Happy Holidays, friends.
Think about that word for a moment.
Hold it in your sacred space.
Surely that’s what the Holidays are all about?
Friends. Like family – only better.
Friends – the family we choose. People who are respectful and loving towards us. Like Oprah. (Hi, Oprah!)
Or like people who are proficient at hair and makeup and are keen to gift their gift.
Friends. Let’s dissect that beautiful word. It comes so close to being fiends – but narrowly avoids it by the felicitous presence of the letter R. Note also that it contains ends –which is what must happen to the relationship, regrettably, if fiendish behavior is ever displayed by the disappointing so-called friend.
Family –not so great, right? Starts like famine, ends with an ‘ily’, which sounds like ‘ill’. Best not thought about in the holiday season – especially family abroad, whether they are in the UK or the Philippines. Because note that the phrase is ‘nearest and dearest’ – to be dear, persons must be near, preferably in Montecito (hi, Gwyneth!) but anywhere in the Greater Los Angeles area will do. Otherwise, they’re kind of like pen pals? Which reminds me, when I was a kid, I single-handedly started an award-winning crusade against the right of parents to tickle their children to death in the UK – which not many people know was not abolished until 1993 – after heartfelt correspondence with an English pen-friend. We should all seek to make friends with pens, as only they stand between us and the very real dangers of social media.
But hey – this is the Holidays, right? A joyous time! And I am here to remind you in this brief round robin (let’s not judge him for being round, you guys, hey?) what my ‘crew’ got up to this year.
First of all, ‘H’ (for Him Indoors – joke, H!) is doing well, and in 2025 made a great breakthrough in his project to limit his me-time down from 24 hours (another joke!) to a far more reasonable 12. Me locking his Xbox in the chicken coop until dusk each day helps in this department.
This gives him far more time to spend with our ‘framily’ – a little word of mine, to describe family who are friendly, not horrible. And at the absolute epicentre of our framily are those twin apples of our eyes (focus, H!) Archie and Lily – or to give them their full and correct titles (as we do own the county of Sussex and are hugely respected and valued there – such a shame we won’t be able to return without a full security detail), Princess Lilibet Limited and Prince Archewell Incorporated.
My mother, Doria, continues to be both a role model and a friend – framily member, even – as I watch with awe how she stands in her power and takes back her narrative from the systemically racist and misogynist media. She’s also a dynamite babysitter – I don’t know what I’d do with Harry without her. (Only kidding, H!) But though my heart is in the home, my day-to-day – like so many working mums! – is all business. Of course, it’s true that I’ve been working secretly as a UN Special Envoy and top-level hostage negotiator for most of my adult life, but almost equally important has been my mission to hand-create top quality products that spark joy, both for Yours Truly and literally billions of frams-I-haven’t-met-yet the world over.
And this year has seen my career (such a cold word; I prefer ‘carer’) go from strength to strength as I continued to speak truth to power. You might have noticed that my lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard was reimagined as As Ever in February; there’s always someone who wants to spoil your sparkle. And what with all the trademark hassles (probably racist/misogynist in intent) I thought it best to simply ‘let it go’. So you can now find all your fave candles, dog biscuits and dry ingredients at asever.com. That contains ‘sever’, which does of course sound bad but sometimes it can be good, right, H? Joking!
I’ve been taking some time out this year to learn fluent French, culminating in my surprise appearance at Paris Fashion Week in October. It was so cool to be among regular, normal French people, speaking to them in their own language, which some take a lifetime to learn, let alone master. They all thought I was incredible, and even gave me a cute pet name – la crétine! Which is some kind of cake apparently.
A round-up of another lovely, empowered year wouldn’t be complete without a mention of Netflix – also ‘framily’! Under my multi-year deal – or ‘curation’ as I prefer to call it – I was privileged to release the second season of With Love, Meghan in August, with a divine holiday special in December – I know ‘yule’ love it! I also continued my work as an executive producer on various projects, including the series Polo – which dealt with this little-known sport the Brits call ‘the beautiful game’ – and the upcoming documentary Cookie Queens. I know that polo and biscuits are big issues for a little girl from a humble home like me to tackle – but as that great Belgian philosopher Audrey Hepburn said, ‘Nothing is impossible. The word itself says “I’m possible!”’
But what really brings a glow of pride to my inner little girl who had tickling to death banned is my advocacy and philanthropy, through the Archewell Foundation. We have continued to advocate for a kinder world for everyone. We were honoured to be presented with the Humanitarians of the Year Award at the Project Healthy Minds’ World Mental Health Day Gala in October because as the great English philosopher William Shakespeare says, ‘The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.’ Only trouble with that is, H and I have been blessed with so many gifts, we couldn’t give them all away if we tried!
So yes, friends, it’s been a year of mixed blessings. There will always be haters – which is only one T away from hatters, and the most famous of those was notoriously untrustworthy. The great French philosopher Thoreau once said, ‘Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain’, and I can now confide that he’d just seen me dancing in the rain when he said that. And I never even had to learn, I was just great to start with.
That’s a wrap, I think. So let us remember the true meaning of the Holidays – a private jet, a lovely island owned by a close friend and as much me-time on the beach as I can grab, with no chance of any weird fat men turning up, from either the North Pole or the Philippines. See you on the other side!
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