Following the termination of the $20 million breakup between Spotify, Meghan Markle, and Prince Harry, a recent report suggests that her staff members conducted the Duchess’ podcast interviews.
After the official announcement last week regarding the couple’s conclusion of the podcast deal with Spotify, Podnews disclosed information from multiple sources, indicating that Markle’s interviews were conducted by her team, with the Duchess recording the questions separately and dubbing her part during the post-production process.
This report comes from a previous November statement in the UK Daily Mail. The earlier information referenced Allison Yarrow, a Markle’s Archetypes podcast guest, who expressed gratitude to the show’s producer, Farrah Safarfi, for her interview skills.
Initially struck in 2020, the podcast deal involved the couple producing a series of shows for Spotify over multiple years.
The first podcast was initially scheduled to launch in 2021 but faced significant delays. Eventually, Markle introduced her show Archetypes nearly two years later, in 2022.
With thirteen episodes featuring guests like Paris Hilton, Mindy Kaling, and Serena Williams, the podcast abruptly stopped airing episodes without any official statement regarding its future.
Eight months later, Spotify decided to end the deal between the two royals, leading to one of Spotify’s executives, renowned sports and pop culture podcaster Bill Simmons, referring to the couple as “f**king grifters.”
Last week, New Yorker, Allison Yarrow, appeared on the Duchess’ podcast in an episode titled “To ‘B’ or not to ‘B.'” The discussion revolved around the term “b***ch” and its application to women in the public sphere during the nineties.
The journalist’s remarks are interwoven with Meghan’s comments in video clips from the show.
However, in August, Allison shared a social media post featuring a photo of herself in front of a sign for Gimlet, an audio production house.
It seems that Allison didn’t sit face-to-face with Meghan for the episode. The podcast features conversations between the Duchess and other guests, including her close friends Serena Williams, Jameela Jamil, and Mellody Hobson.
Prominent experts, such as Dr. Mashinka Firunts Hakopian, who shared insights in the episode “The Duality of Diva” that featured singer Mariah Carey, and Dr. Laura Kay, who made spoke on “The Misconception of Ambition,” have been featured on the show.
The clever editing of clips seamlessly blends the experts’ comments with Meghan’s own, making it less evident that the Duchess may not have directly engaged with these experts herself.
In late 2020, Meghan and Harry signed a lucrative podcast deal with the audio streaming giant, estimated to be worth around £18 million.
However, since then, Meghan has only released nine episodes of her podcast, Archetypes, along with a holiday special featuring celebrity guests and their son, Prince Archie, airing in December 2020.
