A Forensic Analysis of Meghan Markle’s Announcement

You're listening to a Muma Mia podcast.

Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast is recorded on. My concern is that Megan Markl becomes the boy who cried jam.

No. That is a real concern.

Yeah, because you can't just keep sending people jam and expecting them to spreuk it. You've already used.

She didn't mention dog treats either.

I think it's going to be dog treats. I reckon it's going to be scented candles. I think we're going to have a tetowel and a fancy class. Welcome to MoMA mea out loud what women are actually talking about? On Wednesday, the nineteenth of February. I am Jesse.

Stevens, I'm mea Friedman, and Holly.

Is away this week, which means Amelia Lester, you are here again. Hello on the show today. A moment's silence for Megan Markles American Riviera Orchard We hardly knew, an announcement, an Instagram reel and a new brand. Did Meghan pull off an epic relaunch? May I do not answer it? Plus?

Is it a did you don't know?

There's no suspense. Plus is Elon Musk using his kids as props? And if so why? And open marriages are out. Affairs are in the essay making people rethink non monogamy. But first, Amelia, in.

Case you missed it, America is divorcing Europe on Valentine's Day, no less. Donald Trump's vice president J. D. Vance gave this speech in Germany, which left European leaders, who were normally a pretty blase brunch, open mouthed, slack jawed, not applauding.

You came in having read this to our early morning planning meeting a little bit shaky.

I was literally shaky.

Little unsettled. I'm sort of blithely ignorant of Well, I've.

Seen the headlines, but can you tell me why? Because they were literally in shock after they heard his speech.

Yes, they were in shock. So what did he say? Well, for one, he said, everyone needs to relax about Nazis. Let's listen to a grab now.

Again. We don't have to agree with everything or anything that people say, but when people represent, when political leaders represent an important constituency, it is incumbent upon us to at least participate in dialogue with them.

An important constituency.

Yeah, that's not what is the Nazis.

So this is really the next level of Trump's. Some of them are very nice people.

Yeah. So you have to know the context for this, which is at the weekend before this speech, Vance met with representatives of Germany's AfD party. This is a far right party which some describe as neo Nazi, and for good reason, its leaders have been convicted for using Nazi slogans a political rallies, and they've also said that not all SS leaders were bad guys.

Is it the German election?

Yes, iminently to day is the German election, and the AfD is actually second in the polls. It looks like it's going to have its strongest showing ever. But what's interesting is how Germany responded. So the German Chancellor Olf Schultz got up afterwards and he gave this speech. He said, basically,

Yeah, And the.

Problem is Vance is forty by the way, he's really young. So a lot of the European leaders there was reporting afterwards that part of what shocked them is that Trump is an old man and you can likely write him off as he's a little kookie. He's going to leave the world stage.

He also doesn't believe in anything other than Trump, like he has no real ideology, which is just I'm going to be really populars so everyone loves me because I'm the biggest, strongest.

Can I ask what JD. Vance is doing in Germany? Like, what does he have to do with any of this?

Oh, he was in Germany because there's this thing called the Munich Security Conference, which is where European leaders get together to talk about how to help Ukraine and other security issues, none of which Vance talked about in the speech.

And this is the kind of stuff that Trump wouldn't want to do because he would think that it would be boring. Yes, so do you think this is how it's going to go?

The diet coach are smaller in Europe, so that would be another reason why he doesn't want to travel there. The other thing is that Elon Musk went to an AfD rally. I don't know if you saw that via video link.

Right, Okay, kats out of the bag.

I'm shocked we've kept this a secret for so long. In two weeks, my show is coming out, which I'm so excited for, and also my business, which I think there's been a lot of curiosity about. Last year, I had thought, you know what American Revier. That sounds like such a great name. It's my neighborhood. It's a nickname for Santa Barbara, but it limited me to things that were just manufactured.

And grown in this area.

Then Netflix came on, not just as my partner in the show, but as my partner in my business, which was huge.

So I thought about it.

And I've been waiting for a moment to share a name that I'd secured in twenty twenty two, and this is the moment. And it's called as Ever.

As Ever essentially means.

As it's always been. And if you followed me since twenty fourteen with the Tig, you know I've always loved cooking and crafting and gardening. This is what I do and I haven't been able to share it with you in the same way for the past few years, but now I can, so as things are starting to trickle out there, I wanted you to hear it from me first.

Of course, there will be fruit preserves.

I think we're all clear at this point that jam is my jam, but there's so many more products that I just love that I use in my home, and now it's time to share it with you, so I can't wait for you to see it.

Thanks guys, if you have been waiting for pots of Jam by American Riviera Orchard, we have terrible news because Megan Markle yesterday announced a new identity for her lifestyle brand, now called as Ever.

She shouldn't need me labels, she is going to need new like.

Pour Out some strawberry jam from American revera orchard.

If you have a Google alert set for American Riviera orchard, which mayor does, you'll know that the trademark was rejected last year as one cannot have exclusive rights to the name of a place. An American reviewer an orchard or an orchard. American Riviera is a commonly used place name

Netflix so true, I'd forgotten about it.

Has come on board as a partner. Meya. Meghan says the original name meant she was limited to things that she would have to manufacture and grow in the American riviera orchard. Do you buy it?

I think it's great spin. I think it's really good spin. I think what I took away from this video is that Megan is picking up her influencing exactly where she left off around twenty fifteen twenty sixteen when she shut down the TIG and when social media and influencing really changed. And none of this is a disc at all because I know that I'm sort of the one on the show that's considered to be anti Meghan. I'm not at all.

Which, to be clear, is just as manufactured.

Oh yeah, totally, But it's not pretending that everything that everybody knows it's not gaslighting, and it's owning it and being honest about like he was making funny, is it.

Gas lighting or is it someone don't we get to tell our own stories about copyright issues? Well, like what out of basic human right?

She can do whatever she wants. But I'm just saying that if I was advising her, it would be just go, yeah, you know, you might have heard a few copyright issues. Turns out American Riviera very popular. Luckily, back in twenty twenty two, I reserved another name because thinking about the name for a and can be quite hard. So on my short list was as ever, and here's why it's actually going to be even better.

Also, to me his point, there were so many edits in that. So she kept in the start where Harry, of course says I've turned the camera on away, which is.

Weird because it's selfimotes. So it's like, why would.

Which was that was all very calculous and That's what I mean. People see through those tricks. Now. Ten years ago they would have been seen to be charming, or people wouldn't have picked up on them. But we've moved on and influencing his moved on, and because of TikTok and the desire for authenticity, we've also moved past the faux authenticity. They're oh so grateful. Oh my god, you guys,

She said, Jam is her jam. That was very funny. Did you make that was funny?

So, first of all, I want to make an observation about the name as Ever. I had a boss once who was a real famous, good writer, and this boss advised me to always sign my emails as Ever because he explained to me that whether you mean to diss someone or to say I still hate you, or to say you still annoy me, as Ever is the ultimate way to just be authentic to yourself but still appear polite to everyone you write to.

It's a great name. I think it's so much better than America.

Like as ever, fuck you yes exactly.

The second thing I noticed about this name change is that there was some reporting by Puck recently about how Flamingo a state which is actually started by an Australian man named Richard Christensen and which I believe is sold in Mecca here in Australia, which spaced out of LA There was some reporting that Megan had asked to work with Richard on jams and to sort of collaborate, and that he had said that he didn't want to do that. So that's why she went off to start her own company.

Is He a beauty brand?

It started with soaps and candles right and now has moved into, among other things, jams, rose, et cetera. It's sort of a lifestyle.

Brand, which I assume and not sold a Meca unlesson's been a while, and stuff in in Mecca.

And so I think that by changing it to as Eva, she's we know that Megan's hyper sensitive to what people are saying about her online. I'm sure she tracks that's understandable in her course, and didn't like the idea that she was being reported as kind of a copycat or someone who was spurned from a collaboration, so started her own thing as ever is moving it away from that idea of a lifestyle brand rooted in place that he does, and it's more making it into more of a generic influencer brand.

To any better. And it also says classic, right. I think her style is generally very classic. You know, she's in her white shirt, her simple necklace, her blue jeans. I think that is really true to her. Giving how she debuted on the World Stages. She remembers she went to that event with Harry wearing blue jeans and a white shirt, and that's her classic signature.

Yeah, I want to give her a bit.

More credit because people are saying I've seen the word gas lighting thrown around, which is, we know what happened, we know what happened with a copyright, and you're pretending like it didn't. I think this is a case of two things can be true, like, yes, there was the whole copyright issue, but she also might have looked at all the back and forth and gone, this isn't worth it.

I can't say a very long name.

Yeah, she rethought it, which I had this yesterday. I wrote a tagline for a podcast and we worked out that there was something incredibly wrong with it, and I was like, great, so we pivot.

Oh no, totally. But my point is to take people along with you. What people expect now is pulling back the curtain, but in a real way, not going you know. So, here's why I changed it. And you're right, that could have been part of the reason that she changed it. But everybody knows about the track.

I think we've heard story A and she's like, I'm just gonna throw story bas out there. This is my concern because she did. Let's not forget that she did send the jams out already. She sent the American reviewer.

Richard Tigue and had them and she on bacon.

Yeah, and is she going to be My concern is that Megan Mirkal becomes the boy who cried Jen No. That is a real yeah, because you can't just keep sending people jam and expecting them to spruk it. You've already used.

She didn't mention dog treats either.

I think it's going to be dog treats. I reckon it's going to be scented candles. I think we're going to have a tetwel and a fancy bas.

We're not far away from learning what it is. I was slightly surprised about the Netflix connection, even though very good research.

So Netflix is launching. I did some reading on it. It's like an Amazon storefront, like it's launching a shop.

You were like, shoppable.

That's really clever.

So it'll also get all the affiliate links.

Yeah.

Smart. And you know she said word has been leaking out. I hadn't heard any words, so I think props to her for getting ahead of the new song.

Apparently a news outlet was going to publish that she changed the name, so she was kind of forced into it a little bit.

I liked the euphemism of the century, which was there's been a lot of curiosity about my.

Business, a lot of people asking.

A lot of asking, like are they asking or are they smearing you? In every publication in the entire world.

But me, I think you're onto something with the idea that social media changed in the intervening years when she was off it, and it's sort of like, you know how people say that your persona is crystallized at the time you became famous. At the time she became famous, we were doing Instagram grids and CPR shots of a vocado toast and latte art.

That was what we were doing, yes, and putting little flowers in ice school.

Maybe it's some matchra if we were adventurous, but that was the vibe back then, and you could call this kind of like Instagram grid pr It feels like we've moved on to something much looser, and she's trying the loose with the Harry kicking off the video, but then you got the editing.

Yeah, that doesn't want We've also done not just looser, but also even Gwyneth Paltrow, who started with look at my expensive things, she has to sell these candle smells like a vagina.

She now sells skincaret Target Yeah, and.

Steaming vaginas because it wasn't enough for her to just be fancy.

She doesn't sell steaming vaginas, I don't think.

But hot steaming vaginas.

That is a gap in the mine.

Yeah.

Come in a moment, why Elon Musk is suddenly covered in kids and the woman who regrets her open marriage and says she should have just had an affair instead. We discuss after the breaking.

Every day is take your kids to work day at the White House. These days, you've probably seen the pictures of Elon Musks striding through the corridors of power in Washington with a four year old on his shoulders.

I have seen that. And also you've been sending me links about a conservative influencer who's having his like twenty to fifteen.

I'm obsessed and you're ignoring my lengths and that's hurtful. So now I'm going to sit here and explain the story to you, okay, while you have no choice in the matter. So the kid that Elon is carrying around on his shoulders is named Actually, I think we better hear from Elon himself on the name.

I mean, it's just X, the letter X and then the AE is pronounced ash. Yeah. Twelve is my contribution.

Oh y twelve Archangel twelve, the precursor to the s R seventy one, coolest plain ever.

So some people shouldn't be about to make more children more visually.

I only just realized that when he was jumping around with Trump on stage during the election campaign, that was to create the X shape with his jump. Did you realize that now? And it took our entire production staff here to nut out their names and ages today and we're still not quite sure we've got them straight. Just

I've never heard that.

It means you might think leopards are glorious creatures and very dignified and elegant and beautiful, but one day, one day, they're going to eat your face.

And I'll get you close you and they're going to eat your face.

So Ashley and Elon are now squabbling on X the social media platform, not the child. Moving back to ex achild Ex, a child is in the White House acting in all sorts of age appropriate ways, and he also appears to have been doing things that a lot of world leaders might like to do, like he did appear to tell Donald Trump to shush your mouth, and he also wiped his snot on Trump's desk.

So I like him.

I like him.

Ex is being a normal kid. That's not up for discussion. What I want to talk about today is the adults behavior in this Why is Musk doing this and how should we feel about it? In The Guardian, Awa Madawi had some theories about what she called Musk's pr strategy, and she wrote she didn't find it cute. She said, having a kid on your shoulders makes you seem less like a robber baron with a weird breeding fetish and more like a fun dad. But this is what I

Remember how to Sindra Ardun was an elected official. I know that was a totally different point. Oh yeah, that yeah. That he has referred to X his child. This is a quote from Musk as a cuteness prop He's used

Today are bringing receipts.

I'm bringing receipts. That's what I just went. You are a business owner. You're telling me that on the floor of Tesla, you're gonna let your worker bring in their sick kid or if childcare falls through, you have any empathy for that? That to me to come in with your kids. Firstly, it's a prop and secondly it's taunting Grimes, Like I think that the context of his relationship with Grimes the mother of this child, he has more legal resources than anyone who's ever lived, and he's keeping Grimes

Really yep, so does Grimes not see X?

No, So he's kept Grimes from his child. They're like fighting in court and he says, oh, X mostly lives with me. Grimes has said, I want to see my own child and has said, I don't want my child in public like that, Like I feel deeply uncomfortable with his face being publicized. So I think it's taunting her on purpose.

That's extraordinary. I didn't know that. I know that he keeps having all of these children with these women, and supposedly always by IVF because he doesn't always have romantic relationships with them. Even in the case of this conservative influencer Ashley Sinclair, she didn't.

Well, we don't be his girlfriend. No, she didn't claim to be his girlfriend. It's interesting, Jesse, I think you're onto something with the idea of taunting Grimes because also this week he took his twins, Strider and as you were, who were three years old, and he had those children with chevon Zillis, who seems to be the only woman

Why is he meeting with what? I mean, I guess he's a force onto his own right, But is he representing the US government in those meetings or we just don't know.

We just don't know.

Okay, apparently it had something to do with business stealings, but I also think there's something very revealing about business stealings.

Yeah, I think so, yeah, they could hope.

So yeah.

I like that.

You just you know, when you have a meeting in the Oval office and you're like, I might just have it there. Oh and here's my son. But the other thing that's very revealing is what his eldest children think of him, and they don't want anything to do with being in the public eye with him.

And similar to Brad Pitt's kids.

Yeah, which I just think that tells you something. Vivian Jenna Wilson, who is Elon Musk's daughter, she transitioned. She identifies as trans Elon Musk has spoken about her story in a way that she has expressed is incredibly hurtful. He has politicized it. He's sat there with you know, right wing pundits and dead named her. Whatever your politics, that's your flesh and blood.

He has to weaponize the story of his own child.

Also this week released a video where she explained how she learned of the existence of another sibling of hers on Reddit.

Yeah, they all find out, and that's what she says, is that she talks about a really you know, dire childhood and also you learn about siblings in the head lines.

We've spoken about Brian Johnson on this show before, the guy who's trying to buio hack his whole body and live forever. This whole thing with having lots and lots.

Of children pronatalism.

Can you explain that.

The thing with the tech bros seems to be almost a eugenic The world needs more elands.

Yeah. So this is a movement that started in Silicon Valley a few years ago, and basically its proponents are convinced that low birth rates are the greatest danger to civilization. Forget climate change, we need more vehicles.

Which it has a grain of truth to it, though our declining birth rate taxes is an issue.

And in particular self appointed smart people need to have more children to ensure the survival of the human race. Mask actually said it a summit last year. If people don't have more children, civilization is going to crumble mark my words. So I think there's something a little sinister in this too.

Well. Also is very different when you're in l on Musk and you can have lots of children versus someone who has no health insurance, yeah, and can't pay chi and can't pay for charter.

Or apparently he's not helping allegedly not helping Ashley out with any of her childcare expenses.

I wonder if there's a like a process like a submissions, if there's just an email address that you apply to just for some of his sperm, and if anyone vets it, or it's just pretty much like if you want it, here you go.

Apparently we're not wearing Apple watches on our wrists anymore, and Amelia clearly didn't get the memo. So The New York Times published a story this month with the headline an ankle monitor, No, that's my Apple Watch. The reason is that apparently it improves step tracking. I've found this with pushing a pram. It doesn't get my steps in and your hand. Yeah, I think treadmill desks and that kind of stuff, you're not getting steps. In certain professions.

But you can tuck it like a hand model.

In exactly, you can put it on your ankle. Tattoos mess up with the heart rate sensor, and a lot of people have press tattoos. Yeah, and final reason is personal style. I have a friend who tells me that my Apple watch makes me look like a spy kid. And she said that her greatest fear kept drop at night was the idea of me walking down the aisle with my Apple Watch on because she knew I wanted.

It's not true, you are a bit of a spy kid.

I really like it. And to this day, I don't know wedding day, how many steps. I don't know if it was a good day, if it was a bad day. Now, Amelia, will you be moving your watch to your ankle?

No, I won't be. Despite the fact that Mia has issued a fashion edict that I need to get a new wristband.

Like the color of a dead body.

The color of a dead body.

Yeah, and it's made of I don't know, plastic.

I think it's the color maybe of a brain.

Could be she's doing it a little secret flex. I funnily enough, just moved to a cassio old fashioned digital watch.

Have you considered wearing that on your ankle?

No, but I might now that I'm not using my Apple Watch on my wrists so much anymore, maybe I'll strap it to my ankle. A little bit tricky to look at the time or to use Siri.

It's true, maybe look. The whole reason they have this is mostly for the whole time telling element.

So I wonder if the double advantage is that you become a little bit more bendy because you constantly.

I want a strap that says this is not an angle monitor, because it does look that's exactly.

And I like people to think that I was maybe an escaped prisoner evading home detention at loud As. I know it's only February, but who needs a little break and a little treat Because Mamma Mayo is giving away a luxurious seven night cruise with Princess for two valued at over three thousand dollars. You can enjoy the benefits of a Princess plus fair with drinks and Wi Fi included as you say, or visiting Port Arthur and Hobart and scenic cruising through the phrase and a peninsula.

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Draw is on the fourth of March. Teaes and seasupply.

After the break. Why twenty twenty five is the year of the Open Marriage.

One unlimited out loud access. We drop episodes every Tuesday and Thursday exclusively from Muma Maya. Subscribers follow the link in the show notes to get us in your ears five days a week and a huge thank you to all our current subscribers.

Just like barrel leg jeans, open marriages appear to be having a moment. Nearly one in three unmarried Americans report having been in a consensually non monogamous relationship at some point, so consensual non monogamy or an open marriage or polyamory is distinct from cheating, which usually happens secret where only one person knows about it. In Australia, there was a survey in twenty twenty three of fifty thousand people, and that revealed about one point four of them were currently

I do think there's been a real seed change. Obviously, non monogamous relationships have always existed. But I kept thinking about do you remember that iconic scene and when Harry met Sally, which is, by the way, twenty five years old. Now, Carrie Fisher's character is in bed with her husband, and both of them have fielded calls from Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal about how awful dating is. And Carrie Fisher turns to her husband and she says, tell me, I'll

And exploring other versions of yourself, because something that people talk about in long term relationships is that you don't always like what you see when you look at yourself through that person's eyes because of the drudgery and the history of everything you've been together, which in some ways is intimacy. But as Esther Perel says that familiarity can

Yeah, breed out desire is a perfect explanation for the look my husband gave me this morning when I asked him to clean the kitchen on my way out the door.

Yeah, you see too much of someone. And I think sometimes it's actually the desire to have a secret. And that's what I was thinking reading this, is that if you have an open marriage, that it isn't scratched, because then you have to have all these awkward conversation She writes about the language, the corny and embarrassing language that you have to use, that's all about boundary setting and the rules and all that, which isn't very sexy. So I think that for a lot of people it doesn't work.

Here's what Esther Parrel, the relationships expert and guru, said about why modern relationships and modern monogamy is just not the answer for everybody anymore.

So.

Reconciling our need for security and our need for adventure into one relationship, or what we today like to call a passionate marriage, used to be a contradiction. In terms, marriage was an economic institution in which you were given a partnership for life in terms of children and social status and succession and companionship. But now we want our

Is this idea of why open marriages are becoming more popular just because for some people they're accepting that they can't get everything from one person and it's healthy.

Yeah. I thought that this Esther Perel remark was really interesting because I think often the knock on an open marriage is that it is a way of essentially ending the marriage. It's sort of like a stop gap on the way to accepting the inevitable that the marriage has run its course. But what I think Parrel is saying is that it doesn't have to be like that. In fact, it can be a way to ensure the relationships survival by taking the pressure off your romantic partner now that

Yeah, and Esther Perel also says that there are two different times of relationships. One focuses on exclusiveness that's really critical to some people's sense of what makes a romantic relationship, and the other is uniqueness. And if you believe that you have something unique with that partner, then it doesn't

And also, I don't think that it's a coincidence either that what I've been hearing from people anecdotally in my circles is that they're opening their marriages at the time that they have little kids. And to me, at first, that was really confusing because they thought that there's no time or energy at that point. But maybe that's exactly why they're doing it then, because there are so many demands on their time and they're feeling so stretched in their relationship that they need to outsource.

And are you feeling sexy when you've got little kids or is that the whole point that you see yourself in your partner's eyes as a mother? Yeah, and obviously you know your children are a lot of you. So to me, that was my strongest time of identity as a mother and my biggest what do you call it mattressence when I went from being a woman to being a mother. And do you think that people are opening up their marriages at that point because by being with someone outside of that family, Yes.

They don't have to be the mother.

Yeah, you don't have to be the mother, you know, you get to be just the sexy woman again.

But I was intrigued by the legitimatics of it, because you know, you've got to account for every minute of your time when you have little kids. And so I've been asking how people do it, and then apparently the most common way of handling it in a heterosexual couple where they have children is that one partner does one week with the kids and then the other goes off for their sort of fantasy life and the enactment of that for a week and then they swap back again.

We know that the divorce rates going up and up.

I thought it wasn't well.

Interestingly, the marriage rate, which I didn't realize this, has been declining for five decades. There was this little bump after COVID, but now it's still going down again. People I think disenchanted with the whole idea, and also life expectancy is esther for all points that has gone up at the same time.

What's interesting is that the demographics where this is most popular,

I think queer communities have had this incredible freedom to make their own rules, and straight people are learning a.

Lot from them.

Yeah, a big thank you to all of you. The out louders for listening to today's show and our fabulous team for putting this show together. We will be back in your ears tomorrow.

But before we go, if you can't get enough of Apple Side of Vinegar and Jesse, you said that it's now number three on Netflix globally.

Yeah, it's going off all around the world. It's been really interesting to watch the US process this story. But it's number one in Highland, number one in New Zealand.

You told me another fun fact about one of the stars of the show.

Oh my goodness. Okay, you know Lucy. I haven't told you this yet a million you know. Oh, you haven't watched the show. But Lucy, who made much to you, stars as woman who's living with cancer and doing the traditional therapies. She is the girlfriend of Dev Patel. Oh wow, I didn't think.

I know, the wife of one of the journalist and she's Ozzy and Ozzie is with that and they've been together for almost ten years, A long time.

I love it.

Anyway, where was I? So we can't get enough of this show and the Bell Gibson story, So we have unpacked the actual story. We've spoken a lot on the show about and aspects of this story, but in terms of our review of the show itself and our recap, we've recorded a whole subscriber episode and it includes the scenes that we love the most, the actors, the script to all of it. We will put a link to that episode in the show notes and we'll see you tomorrow.

Bye bye. Shout out to any Mum and mea subscribers listening. If you love the show and you want to support us, subscribing to MoMA Mia is the very best way to do so. There's a link in the episode description.