Questions raised over interviews on Meghan Markle’s ‘Archetypes’ podcast despite its cancellation

The “grifters” row regarding Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s conduct after having projects dropped by Netflix and Spotify continues today, with strong accusations pointed towards the Duchess of Sussex pertaining to her recently cancelled podcast series, ‘Archetypes,’ which only ran for 12 episodes despite a $20 million USD content deal with the audio streaming giant.

With Bill Simmons having already sounded off that the pair were “f**king grifters,” reports from Podnews have now emerged of the extent Meghan Markle was involved in her podcast series. The podcasting news website have cited a number of sources allegedging (and it’s a big use of the word “alleged”) that Meghan's participation in the interview was not as thorough as many had been led to believe during the series.

Markle’s workload, or lack thereof (allegedly) was first mentioned during a Podnews podcast, where former Spotify chief economist Will Page quipped “not bad for 12 hours work,” in relation to the money the Duke and Duchess received, and a thinly veiled shot at Meghan’s real input into the series.

That was followed up by the website with a number of sources reporting that, akin to Prince Harry’s book ‘Spare’, parts of the podcast were not only ghostwritten but were ghost-interviewed too. Those sources claim that Markle didn’t conduct the “Archetypes” podcasts herself and instead only lent voice clips for editing after the fact, leaving her producers to talk to Meghan’s “interviewees,” while the Duchess merely entered the recording booth to give the impression she was talking to her interviewees.

Which lends itself to the resentment that Bill Simmons exuded during his last Ringer network podcast; if it was a poorly kept secret within Spotify’s greater podcasting community that Meghan did, allegedly (again) the bare minimum regarding a podcast she’s put her name to, that indeed the whole deal with the company was, according to Simmons once again, one big “grift.”

At this moment, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s team have yet to comment regarding both sets of allegations, nor has there been any information if the pair will be paid their full fee from Spotify, despite ‘Archetypes’ being cancelled due to not meeting a productivity benchmark.

Who did Meghan Markle interview on her podcast series?

Meghan Markle’s ‘Archetypes’ podcast series interviewed the following people during its short lifespan:

• Episode 2: Serena Williams
• Episode 3: Mariah Carey
• Episode 4: Mindy Kaling
• Episode 5: Margaret Cho and Lisa Ling
• Episode 6: Deepak Padukone, Jenny Slate and Constance Wu
• Episode 7: Paris Hilton and Iliza Shlesinger
• Episode 8: Issa Rae and Ziwe
• Episode 9: Sophie Trudeau, Pamela Adlon and Sam Jay
• Episode 10: Mellody Hobson and Victoria Jackson
• Episode 11: Jameela Jamil and Shohreh Aghdashloo
• Episode 12: Candace Bushnell and Michaela Jaé Rodriquez
• Episode 13: Trevor Noah, Andy Cohen and Judd Apatow