EXCLUSIVE: Meghan Markle Ridiculed for 'Selling Holiday Candle With No Wick,' Podcaster Claims — as He Labels Her Oprah-recommended Three-Fruit Spread 'The Worst Thing He Has Ever Tasted'
Podcaster Link Lauren was mortified when his $64 As Ever candle arrived without a wick.
Nov. 11 2025, Published 8:14 p.m. ET
Is Meghan Markle the Grinch Who Stole Christmas? One of the actress' As Ever holiday products sure didn't come with a very merry arrival when a podcaster unboxed it to make a shocking discovery, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Link Lauren, host of Spot On With Link Lauren, gave Markle's Christmas collection items a try and was horrified to find out the $64 Signature Candle No. 084 arrived without a wick or any way to light it.
Not Very Festive!
The $64 candle had already drawn heat from some customers for being too expensive.
Lauren, 26, is also a frequent commentator on the royal family and admittedly is not Markle's biggest fan. But he was curious to taste her holiday collection's fruit spreads and smell the aroma of her candles.
While doing the unboxing on his Monday, November 10, episode, Lauren looked down, stunned at first, then burst out laughing, revealing, "You guys, there's no wick!"
He held it up to the camera for viewers to see the small hole in the center where a wick should have been, and even asked his producer if she was seeing the same thing.
"Am I crazy? Where is the thing that I light? This has to be a joke," he exclaimed.
'Literally Nothing to Light'
The candle came without a wick, while the tiny hole where it should be was visible.
Assuring viewers that it wasn't a "stunt," Lauren proclaimed, "There's literally nothing to light in here."
He added, "No, it's not pasted down," when his producer asked the question through his earpiece.
"This is like Meghan Markle's career... failure to launch," Lauren snarked.
As far as the aroma, which was supposed to consist of water lotus, sandalwood, and California poppy, Lauren noted, "It smells no different than a Yankee candle you can get at CVS."
While the host gave positive feedback saying it smelled "feminine," he added of the candle itself, "It's weighty. It’s heavy. It doesn’t feel cheap. I'll give her credit for that.'"
Lauren sneered, "But it's a no for me. I will say this. If I'm paying $64 for a candle, there better be a wick. Okay? There better be something that I can actually light."
Not Impressed
Lauren held up the packaging paper, which he called 'cheap.'
Markle's As Ever fruit spreads didn't fare very well either.
"The packaging was cheap. Okay, the packaging had all this crinkly paper, and I threw most of it away," Lauren shared about the trio of strawberry, raspberry, and orange marmalade jars while noting that Oprah Winfrey named them to her 2025 Favorite Things holiday list.
"I thought when I got the holiday trio of spreads that they were going to come in a nice little package. They were basically wrapped in this cheap crinkly paper and thrown in a box," he shared while holding up the paper.
When it came to tasting, Lauren promised, "I have to say, I'm a very objective person, okay? If they are good, I will separate the art from the artist," referring to his past criticism of Markle, 44.
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In a Jam!
Lauren found the As Ever strawberry spread to be most edible.
Lauren wasn't overly impressed by the strawberry spread, saying, "It tastes like Smuckers...It's nothing groundbreaking. You could put it on toast in the morning."
He claimed the orange marmalade, "tastes like crap" and called it "diabolical," adding it was "literally the worst thing I've ever swallowed," while not feeling much love — or hate — for the raspberry.
Lastly, Lauren tried Markle's beloved dried flower sprinkles, which cost $15 for a tiny container.
After nibbling on the decorative touches, he said they tasted "like straw," adding, "This is a no for me also...I feel like I'm eating printer paper."
Markle was heavily mocked throughout the run of her Netflix lifestyle series, With Love, Meghan, for sprinkling dried-flower sprinkles on nearly every item she whipped up in the kitchen, telling viewers it was an easy way to "elevate" the recipes.
