afternoon, the brothers said: ‘Today, on what would have been our Mother’s 60th birthday, we remember her love, strength and character – qualities that made her a force for good around the world, changing countless lives for the better.’

However, it seems this year Meghan will be marking the poignant family moment by frantically doing her best to make a big profit on her new wine.

Could she even be planning a Diana-inspired social media post that could drive engagement on the big business day?

That would be ironic as although Diana did indeed have a well-stocked cellar at Kensington Palace, she scarcely drank and by the late 90s was virtually teetotal.

Meghan has used Diana to promote her brand before, but she has been more sly.

In May she reposted a photo on her company’s official Instagram page of a fan showing off they had made ‘As Ever’ shortbread cookies in a (you guessed it) Diana-themed tea tin.

Meghan knows that Diana’s star power has continued long after her death, and that any mention or reference to her tends to draw eyeballs.

Over the years she had repeatedly dressed similarly to some of Diana’s most iconic outfits and looks. 

In February she coyly posted a video of her in a purple Northwestern sweatshirt, which was the same one Diana wore regularly in public the year before her death in 1996.

The post quickly went viral and was carried in newspapers and websites all over the world. 

One royal fan claimed on social media that the decision to launch the wine on the late royal’s birthday showed she was ‘desperate to be linked to Diana’.

And although Meghan claimed in her 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey: ‘I didn’t grow up knowing much about the Royal Family . . . It wasn’t something we followed’.  

But her childhood best friend Ninaki Priddy, who was the Maid of Honour at her first wedding to producer Trevor Engelson, remembers things differently. 

Priddy shared a picture of Meghan posing outside Buckingham Palace as a child and said: ‘She was always fascinated by the Royal Family. She wants to be Princess Diana 2.0.’

She added: ‘She had one of Princess Diana’s books [Diana: Her True Story] on her bookshelf, and even when she was with Trevor she told me she wanted to go and stay in London for at least a month. I know she used to love The Princess Diaries films.’

Her account was backed up by the mother of Suzy Ardakani, one of the Duchess’s high school friends, who has described how she taped Diana’s wedding and, years later, would watch it with her daughter and Meghan.

And the acclaimed author of Her True Story Andrew Morton, who wrote it secretly with her help, claimed that Meghan was devastated when she died.

He wrote in Us Weekly in 2018: ‘Meghan and her friends watched the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in early September 1997, tears coursing down their cheeks.’

‘According to family friends, she was intrigued by Diana, not just for her style, but for her independent humanitarian mission, seeing her as a role model.’ 

There are other accounts that claim Meghan looked up to Diana when she became a member of The Firm.

A former member of staff who worked for the Sussexes told the royal author Tom Quinn: ‘She once said, “What Diana started I want to finish,’ and we took that to mean she wanted to become a sort of globetrotting champion of the poor and the marginalised.’

Though they prefaced that they didn’t mean it ‘in a critical way’, the insider added that Meghan had wanted to follow in the footsteps of her late mother-in-law, who was known for her extensive humanitarian and charity work.

But the Duchess’ philanthropic ambitions were apparently only a ‘part-time’ commitment, the former staff member told Quinn.

‘She has managed to do this to some extent, but she really wanted to do it as a princess and with the full backing of the royal family but on a part-time basis,’ they said. 

Princess Diana’s acquaintance, Tina Brown, who had lunch with her just weeks before her death, also wrote in her 2022 book The Palace Papers that Meghan looked to Diana as a role model. 

The bestselling author wrote: ‘Harry, who had always chafed at the hierarchy himself, was the last person to want to tell her to slow down.

‘They were both now drunk on a shared fantasy of being instruments of global transformation who, once married, would operate in the celebrity stratosphere once inhabited by Princess Diana.

‘Meghan couldn’t and wouldn’t bide her time to get there. She was 36. This was her big break.’

Could Meghan once again be channelling Diana to make the most of her upcoming business opportunity? It certainly looks that way.