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A Spotify executive has blasted Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as “grifters,” offering some insight as to why the streaming music giant will no longer host the royal couple’s podcast, Archetypes.
Bill Simmons, head of podcast innovation and monetization at Spotify, made the comments Friday on his own podcast, The Bill Simmons Podcast, just one day after news broke that Spotify and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had ended their deal.
Harry and Markle signed a $20-million deal with Spotify in 2020 and launched a 12-episode first season of Archetypes, which heard Meghan interview friends and celebrities including Paris Hilton, Mindy Kaling, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, Trevor Noah and Serena Williams, among others.
After its August 2022 launch, it rose to the number-one podcast in seven international markets, including Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. It also won the top podcast award at the People’s Choice Award in L.A. just six months ago.
In a profanity-laced tirade, Simmons laid into the couple, calling them “f–king grifters.”
“I wish I had been involved in the ‘Meghan and Harry leave Spotify’ negotiation. The F–king Grifters. That’s the podcast we should have launched with them,” Simmons said on the June 16 episode of his podcast. “I have got to get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea. It’s one of my best stories … F–k them. The grifters.”
According to The Guardian, Simmons had previously said he was annoyed he had to “share” Spotify with Prince Harry.
In a January 2022 episode of his podcast, Simmons said: “You live in f–king Montecito and you just sell documentaries and podcasts and nobody cares what you have to say about anything unless you talk about the Royal Family and you just complain about them.”
Spotify and Archewell Audio, Harry and Markle’s production company, said in a joint statement on Friday that the decision for the split was mutual.
“Spotify and Archewell Audio have mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together,” the statement read.
As of now, it’s unclear why the podcast will not go ahead with a second season on Spotify, or if Archetypes will pop up on another streaming site.
However, a representative from WME, the talent agency that the Duchess of Sussex signed with earlier this year, gave fans hope that Archetypes will continue on in the future.
“The team behind Archetypes remain proud of the podcast they created at Spotify. Meghan is continuing to develop more content for the Archetypes audience on another platform,” the spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal last week.
Both Spotify and the Duke and Duchess have faced their share of troubles in recent months.
Six months ago, Spotify announced that it would cut six per cent of its global workforce, approximately 600 jobs, and earlier this month it announced another 200 positions would be eliminated.
Meanwhile, Prince Harry has been in court recently, battling it out with the publisher of the Daily Mirror, whom he has accused of using extreme, often illegal practices to obtain scoops on his personal life.
Harry has accused Mirror Group Newspaper of invading his privacy on an “industrial scale,” including hacking his phone to illegally listen to his voicemails.
In court this month, he told the courtroom he’s “experienced hostility from the press since I was born.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that Harry and Markle will no longer receive the full $20 million payout from the Spotify deal.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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Michelle Butterfield
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