Serena Williams "Botched" the As Ever Unboxing. The Internet Has Entered the Chat
Serena Williams "Botched"
the As Ever Unboxing.
The Internet Has Entered the Chat.
Smashed chocolates. Candle scents she couldn't pronounce. A woman who openly doesn't like chocolate announcing she has been "killing" the chocolates. Meghan's Mother's Day PR moment was something. Serena made absolutely sure of it.
Let's Set the Scene. A PR Package. A Best Friend. What Could Go Wrong.
It is late April 2026. Meghan Markle's lifestyle brand As Ever has just launched its Mother's Day collection. There are candles. There are chocolates. There are marketing materials that initially described the candles as inspired by "Prince Archie of Sussex" and "Princess Lilibet of Sussex" — a detail that caused its own news cycle before being quietly corrected. But that's a story for another paragraph. Or actually it's a story for this paragraph, because it tells you everything about the week As Ever was having.
Into this context, Meghan sends her best friend of sixteen years — Serena Williams, 23-time Grand Slam champion, owner of 18 million Instagram followers — a gift box from the Mother's Day collection. A thoughtful gesture between friends. A soft brand moment. PR that practically does itself.
Reader, Serena did it herself. And she did it her way.
"I've botched it. She's like so classy, and I'm like, look at this. This is nuts. Anyway, the chocolate was beautiful, and it was delicious. I don't like chocolate, but I've been killing them."
— Serena Williams, Instagram Stories, April 2026, pointing at smashed chocolatesThe Unboxing, Beat by Beat, With Full Commentary
Serena Williams posted to her Instagram Stories. She opened with the most grounding of openers: "So I just got this in the mail from my friend Meghan." So far, so normal. She panned the camera to a powder-blue As Ever box with blue flower details. She praised Meghan's penmanship on the handwritten note: "Her penmanship has always been amazing from the 100 years I've seemed to have known her." This is genuinely charming. This is the Serena Williams we like.
Then she opened the chocolates.
The £42 box of Compartes chocolates — gourmet artisan confections, the kind of thing you're supposed to photograph before eating and definitely before dropping — came out of the box in a state best described as liberated. Displaced. At peace with chaos. Several pieces had departed their original positions entirely. A few had been eaten. Serena, to her eternal credit, assessed the situation immediately: "I've botched it."
She then said she doesn't like chocolate. She then said the chocolate was "beautiful" and "delicious." She then said she had been "killing them." She then laughed.
All of this happened in front of 18 million people. Kris Jenner this was not.
Speaking of Meghan's brand having a complicated week — we've been tracking As Ever since the candle titles controversy broke. Worth reading for context.
Read: Meghan Markle Took Lilibet. Then Turned It Into a Brand →She moved on to the candles — Signature Candle No. 506 and No. 604, inspired by Archie and Lilibet's birthdays. The scent notes, which include "neroli" and "santal," gave Serena some trouble. She squinted. She attempted. She moved on. The internet transcribed this as "couldn't pronounce them" which is a slight exaggeration but also absolutely the vibe.
She ended the video by saying: "Thank you, Meghan. I love you." Which is either a completely genuine expression of affection between two old friends, or the most perfectly placed cover story for what had just occurred, depending entirely on your priors.
"She's so classy, and I'm just like — look at this."
— Serena Williams, a sentence that contains, in nine words, the entire As Ever brand tensionThe Internet Divided Instantly Into Two Very Loud Camps
Camp One arrived first. "Ummm, Serena Williams just trolled the crap out of As Ever. That is NOT the way you unbox a friend's gift." "Serena has been Markled." "Why would you make your friend's product look bad while trying to promote it?" "What a beautiful box — and inside a complete mess." "I don't like chocolate... It was delicious... Uhhhhhh." This camp had made its decision before Serena finished speaking and had the screenshots queued before the video ended.
Camp Two arrived slightly later and slightly calmer. "She did say she liked Meghan's penmanship, and that she doesn't like chocolate, but she had devoured those ones. I don't think it was intentional." "Serena probably has more followers and is doing her a favor." "This is just Serena being Serena — she's not a polished influencer, she's a person." This camp asked the reasonable question: is it possible that a woman who has spent her career being completely authentic on camera was just being authentic on camera?
Both camps have points. Both camps are missing something. Let's examine this properly.
The As Ever brand has had a genuinely eventful April. We've been documenting all of it — the Bondi Beach outfit controversy, the children's title candles, and now this. The full picture is worth having.
What This Says About the As Ever Brand Strategy
Let's zoom out from the smashed chocolates for a moment and look at what the As Ever PR strategy actually reveals this week, because it is genuinely interesting from a brand perspective.
The first As Ever launch — the jam collection — was a masterclass in aspirational lifestyle marketing. The recipients were A-list. The posts were styled. Kris Jenner held a jar of jam like it was the Holy Grail. The whole operation projected exactly the elevated, classy, "I have arrived as a serious lifestyle brand" energy that Meghan was clearly aiming for. We covered the gap between that aspiration and the reality in some depth.
This launch is different. The recipients are smaller. The approach is more casual. The showpiece unboxing featured a woman laughing at smashed chocolates. If this is intentional — a deliberate pivot toward authenticity over aspiration — it's a potentially smart strategy that went slightly sideways. If it's not intentional, it's a sign that the A-list talent who'd post a glossy jam photo for a friend are somewhat less available for round two.
The truth is probably somewhere between the two, which is where most uncomfortable brand truths live.
Serena Williams — 18 million Instagram followers. ✓ Received package. Posted chaotic unboxing.
Heather Dorak, Meghan's Pilates instructor — 12,000 followers. ✓ Received package.
Adrianna Barrionuevo Brach, Today show editor — 7,000 followers. ✓ Received package.
Carly (@mycityapartment) — 460,000 followers. ✓ Received package. Posted polished photo.
Kristina Zias — 350,000 followers. ✓ Received package.
Notable: Kris Jenner, Chrissy Teigen, Zoe Saldana — all prominent in the first launch — not confirmed to have received this collection.
As Ever PR: The First Launch vs The Mother's Day Edit
Are Meghan and Serena Actually Fine? Probably. Here's Why.
The corner of the internet that monitors Meghan Markle closely arrived at "friendship in trouble" faster than Serena arrived at the camera. The "Serena has been Markled" tweet — implying Serena had been quietly sidelined by Meghan in some way — went extremely viral extremely fast. But let's look at what we actually have here.
Serena Williams and Meghan Markle have been friends since 2010. Serena attended Meghan's royal wedding. She hosted the star-studded New York baby shower when Meghan was pregnant with Archie. She advised Meghan to "stop being so nice" when the press attention became overwhelming. These are not the actions of a person with a secret grudge. This is someone who has been actively supportive through the genuinely difficult parts of Meghan's public life.
The more boring and probably accurate read: Serena Williams is a chaotic, genuine, extremely non-lifestyle-influencer human being who received a gift from her friend, filmed herself eating the chocolates before she thought to properly present them, laughed about it, and moved on. The "I love you, Meghan" at the end was real. The smashed chocolates were just Serena being Serena.
The internet needs this to be a drama because the internet needs everything to be a drama. But sometimes a botched unboxing is just a botched unboxing.
The friendship speculation is part of a much longer running story about Meghan's inner circle and who remains in it. Worth reading the full picture.
Read: Six Years Out — What Meghan Built, What She Lost →What Actually Happened Here, and What It Actually Means
Here is what we think happened: Serena Williams received a box of chocolates, found them delicious despite allegedly not liking chocolate (relatable, honestly), ate several of them, then thought "oh I should film this for Meghan," picked up the now-disturbed box, filmed it in the state it was in, called herself out on it, and posted it because she is constitutionally incapable of pretending to be something she is not. The "I love you, Meghan" was real. The chaos was also real. Both can be true.
Here is what the PR implication is regardless of intent: the most-followed person on the Mother's Day As Ever PR list posted a video of the product smashed, described the promotion as "botched," and opened with the information that she doesn't like the product. That is not ideal. In a week where As Ever also had the Bondi Beach image controversy and the children's royal title candles story, it's a hat trick of unfortunate brand moments. Three separate conversations, none of which were about how great the jam is. As Ever's brand problem has never been quality. It's always been the noise that follows it everywhere.
Serena has 18 million followers. She delivered a genuine, warm, slightly chaotic moment that millions of people watched and discussed. In some alternate universe where As Ever had leaned into the humor — posted a response, played along, made it a moment — this could have been brilliant marketing. Instead it became just another week in the As Ever news cycle. Which is, at this point, generating more coverage than the products themselves.
The chocolate was delicious, by the way. Serena made that very clear. Several times. Despite not liking chocolate.
Just wanted to make sure we got that in there.
Three PR stories in one week. None of them about how good the jam is. That's the As Ever brand problem in a nutshell — and it has nothing to do with the products.
People Also Ask
The Royal Mess Never Sleeps. Neither Does Our Desk.
Crowns, damage control, smashed chocolates, and the kind of brand chaos that keeps calling itself authenticity. We cover all of it — with receipts, no condescension, and a very strong cup of coffee.
