Less than three years since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle joined forces with Spotify, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have announced that their podcast series has been cancelled.
The couple initially signed a multi-year $29 million deal with the audio streaming giant in early 2020, with the couple releasing two joint episodes of Archewell Audio in December 2020, before shifting their focus to Meghan’s solo podcast venture Archetypes late last year.
The couple first signed on with Spotify in 2020.
(Image: Getty)“Spotify and Archewell Audio have mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together,” read a joint statement from the two parties.
The couple have also allegedly faced further issues with the Archetypes name, with the Daily Mail reporting that their patent for exclusive use of the name has recently been refused by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, due to possible confusion with an existing trademark.
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Released in August 2022, Archetypes spanned twelve episodes and a number of star-studded guests, including Trevor Noah, Judd Apatow, Jameela Jamil, Paris Hilton, Mariah Carey, and Constance Wu.
Despite the podcast receiving over 65,000 positive reviews on Spotify, the show unfortunately was not able to be saved, with 9Honey reporting that Markle’s project allegedly was “part of a cull of underperforming projects.”
Markle described the show as “a podcast where we investigate, dissect, and subvert the labels that try to hold women back.”
(Image: Getty)Unfortunately for the couple, this is not the first instance in which one of their creative ventures has been cancelled, with news.com.au reporting that production on Markle’s animated Netflix series Pearl, had been quietly dissolved in May of last year.
“I’m thrilled that Archewell Productions, partnered with the powerhouse platform of Netflix and these incredible producers, will together bring you this new animated series which celebrates extraordinary women throughout history,” Markle previously said in the announcement.
Following the news of the repeated cancellations, it has also been speculated that the Sussexes $146 million deal with Netflix will not be renewed in future, despite the worldwide buzz surrounding their candid 2022 docu-series, Harry & Meghan.
“There is a feeling that the lemon has been fully squeezed,” a source told The Sun, adding that the “big bucks Harry and Meghan signed on for do not exist today.”
The docu-series received mixed reviews from critics.
(Image: Getty)