Meghan and Harry 'part ways' with Spotify as podcast deal comes to an end

Meghan and Harry's multi-million dollar partnership with Spotify has come to an end.

An Archewell spokesperson confirmed to Yahoo News that: "Spotify and Archewell Audio have mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together."

Meghan and Harry struck their deal with the streaming company in 2020, which was reported to be worth $20m.

However, the Wall Street Journal has reported that Meghan and Harry won't have made the full amount from their work with Spotify, because the couple hasn’t "met the productivity benchmarks required to receive the full payout from the deal".

Last year, Meghan released a 12-part podcast series called Archetypes, which aimed to dissect stereotypes about women that can "hold them back".

Celebrity guests like Serena Williams, Mariah Carey and Paris Hilton appeared on the show to discuss how particular labels or stereotypes had impacted them.

Archetypes will not be returning to Spotify for a second season, but Meghan is "continuing to develop more content for the Archetypes audience on another platform", the couple's spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal.

Meghan's first foray into podcasting saw her and the team behind Archetypes win two awards: a People's Choice Award and a Gracie Award.

Financial independence

The Sussexes announced in early 2020 that they were stepping back as working royals — who are funded by the taxpayer — and were going to work towards "financial independence".

Harry's memoir Spare and the six-part documentary series the couple created with Netflix detailed the behind-the-scenes negotiations they went through with the rest of the Royal Family and palace aides. during this period.

The couple's main concern at the time was being able to pay for private security after their publicly funded protection was removed in March 2020.

They quickly struck deals with Spotify, Netflix and Penguin - prior to that they had to rely on the support of filmmaker Tyler Perry, who provided them with a security team and a place to stay.

In Spare, Harry wrote that ahead of Perry's intervention, he "scrambled to find new security. I spoke to consultants, gathered estimates. I filled a notebook with research. The Palace directed me to a firm, which quoted me a price. Six million a year."

Perry has since been named godfather to Harry and Meghan's daughter, Lilibet.

Harry also described being "cut off" by his father in his memoir, and acknowledged that beginning the process of gaining financial independence from his family in his thirties was an unusual situation.

"I recognized the absurdity, a man in his mid-thirties being financially cut off by his father. But Pa wasn’t merely my father, he was my boss, my banker, my comptroller, keeper of the purse strings throughout my adult life.

"Cutting me off therefore meant firing me, without redundancy pay, and casting me into the void after a lifetime of service. More, after a lifetime of rendering me otherwise unemployable.

"I felt fatted for the slaughter. Suckled like a veal calf. I’d never asked to be financially dependent on Pa. I’d been forced into this surreal state, this unending Truman Show in which I almost never carried money, never owned a car, never carried a house key."

Watch: Why Charles is underestimating the danger posed by his own family dramas