Duchess Meghan credits Oprah Winfrey with helping her embrace the business prospects of her As Ever jam and preserves

Oprah Winfrey urged Meghan, Duchess of Sussex to "figure how to encapsulate your essence".

The 43-year-old duchess recently sold out the first batch of As Ever products - a honey with honeycomb and a raspberry jam - and she has reflected on how the 71-year-old television icon helped with some business advice.

Speaking on the new episode of the 'Confessions of a Female Founder' podcast, Meghan said: "Oprah, who I know as a mentor and friend to you, same for me, she was the one that said, ‘There are tons of things you could put your name on.

"'But for you and how you like to show up for people, once you figure out how to encapsulate your essence, then you'll know.' "

Initially, before Oprah's advice, the duchess was focused on making jam to share with her friends and family.

She explained: "At the beginning, I just liked making jam. All I liked to do was just make jam and preserves.

"And it went from, ‘Okay, I'm gonna share this jam with lots of friends and family,’ to ‘People really like it and it brings me joy. So maybe I can share it more broadly.’

"But even then, I was in so much fear of failure or opinion, that I wasn't thinking big enough at first…I thought, ‘I'll just do small batch jam from home.’

"And I had to step back and look at what I was doing and saying, ‘Am I playing small because I want to play small? Or am I setting in motion playing small because I'm scared?’ "