Meghan Markle’s podcast endeavors came to a speedy end which was followed by hefty criticism. A source now reveals who turned down a guest spot offer.
Meghan Markle’s Archetypes podcast lasted only one season after Spotify and Archewell Audio parted ways.
Quickly, Meghan and Prince Harry’s working relations became a public spectacle as people wondered what really went down behind the scenes. In fact, they were even labeled “grifters” by Spotify’s head of podcast innovation and monetization, Bill Simmons. He said: “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. 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.”
With the podcast far in the past, a former Spotify employee divulged a bit more about the show and how it was created. Particularly, recruiting guests for the show reportedly became an issue.
Meghan, given her status, was expected to pull in talent herself which is pretty standard for Spotify’s process. “Meghan’s gonna be on the phone with the pope tomorrow,” was the expectation, according to the former Spotify employee who spoke with Vanity Fair. However, the offers were declined repetitively with stars like Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and Megan Thee Stallion turning down the royal. Those names were confirmed by other individuals who worked on the podcast, but a source told Vanity Fair that Megan Thee Stallion’s team had no clue about the request.
The Spotify source noted that there were other challenges to the podcast. They said: “Archetypes was complicated as a podcast concept. You had to explain what the archetype was, then why the woman embodied it, but also how it wasn’t true about her. Every episode was like, ‘This is my friend who has been called that archetype but is not that archetype.’”
Guests who did appear on the show included Paris Hilton, Mariah Carey, and Iliza Shlesinger. Meghan’s goal was to explain why these individuals didn’t fall into the archetypes they’d been cast into, but Meghan was actually addressing the concept of stereotyping. The language around the show was difficult to communicate to the average listener, leaving he message to get lost.
“Every episode got more and more watered down and further away from actual conversation,” the source said. “It felt like very Women’s and Gender Studies 101 taught in 2003.”