In February, the Duchess of Sussex’s new podcasting deal with Lemonada was announced. Lemonada is platforming Archetypes Season 1, and in the press release, Meghan promised that a new podcast would be coming up. Then last week, the Mail’s Eden Confidential column claimed that Lemonada was hitting pause on Meghan’s new pod because she was so focused on launching American Riviera Orchard and filming her Netflix show. Eden’s story seemed weird and false, especially given that it felt like Meghan had probably already started recording a new pod when the Lemonada deal was announced. Still, it’s clear that whatever Meghan does or doesn’t do, she drives those salty old men crazy. Richard Kay now claims that Meghan is just… doing all of this for attention??
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s recent flurry of ‘project’ announcements – including a new podcast deal as well as the Duchess of Sussex’s ‘jamfluencer’ roll out – are a ‘diversion tactic’ from the fact that ‘probably not much is going on’, a royal expert has said.
Speaking on this week’s Palace Confidential, the Daily Mail’s Richard Kay said that the pair always appear ‘in a hurry to make announcements’ and look ‘busy’.
‘All these plans are in the pipeline and then nothing happens,’ he continued during the episode, referencing earlier claims that there will be no new podcast work from the couple until next year.
In February it was announced that that Meghan had signed a deal with Lemonada Media, a female-founded company that wants to ‘make life suck less’. The Duchess, who produced only one series of her podcast Archetypes for Spotify before parting ways with the company, had signed with Lemonada to develop and host a new series. However, a source told Richard Eden this week that there is not expected to be any work broadcast this year.
Richard Kay also told Palace Confidential that he believed Meghan’s focus is ‘clearly is on the lifestyle Riviera stuff that she’s very proud of and curating’ – and thought the announcement of ‘project’ plans is ‘sort of a way of taking breath and pausing trying to decide what to do next’.
However, Richard Eden said it’s a ‘very strange way of operating’. ‘I mean, take Netflix, they will announce a new film for something when it’s gone into production or it’s about to be broadcast,’ he explained. ‘It’s very strange to announce deals and then have nothing. Announcing a deal like this and then not having any content, any podcasts for a year. You do wonder, is she just doing it for the publicity?’
“All these plans are in the pipeline and then nothing happens”...? She’s literally filming the Netflix show now? ARO is in the process of being launched, and I have my doubts about the podcast being on hold. The Lemonada deal is the only one which got an official launch in the trade papers as well, although the trade papers have been watching and covering Meghan’s ARO moves, including her jam-baskets. I guess my point is that it’s not like Meghan is making these bold pronouncements every other week (like, say, “I am now a global statesman” or “not enough people know that the early years are very important”). She’s literally working on her stuff while an entire national media lies about her and screams at her for doing anything.
Photos/screencaps courtesy of Netflix.