Meghan Markle's Sold Out 'Fell Asleep Here' Bookmark Is Royally Out-Of-Touch

It's 2026, and Meghan Markle is still girl bossing. Her lifestyle brand, As Ever, released a new drop of products on January 13, and one of the items is stirring up plenty of digital discourse: a leather bookmark priced at an eye-watering $18. The limited edition item features the words "fell asleep here" in Markle's signature handwritten script. While the high price point likely offsets the quality materials, as well as the fact that the bookmark is made by hand in the UK, it feels like another instance of Markle being weirdly out-of-touch with the real world. After all, it costs several times what the average person is likely used to spending on a bookmark.

In late 2025, LA Times reported that one poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 36% of Americans confessed to feeling worried about whether they could pay for essentials like electricity. If Markle lives in a world were $18 incidentals, like a bookmark, seem reasonable, then she is clearly insulated from the hardships of the average American. Despite this reality, the bookmarks still sold out within minutes, meaning some people found them desirable. But that doesn't mean they aren't ridiculous. "Here I am using an old shoelace as a bookmark," wrote one Reddit user in response to news that the item had sold out in under an hour. 

It could be easy to brush off the overpriced bookmark as a one-off instance of being out-out-touch, but for Meghan Markle, it's simply the latest one.
She seems to have a knack for appearing woefully out of step, even as she bends over backwards trying to seem relatable. Viewers critiqued her Netflix lifestyle series, "With Love, Meghan," calling it excessively lavish, even while it insists upon it's so-called authenticity. "What I found most grating was the repeated references to 'working moms,'" wrote one Reddit user. "This is... not a working mom lifestyle."

The staged nature of the show hasn't helped Markle to beat the "disingenuous" allegations. "The fact that she's shooting an at-home, entertaining lifestyle cooking show in a kitchen that isn't her kitchen is a problem," former publicist Rob Shuter told USA Today. "The fact that they rented basically a set to do a show that's all about the 'authentic you' is a problem, particularly if the visual is meant to give you her at home." The reality is it's just not really possible to ascend to the British royal family, like something out of a fairy tale, and then hope to go back to an every girl lifestyle. Markle would be far better off if she owned her immense privilege and wealth and stop trying to dispense advice to women who lack her resources.