A Spotify executive has branded Prince Harry and Meghan Markle “F--king grifters” as their $20m, multi-year deal to make podcasts with the streaming platform ended after producing just 13 episodes.
The Sussexes had signed a three-year contract with the audio company but produced just one series called Archetypes, as well as a stand-alone holiday-themed episode with cameos from the likes of Naomi Osaka and Sir Elton John, before announcing the split on Thursday.
But the news didn’t go down well with one leading figure at Spotify.
Bill Simmons—who sold his podcast network company, The Ringer, to Spotify for $200 million in 2020 and become its head of podcast innovation and monetization after the acquisition—condemned the couple in his own podcast shortly after the announcement.
“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 his podcast, the Bill Simmons Podcast, on Friday. “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.”
Bill Simmons absolutely HATES Prince Harry
— The r/BillSimmons Podcast (@rBillSimmonsPod) June 16, 2023
We need to know what Harry said to Bill on that Zoom pic.twitter.com/lsxNoSPaCU
Simmons’s criticism should come as no surprise, as he's previously expressed his disdain for the British Prince while describing being affiliated with the same company as Harry as “embarrassing”.
“Shoot this guy to the sun… I’m so tired of this guy,” the podcaster said on his podcast in January 2022.
"What does he bring to the table? He just whines about sh-t and keeps giving interviews. Who gives a sh-t? Who cares about your life? You weren’t even the favorite son.”
Why did Spotify and Archewell Audio split?
Just two-and-a-half years after Markle and Prince Harry announced an exclusive podcast deal with Spotify, the partnership has crumbled.
The couple’s content creation label, Archewell Audio, confirmed the split shortly after the news broke that Spotify would not renew Markle’s interview series, Archetypes, for a second season.
“Spotify and Archewell Audio have mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together,” read a joint statement from Archewell and Spotify.
However, the couple hasn’t met the productivity benchmarks required to receive the full payout from the deal, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The cancellation comes as Spotify scales back on its push to establish itself as a key player in podcasting, with its chief executive Daniel Ek admitting that the popular format among listeners has proved hard to make profitable.
“We’re going to be very diligent in how we invest in future content deals,” Ek said on the company’s first-quarter earnings call. “And the ones that aren’t performing, obviously, we won’t renew… And the ones that are performing, we will obviously look at those on a case-by-case basis on the relative value.”
Earlier this month, the streaming giant also announced that it would be laying off around 200 staff members—around 2% of its workforce—who work within its podcast business.
Despite Spotify’s decision, Archetypes landed well with listeners
The Archetypes podcast, which was hosted by Markle, aired from August to November 2022 and aimed to “investigate, dissect and subvert the labels that try to hold women back”.
It featured the likes of Serena Williams, Mariah Carey, Mindy Kaling and Paris Hilton and took on taboo topics, such as “Breaking Down the Bimbo”, “Upending the Angry Black Woman Myth”, and “The Stigma of the Singleton”.
Although Spotify’s decision to cull the Archetypes may signal to some that it was a flop, the show skyrocketed to the top of Spotify’s charts of most listened-to podcasts in its premiere week last August, made headlines for its stellar guest line-up, and went on to win a People’s Choice Award for pop podcast of 2022.
Markle also recently won a Gracie Award for top entertainment podcast host.
Having landed well with listeners, Archwell Audio is reportedly now looking for a new home for the podcast: “Meghan is continuing to develop more content for the Archetypes audience on another platform,” a representative for William Morris Endeavor (WME), the talent agency that recently signed Markle, told the WSJ.
Lucrative content
The podcast is one of many lucrative content series the Sussexes have launched since exiting the Royal Family in 2020, including a four-book deal with Penguin Random House in 2021 and a reportedly $100 million Netflix contract.
Their documentary Harry & Meghan, which aired on Netflix in December 2022, broke documentary viewership records with 81.55 million hours viewed.
Meanwhile, Prince Harry’s memoir Spare, which came out a month later, sold 1.43 million copies during its first day of sale in the U.K., U.S., and Canada, and became the fastest-selling nonfiction book of all time.
Spotify, Archewell and WME did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
