ROYALSPrince Harry and Meghan Markle DUMPED by Spotify
June 15 2023, Published 7:02 p.m. ET
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been dumped by Spotify, Deadline confirmed on Thursday, June 15.
According to the outlet, the pair, who inked a reported $20 million back in 2020, are apparently rethinking their deals and may find another home for content.
When Meghan's podcast "Archetypes" launched in August 2022, it immediately topped the Spotify charts and scored a People's Choice Award. However, the music company is going through rough times, as they recently laid off 200 employees.
"We have made the difficult but necessary decision to make a strategic realignment of our group and reduce our global podcast vertical and other functions by approximately 200 people, or 2% of Spotify’s workforce," the company's head of podcast business Sahar Elhabashi said in a statement.
Public relations expert Edward Coram James noted how Harry's popularity has plunged ever since he moved to the U.S. and spoke out about his family. "If there is a massive nuclear backlash against the U.K. press from the British public then that will have an effect and U.K. politicians will feel like they have to get involved," he explained in an interview.
"The problem is Harry and Meghan, or specifically Harry, is not the person to achieve change in the media landscape. The reason for that is quite simple, he is deeply, deeply unpopular in the U.K.," he added.
- Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Empire Is Beginning to 'Crumble' After Spotify Deal Ends, Says Royal Expert
- Meghan Markle and Prince Harry 'Fighting Back to Tell Their Side of the Story' After Duo Was Dropped by Spotify
- 'It Was Humiliating': Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Spotify Failure 'Put a Fire Under Both of Them to Keep Moving Forward'
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James said there's a specific tactic the 38-year-old and his wife need to work on in order to be well-liked in Hollywood.
"In order to effect change on that scale and against that level of opponent you need to carry the British public with you and he's lost them," James shared.
"If anything his actions are more likely to curry a bit of sympathy with the U.K. press. This isn't necessarily right, it's an unfortunate reality and it's morally pretty wrong but the reality is there's a significant amount of people in the U.K. who will see Harry doing something and take the other side," he emphasized. "That's what happens when you become that unpopular. We saw it in America with Trump."
