Meghan Markle is sharing her personal passions with her biggest audience yet through her new Netflix series With Love, Meghan — and soon, viewers can shop her lifestyle brand, As ever, too.

In her most intimate interview in years, the Duchess of Sussex, 43, opens up to PEOPLE in this week’s exclusive cover story about rediscovering herself beyond motherhood, the challenges of building a business and how she and Prince Harry are balancing love, family and new beginnings. Those new beginnings include the debut of With Love, Meghan, which premiered on March 4, and the first products from her renamed As ever venture.

In partnership with Netflix, As ever will sell a collection of herbal teas (lemon ginger, peppermint and hibiscus), crepe mix, flower sprinkles “for beautifying meals and sweet treats,” shortbread butter cookies with flower sprinkles, limited-edition wildflower honey with honeycomb and, of course, her signature raspberry jam in keepsake packaging.

The products will be available for sale this spring on asever.com in the U.S.

First products from Meghan Markle’s As ever brand.Netflix

When it comes to her lifestyle brand, the Duchess of Sussex tells PEOPLE, “There were tons of twists and turns — even with the name. I was figuring it out in real-time.”

Although she has faced scrutiny at every step, Meghan defines the experience by growth. “I appreciate everyone who gave me the grace to make mistakes and figure it out and also to be forgiving with myself through that. It’s a learning curve,” she says.

The Duchess of Sussex cooks, hosts, decorates and curates in With Love, Meghan, but this isn’t a traditional “stand and stir” format — an industry term Meghan learned during filming to describe most cooking shows.

“It feels as though we’re just spending time together, which is what it ended up being,” Meghan tells PEOPLE of the crew’s presence in the series. “I’d make a recipe and say, ‘Everyone try this,’ and there are certain dishes where you just watch everyone flock in. I’d say, ‘We’ve run out of spoons!’ It ended up feeling so communal, and that’s the spirit of the show.”

Adds director Michael Steed, who previously worked on the Emmy-winning series Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown: “Everyone has this one version of her, but she’s just someone who is hustling and working and doing. I genuinely wanted to create an environment where she could relax, and I know the pressures of what she deals with on a daily basis. I was happy that we created scenes where she could tap into that part of her life.”

Now Meghan is sharing on Instagram too for the first time in years, through an account she launched on Jan. 1.

“When I was last on social media, Boomerang was the thing,” she says, laughing. “Instagram Stories didn’t even exist. So it’s been a minute.”

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex photographed in Montecito, California, in March 2024.

Despite the intense focus of her return to Instagram — where her two million followers analyze everything from her outfits to the plates she uses — Meghan doesn’t identify as an influencer.

“I see myself as an entrepreneur and a female founder, and if the brand ends up influential, then that’s great,” she says.

Although With Love paints a picture of domestic bliss, with Meghan slow-cooking berries from her garden, she doesn’t consider herself a “tradwife” — shorthand for “traditional wife” — either.

“I like being able to do a hybrid” she says. Chinese food delivery is a favorite, “but even when I get takeout, I will try to plate it beautifully,” Meghan says of dinners at home with her husband Prince Harry and their children Prince Archie, 5 and Princess Lilibet, 3.

Despite her show’s beautiful imagery, the Duchess of Sussex encourages others to strive for balance, not perfection. “The series is about doing what you can do,” she says, “and doing it with love.”

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, photographed in Montecito, California in June 2024.Jake Rosenberg/Courtesy Netflix

That outlook was first noticed by a friend who visited the set in Montecito, and came up with the name of the show.

“Their takeaway was they were so happy to see me as myself,” Meghan says. “She said, ‘It’s like your love letter to all the things you’ve loved to do, and if you’re signing off a love letter, it’s ‘With love, Meghan.’ ‘ ” It felt right, and I loved that my friend helped create it.”

The series features her domestic prowess and highlights themes on The Tig, a blog where she shared her love for food, travel and wellness from 2014 to 2017 while filming the popular legal drama Suits. She shut down the site in April 2017 as her relationship with Prince Harry grew serious and, by early 2018, deleted her personal Instagram — but says the time felt right to be back in her element now.

“When your children get to a certain age — when you’re not just playing in the sandbox with them but almost playing in your own sandbox again — it’s super joyful,” the Duchess of Sussex tells PEOPLE.

“As a woman, a mom and a wife, to be able to find yourself again — in a way that was always present but that you maybe couldn’t put as much attention on as you now can when your kids are a little bit older — is a wonderful feeling.”