Harry and Meghan Join the Graveyard of Failed Celeb Podcasts
Earlier this month, Spotify announced that the platform’s much-touted partnership with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s podcast production company, Archewell Audio, was being terminated after only two years, meaning that the royal exiles failed to deliver on the promises they made as part of the $20 million deal they signed in 2020.
What was supposed to be a multi-year alliance resulting in a slew of “uplifting” audio projects ultimately spawned just one show: Markle’s feminist-leaning Archetypes, a podcast meant to “investigate, dissect, and subvert the labels that try to hold women back.” Archetypes debuted in 2022 to middling reviews and released only 12 episodes, in which Markle conducted interviews with other extremely famous women that involved a lot of back-patting on both sides.
Since news of the terminated Spotify deal broke, the reactions have been scathing: “If Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex ain’t complaining about the royal family, I don’t know if anybody cares what they have to say,” ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith said on his eponymous podcast.