After ditching Spotify, Meghan Markle is developing a new podcast
Her Spotify show will also be released from its old exclusivity deal
Aux News Meghan Markle
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle dumped Spotify last year, ending a $20 million deal that the famous duo had signed to give Spotify the exclusive rights to Markle’s Archetypes podcast, but that doesn’t mean the Duchess Of Sussex has completely lost the podcasting bug. Maybe she’s doing a Suits rewatch? Or she has thoughts on bad movies? Or she saw how much money SmartLess is apparently worth and wanted some of that action? (Surely her husband doesn’t need more castles, though.)
Whatever gave her the idea, Deadline says that Markle—solo this time, apparently—has signed a podcast deal with Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittels Wachs’ Lemonada Media, which launched Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Wiser Than Me podcast last year. Markle is doing some kind of new show for Lemonada, but all we know at this point is that she’ll host it. And that… may be all anyone knows about it. When you’re as famous as Meghan Markle or Julia Louis-Dreyfus, you can probably just say “I’d like to do a podcast” and then figure out the details later (not that that’s any different from how most podcasts get started, it’s just that people actually care when it’s a famous person).
Along with this deal for the new show, whatever it is, Lemonada is also taking over Archetypes and will free it from Spotify exclusivity. The show, which featured Markle interviewing famous and/or successful people (including Mariah carey, Mindy Kaling, Serena Williams, Paris Hilton, Jenny Slate, Judd Apatow, and Trevor Noah), will now be available on all podcast platforms.
In a statement, Markle said that she wanted to re-release Archetypes “so that more people can now have access to it,” and she teased that she’ll have more to share about the “dynamic new podcast” at some point “soon.”