The Duchess of Sussex seems to have forgotten the golden rule of buying domain names: buy all domain names.
On Friday, the mysterious site contained a simple message: “Sorry. Permission. Please donate to the Trussell Trust.”
It was then linked to a JustGiving page purportedly in support of a well-known British food bank.
The JustGiving page has the message: “Not Meghan. I hope Meghan doesn’t mind.”
A screenshot of the homepage of americanrivieraorchard.uk on April 19, 2024 americanrivieraorchard.uk
He adds: “Thoughts with Catherine.
The creator of the page, who did not leave his contact details, could not be reached for comment.
At the time of publication, the fundraiser had raised more than £8,300, or more than $10,000, well surpassing its goal of £1,000.
The Sussexes did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI, sent outside of US business hours.
Donors to the food bank used the comments section to pass along remarks about Meghan and Prince Harry.
“A good cause that the Sussexes would definitely approve of,” one donor wrote.
Another was a little more pointed: “Fantastic – No one needs 200 pound jam jars – it’s a brilliant cause and thanks for directing the UK website towards real people and not marketing gurus superficial lifestyle.”
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend the Ms. Foundation Women of Vision Awards in May 2023. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
It’s unclear exactly what Markle plans to do with the American Riviera Orchard brand, but a related trademark application indicates the brand intends to sell tableware, cookbooks, jams and spreads .
The Trussell Trust, meanwhile, is the UK’s leading charitable food bank, supporting a network of 1,200 food banks across the country.
In a statement sent to BI, the association’s director of public engagement, Sophie Carré, said: “The association is not linked to the domain of this website and does not know who created it. »
But she said the trust would accept any resulting donations, saying “the money raised would not meet the conditions for rejection”.
The Sussexes do not seem to have learned the lessons from previous cybersquatting attempts.
In 2020, their Archewell Foundation was targeted, with the domain archewellfoundation.com briefly directing visitors to a YouTube video of the Kanye West, or Ye, song “Gold Digger.” (The actual foundation URL is archewell.org.)
Ending a domain with simply “.uk”, as in the latter case, is not common, even in the UK – where domain names usually end with “.co.uk” or “.org.uk” .
But when you’re part of the UK’s most famous family, you should probably cover all your bases.
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