Meghan Markle’s careless move lands close pal into legal trouble

Meghan Markle’s generous offer seemed to have gone the wrong way as her close friend gets slapped with a legal action in unexpected turn of events.

The Duchess of Sussex, who founded her lifestyle brand As Ever, introduced her Napa Valley rosé wine in August and last week, and made a special offer of serving it during an event.

The former Suits actress had appeared at the Godmothers Bookstore, which was founded by literary agent Jennifer Rudolph Walsh and entrepreneur Victoria Jackson in 2024, on Thursday for a livestream event and supplied bottles of her As ever wine for guests after the event.

However, it was revealed by The Daily Mail that the bookstore was reported to the council for serving wine without a licence.

The business had applied for a licence in June 2024, but it has not yet been approved. The Californian laws dictated that businesses must have an Alcoholic Beverage License to be able to sell alcohol on or off the premises legally.

Meghan had also posted several stories about taking up the role of providing beverages for the event. Although, it seems that she did not take into consideration that her gesture, albeit innocuous, could possible lead to a legal action for the small-scale promotional event.

The bookstore had an emotional connection of Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet’s mum. The name was inspired by Prince Harry’s book party for Spare, where he had thanked Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh and Victoria Jackson for their support, referring to them as his “fairy godmothers”.

Then, Oprah herself had suggested the name to the bookstore’s founders.