Cuz baby now we got bad blood?
The end of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s $15.7 million partnership with Spotify has been the subject of much commentary in news media. The parting of ways had a lot to do with production hurdles, mismanagement and simple laziness on the part of the Sussexes who put out only one season of one podcast.
According to the Wall Street Journal, at one point, Meghan Markle sent a personal letter to Taylor Swift, requesting the pop star to make an appearance on her show, which had also featured celebrities like Serena Williams, Paris Hilton and Mariah Carey. But the ‘Midnight Rain’ singer rejected the invitation through a representative.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had set up multiple content-creation deals with production giants like Spotify and Netflix, after the duo had announced that they were stepping down from their positions as senior members of the Royal Family.
They had signed a three year deal with Spotify, which was worth around £15.7 million.
However, insiders report that the Duke and Ducchess’ production company, Archwell, had been unable to reach production benchmarks required to justify the payout.
Another report by WSJ revealed that there were several production mishaps and mismanagement in the process, including Markle making last-minute changes to the episodes. The partnership also failed to honor a term in their deal that Harry and Meghan would be directly innvolved in the production and voicing the podcasts.
Spotify executives were also reportedly frustrated by the length of time it had taken for Archwell to finalise the idea about Meghan’s show, and also put together a team for production to begin.
Netflix too is reportedly contemplating ending ties with the royal duo.
Whatever the reasons for ending the lucrative deals, we can safely say that not even a personal invite from the Duchess of Sussex was enough to impress the reigning queen of pop.
