Meghan Markle Branded “Temu Duchess” as As Ever Traffic and Polls Fall

TL;DR: Fresh 2026 data shows Meghan Markle‘s US favorability fell about 13 points while US traffic to her As Ever website dropped nearly 43 percent, and critics are now linking her cooling public image to the brand’s sales struggles.

The numbers are not being kind to Meghan Markle right now, and for once the drama is pouring straight out of a spreadsheet. Two separate sets of data, public opinion polling and website analytics, both slipped during the opening months of 2026. Her standing with the American public cooled off, and visits to her As Ever lifestyle brand fell off a cliff. Royal watchers are already drawing a straight line between the two, even though the data itself is far more cautious than the headlines shouting about it.

Start with the polling, because that is where this story has real teeth. According to Newsweek, drawing on YouGov tracking, Meghan sat at a net favorability of just plus two among Americans in the first quarter of 2026. In the third quarter of 2025, that very same measure was plus fifteen. That works out to a thirteen point slide in roughly six months. Over in Britain the mood is colder still, with a January 2026 YouGov survey logging her lowest score on record. For a woman who built an entire second act on the belief that America adored her, that is a humbling stack of figures.

Why Is As Ever’s Website Traffic Falling?

As Ever lost a sizable chunk of its American audience between December and the spring. That same Newsweek reporting, using estimates from the web intelligence firm Similarweb, found that monthly US visits to the brand’s website slid from around 108,000 in December 2025 to roughly 61,500 by April 2026. That is close to a 43 percent drop in just five months. To be fair, a careful reader should hold onto two facts here. These are modeled estimates rather than official sales receipts, and clicks have never been the same thing as cash. Doubters will also point out that December always brings a holiday shopping bump, so some cooling afterward is perfectly normal. Meghan Markle would surely lean on both of those points. Even so, a fall that steep is tough to wave away as a simple seasonal shrug.

Then there is the inventory pile, which is where the online mockery really caught fire. A flaw on the brand’s own website briefly exposed its stock levels, and screenshots that spread across social media in January 2026 pointed to more than 650,000 units sitting in storage, worth somewhere around $22 million at retail prices. Later reports claimed surplus product was even handed out free to Netflix staff. For a brand that loves to trumpet hour-long sellouts, a warehouse that full raised plenty of eyebrows. If the product is flying out the door as fast as the press releases suggest, critics asked, then why is there a mountain of it gathering dust?

THE OLD CANDLE QUOTE THAT WILL NOT GO AWAY

Here is the part that fans simply cannot stop sharing. Back in 2016, while promoting her old lifestyle blog, Meghan reportedly told a conference crowd there were “no $100 candles” on her site, because that sort of thing was “so obnoxious.” Fast forward to 2026, and As Ever is selling scented candles around $64 each, ritual gift sets near $110, and a signature candle collection that sails well past $200. Critics online wasted no time, branding Meghan Markle the “Temu Duchess” after her most recent product drop. Reading between the lines, the optics could hardly be worse for a brand sold on warmth and authenticity. Something tells me that 2016 clip is going to keep resurfacing every single time a new price tag goes up.

What’s Next for Meghan and As Ever?

So where does all of this leave her? The brand’s defenders insist the doubters are simply rooting for a flop, and brand sources have claimed As Ever is on track to double in size this year. That could well be true, since limited drops can sell out precisely because so few units exist in the first place. But the wider backdrop is hard to ignore. Netflix quietly pulled its equity stake in As Ever in early 2026, and the streamer is not bringing With Love, Meghan back as a full series. Could this mean the safety net under the Sussex brand is thinner than it appears? Don’t be surprised if Meghan Markle answers the slump the way she usually does, with a glossy relaunch and a shiny new product line. If history is any guide, the next big announcement is already being polished behind the scenes. Whether the public is still buying, in every sense of that phrase, is the real cliffhanger here.

Do you buy the idea that a cooling public image is dragging the As Ever brand down, or is this just a rough patch every startup hits?

WATCH THIS: For more twists in the Sussex saga, browse our latest royal coverage.