Meghan Markle has been criticised by a royal commentator over successfully registering a trademark for her lifestyle brand. The Duchess of Sussex officially announced earlier this month that she had renamed her brand American Riviera Orchard (ARO) to As Ever.

ARO faced several setbacks last year regarding its trademark and now, according to the Mail’s Richard Eden, Meghan’s application to register As Ever’s name was sent back to her because there were allegedly a “string of errors, including one which she had made several times before, which she failed to sign the application”. Mr Eden said on the Palace Confidential: “You just think ‘wow this is starting to get a bit weird’. Her friends are keen to play it down but it just seems like, clearly, someone is doing something wrong in terms of the admin, because that’s what it is, filling out the forms correctly. There were various aspects that had to be sent back.” He added: “You just think ‘why are these mistakes being made’. I mean if they were still parts of the Royal Family, blimey, heads would roll.”