Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in their Netflix docuseries “Harry & Meghan.”
Netflix
Meghan Markle’s podcast will not be coming back for a second season on Spotify.
Spotify and Archewell Audio, Markle and Prince Harry’s production company, say they have “mutually agreed to part ways.”
The couple will also not be receiving the full $20 million payout from their deal with Spotify, per media reports.
Meghan Markle’s podcast will not be coming back for a second season on Spotify, the streaming company told Insider on Thursday.
In a joint statement, the two companies said they have “mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series” they made together.
“The podcast will no longer be produced at Spotify as we are mutually parting ways,” a spokesperson for Archewell Audio, the couple’s production company, added to Insider.
Markle and her husband Prince Harry will also not be getting the full $20 million payout from their deal with Spotify, the Wall Street Journal first reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Archewell did not produce enough content to be eligible for the full payout, the New York Post further reported, citing a source close to the situation on Thursday.
A Spotify spokesperson declined to comment about why Markle’s podcast will not be continued and how much the Sussexes will receive from their deal. The Archewell spokesperson said it will not be providing any financial details about the settlement agreement.
The couple, who are the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, signed the deal with Spotify in late 2020. Archewell Audio has only completed the “Archetypes” podcast project for Spotify, per the Journal. The podcast focuses on labels that hold women back. It’s not clear how many other projects they were supposed to deliver.
The 12-episode podcast “Archetypes” made its debut in August 2022 and shot to the top of Spotify’s charts in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. It featured big-name guests such as tennis legend Serena Williams, singer Mariah Carey, and celebrity Paris Hilton.
The news about Markle’s podcast comes amid a downturn in the tech and media sectors. Spotify has already laid off about 800 people this year. Spotify said at its second round of job cuts in June, which hit its podcast division, that it was making a “strategic realignment.”
Prince Harry and Markle left their royal roles in 2020 to “work to become financially independent.” They moved to the US, where they signed a deal with Netflix reportedly worth $100 million, per The New York Times. Netflix declined to comment on the value of the deal to the Times at the time. The couple’s docuseries “Harry and Meghan” was a hit with US viewers.
Prince Harry also wrote a tell-all memoir “Spare,” which broke sales records when it hit the shelves in January this year.