A royal correspondent has revealed the secret nicknames given to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle by staff at Spotify – and they are anything but complimentary!

The streaming giant axed a $20million, multi-year contract it had signed with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in 2023 after they made just 12 episodes of the Archetypes podcast in three years.

A number of other projects came to nothing, including Harry’s “sociopath podcast” where he proposed in-depth interviews with figures such as Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. One insider acerbically noted that this would present a “booking challenge”.

UK royal reporter Neil Sean claimed to Fox News on Thursday that the Duke of Sussex, 40, was known around the office as ‘Tim Nice But Dim’. “[Like Meghan], he’s unaware of the moniker,” he said.

 

The nickname refers to a character created in the 1990s by British comedy legend Harry Enfield. Tim, who was supposed to represent “low attainers from an affluent background”, had the catchphrase ‘Bloody nice bloke!’.

Like other Enfield creations such as Loadsamoney, Wayne and Waynetta Slob and and Kevin the Teenager, he was a household name in the UK for years. Ironically, the comedian went on to play Harry’s dad Prince Charles, as he was then, in Channel 4 sitcom The Windsors.

According to Sean, the Spotify team had a far more scathing nickname for Meghan Markle. She was known as ‘Eva’, after a diva-like character called Eva Phillips in the 1955 movie Queen Bee.

The name was used “as a warning signal to let people know that she was either arriving or on the warpath”. Sean added: “This wasn’t an engaging pet nickname. The nickname came from the 1955 camp classic ‘Queen Bee’ starring the ultimate diva herself, Joan Crawford.

“This is because, like the Joan character, she stung her victims to pieces. This is exactly how staff felt about working alongside [Meghan].”
Meghan was named after Joan Crawford's character in Queen BeeMeghan was named after Joan Crawford’s character in Queen Bee (Image: Getty)
“According to the source, she had no idea about any of this,” Sean added to Fox News. He added that staff found Meghan, 43, “really difficult to deal with” because of her “mood swings”.

Sources also claimed to Sean that Meghan only wanted “to speak to the person at the top” when she worked alongside them on her podcast.

“When that person is not around, they have to be reminded that they are dealing with somebody who is a duchess and more importantly, a member of the British royal family,” Sean was told.

 
Meghan's Archetypes podcast shot to the top of the Spotify charts when it was released in AugustMeghan Markle on her Archetypes podcast (Image: Twitter)
“This worked at the beginning as people were… beguiled by Meghan’s presence. But it quickly wore off when she became demanding… clearly forgetting her struggling actress days.”

Both Fox News and Page Six, which also reported the story, said the Sussex camp had been contacted for a response to the report.