Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are trying to regain their media influence at low times. After the termination of his contract with Spotify, rumors of a possible agreement with Dior have sprung up.
Living ensconced in controversy has become a way of life for the Sussexes. When it is not because of the scandalous revelations of Prince Harry's memoirs, the absence of Meghan Markle at the coronation of Carlos III or the paparazzi chases through the streets of New York, it is because of his lucrative businesses.
A few days ago, a joint statement from Spotify and Archewell Productions, the couple's audiovisual company, announced that the agreement between the Sussexes and the streaming platform has been terminated by mutual agreement.
Their relationship was announced with great fanfare in December 2020. However, the result has been meager: Arquetypes, a 12-episode podcast in which Markle interviewed stars like Serena Williams, Mariah Carey, and Trevor Noah, will not have a second season. At least not on Spotify, although the couple's spokespersons have slipped that it could continue on a competing platform.
According to the New York Post, the contractual relationship is terminated due to the couple's inability to produce more content promptly. In fact, it is understood that the royals will not enter the 20 million dollars of the original agreement for not having reached the objectives.
Spotify's anger: Meghan Markle and Harry, "the scammers"
Despite the diplomacy of the joint statement, Spotify's discomfort has been evidenced through the incendiary statements by executive Bill Simmons who, after the announcement, described the couple as "scammers" on his podcast. In January, Simmons had already declared that he found it "embarrassing" to belong to the same company as the Sussexes. "You live in Montecito and you only sell documentaries and podcasts and nobody cares what you have to say about anything unless you talk about the royal family and complain about them," he explained then.
The news comes at the same time as a persistent rumor about a possible Markle contract with Dior, announced by the Mail on Sunday and denied shortly after by representatives of the couple to The Telegraph. However, this is not free speculation. The couple's relationship with the French haute couture house goes back a long way. Markle has chosen her designs for military acts, trips abroad, formal events such as Elizabeth II's Jubilee, family occasions such as her son Archie's christening, and even for the Queen's funeral, where she wore a hat by designer Stephen Jones for Dior. The same as her husband, who has worn the firm's suits on multiple occasions. The last, was during the coronation of her father.
But even if the agreement does not materialize (or is not public), and despite the end of its relationship with Spotify, the Sussexes are already working to keep afloat the media empire that supports Archewell, the foundation they created after they departed from the United Kingdom and which has ended up becoming a company with several divisions established in the tax haven of Delaware.
Meghan Markle's $100 million contract with Netflix
On the one hand, there is his contract (still in force) with Netflix, signed in 2020 for an amount close to 100 million dollars and which, for the moment, has given rise to Enrique and Meghan, the documentary in which they recounted their departure. of the British royal family and which premiered last December. Another documentary series that will revolve around the couple's involvement in the organization of the Invictus Games is expected to land on the Heart of Invictus platform this summer. From there, it seems that the Sussexes' plan is to continue producing content (also fiction) and stay, this time, behind the cameras.
On the other, Markle is beginning to make a move to position herself, as Page Six recently reported, as a power player in the Hollywood industry. In April, her signing by talent agency WME was announced, her accounts are in the hands of Los Angeles-based financial adviser Adam Liling, and while there is no initial indication that she wants to resurrect her acting career, she could be working to expand her filmography as a producer.
Although the Sussexes are clearly not cash-strapped (added to the income from Harry's best-selling memoirs is his shareholding in the start-up Better Up, in which the royal is Chief Impact Officer) their enormous expenses require an income level as high as constant. After shelling out $14 million for their Montecito mansion, the couple is estimated to spend more than $2 million a year on security, plus staff payroll, maintenance, and attorney bills. who defend the couple's interests in open court battles against the British press.
