Showbusiness bosses are rarely known to criticise the ‘talent’. Who knows when they might have to work with them again?
So, there was widespread shock last summer when an executive at music streaming platform Spotify publicly described the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as ‘f****** grifters’.
Bill Simmons, who goes by the title Head of Podcast Innovation and Monetisation, used the intemperate putdown last summer, just hours after Harry and Meghan’s podcast deal with Spotify, reported to have been worth £15million, was axed.
‘I’ve got to get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom [call] I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea,’ ranted Simmons. ‘It’s one of my best stories.’
Why would he say such things?
An ever-growing list of eye-catching ventures and initiatives from Harry and Meghan might help provide an answer – projects which, for all the carefully constructed razzmatazz of their launch, have so far come to little.
Simmons won’t be the only one to recall that the Sussexes had been hailed as ‘powerful voices’ who appreciated the ‘potential of audio storytelling’ when Spotify signed up their podcasts in 2020.
That was soon after the couple had quit royal duties and sought a new life and fortune in the United States.
In the event, they produced 12 podcast episodes in two and a half years before splitting with the company, a decision described as having been made by mutual consent.
Meghan, however, is undaunted. In February this year, she attempted to revive her Archetypes series of podcasts, announcing amid great fanfare that she had signed a deal with Lemonada Media, a female-founded company that wants to ‘make life suck less’.
The duchess gushed that she was ‘overjoyed’ to be joining Lemonada, a much smaller firm, adding: ‘Our plan to re-release Archetypes so that more people can have access to it, as well as launching a dynamic new podcast, are well in the works.
‘I’m so eager to be able to share it soon.’
Whenever ‘soon’ might be… As I have now disclosed in my Daily Mail social diary, Eden Confidential, Meghan’s Lemonada deal is struggling to get out of the starting blocks.
There are no broadcasts expected this year.
‘The relaunch of Meghan’s Archetypes podcast got pushed back to 2025,’ a California-based source told me.
It turned out there are some complications. It is understood, for example, that Lemonada did not want the podcast’s launch to be overshadowed by Meghan’s new lifestyle television series on Netflix, which she began filming at a rented house in Montecito last week.
The broadcaster has said the show will ‘celebrate the joys of cooking and gardening, entertaining and friendship’.
Lemonada is also said to be concerned that there could have been ‘scheduling conflicts’ between the launch of the podcasts and that of Meghan’s new lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard.
A spokesman for Meghan declined to comment on the delay, but sources claimed she had a list of ‘very high-profile guests’ already scheduled.
Her series for Spotify had certainly included genuine stars, in the shape of Wimbledon champion Serena Williams and pop star Mariah Carey.
Even so, announcing a new showbusiness deal then to delay producing any broadcasts for a year is – to put it mildly – an unusual marketing strategy.
Broadcasters generally launch new ventures when they have content ready to share. The Royal Household makes announcements only when it has details to provide, as Harry would know.
Perhaps it’s an approach to which we must become accustomed.
Meghan launched American Riviera Orchard with a video posted on Instagram in March.
Six weeks later, the only sign of activity has been the jars of strawberry jam sent to 50 of the duchess’s friends and social media influencers.
I think that this makes Harry and Meghan look unprofessional and amateurish. It is also making me suspicious about Meghan’s motives.
I do hope that Lemonada is not being used just for publicity purposes.
If that were so, it would only encourage others to share Simmons’s unkind – and very forthright – view of Montecito’s royal couple.
