Meghan Markle’s failed podcast dropped by Spotify

Meghan Markle’s podcast has been canceled by Spotify, just over two years into a $20 million, multi-series deal. The news comes amid cutbacks at Spotify, and as the British public sours on the publicity-hungry royals.

In a joint statement, Spotify and Meghan and Prince Harry’s Archewell media company announced on Friday that they had "mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together.”

"Meghan is continuing to develop more content for the Archetypes audience on another platform," an Archewell spokesperson told several media outlets.

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Markle and Prince Harry signed a $20 million deal with Spotify in late 2020, which yielded just one podcast – ‘Archetypes’. Billed by Spotify as "a podcast where we investigate, dissect, and subvert the labels that try to hold women back,” ‘Archetypes’ featured Markle interviewing successful women – including Mariah Carey and Serena Willliams – to discuss the challenges they faced throughout their careers.

A total of 12 episodes of ‘Archetypes’ were released, with the last airing nine months ago. According to the New York Post, Markle failed to record enough content to honor her contract with Spotify, and will therefore not be entitled to the full $20 million payout.

Prince Harry married Markle in 2018, and the pair stepped down from their royal duties two years later to relocate to California, while retaining their titles. The couple embarked on a media blitz following their move to the US, although many of their projects have fallen flat.

Netflix dropped Markle’s animated series ‘Pearl’ last year. Battling financial losses and facing criticism for producing a barrage of “woke” content at the time, the streaming giant opted to nix the story of a “12-year-old girl who finds inspiration in a variety of influential women throughout history.”

Several months later, a Netflix documentary about Harry and Meghan’s marriage was panned by viewers and critics alike, with 44% of British viewers stating that Harry should lose his royal title over the series.

The latest announcement from Spotify and Archewell came less than two weeks after the streaming company announced that it would cut 200 jobs in its podcast division.