On Friday, the Duchess of Sussex seemed serious as she read something on her phone while walking to a salon appointment in Santa Barbara, reports Daily Mail.
Meghan, who looked somewhat sombre while walking from her car, wore her hair down and donned a blue and white stripe knitted sweater over a dark-wash pair of jeans.
The royal accessorised with a pair of black ballet pumps, a stack of gold bracelets and a $7800 (NZ$8616) Fendi handbag.
Harry and Meghan’s Spotify deal, which is said to be worth between $29 million (NZ$32m) and $37m (NZ$41m), was officially cancelled via a joint statement released by both the streaming giants and the Sussexes’ company, Archewell Audio, last week.
Since its debut, Meghan’s podcast Archetypes ranked as top podcast on Spotify and even won a People’s Choice Award in December. However, insiders revealed that the streaming service’s executives had expected more content from the Sussexes considering their whopping deal, reports Variety.
The royals missed the “productivity benchmarks” needed to get the full payout prior to their contract ending, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The day after news surfaced that the Sussexes’ podcast deal was axed, a Spotify executive slammed the royals for being “lazy” and “f***ing grifters”.
“I wish I had been involved in the ‘Megan and Harry leave Spotify’ negotiation,” Spotify’s Head of Sports Strategy, Bill Simmons, shared during an episode of his podcast The Bill Simmons Podcast.
“That’s a podcast we should’ve launched with them. I gotta get drunk one night and tell the story of this Zoom I had with Harry to try to help him with a podcast idea. It’s one of my best stories.”
Meghan's Archetypes podcast. Photo / Spotify
On the other hand, other industry sources have revealed that Spotify is shifting its priorities in the podcasting sector, according to Page Six.
“Spotify wants to focus on people who drive strong audiences, like Alex Cooper, Dax Shepard and Emma Chamberlain. There are a lot of great creators who are very eager,” the insider revealed.
“Meghan and Harry are the outlier on all of this, I think they have come off as being lazy and difficult.”
Following their departure from their Spotify deal, there has been talk about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s multimillion-dollar agreement with Netflix and whether it’s the next domino to fall for the Montecito royals.
There are several reports suggesting the deal may be in jeopardy, with the couple only producing one series - Harry & Meghan - so far and only having only Heart of Invictus in the works.
The Netflix deal, which was also made in 2020, was reportedly worth $145m (NZ$160m).
