Meghan Markle’s new girl boss podcast was fourth in the Apple podcast charts, but failed to make the top 100 on Spotify, two years after an executive at the streaming giant called her and her husband, Prince Harry, “grifters.”
The Duchess of Sussex released the first episode of Confessions of a Female Founder on Tuesday, April 8, and it featured an interview with Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder of dating app Bumble.
While the show soared into the top 10 on Apple, it failed to make the top 100 on Spotify and did not get a showing in the top 50 business podcasts.
Netflix/Duchess of Sussex
Why It Matters
The radical difference may raise eyebrows in some quarters given Meghan and Harry’s checkered history with Spotify.
The couple signed a multiyear deal with the streaming giant in 2020, but by 2023 it had disintegrated, with the couple producing only one 12-part podcast that made it to broadcast.
Executive Bill Simmons signaled how deep the rift between Spotify and the couple had become when he used his own podcast to call them “f****** grifters.”
It is not known why Meghan’s podcast did not perform better on Spotify and no doubt there are a number of possible explanations.
What To Know
Meghan dropped the first episode of Confessions on Tuesday and it was titled: “The Evolution of the Entrepreneur with Bumble’s Whitney Wolfe Herd.”
Among revelations, Meghan described how both women had postpartum preeclampsia, though she did not say which of her two pregnancies brought on the rare and dangerous condition.
The duchess said: “We both had very similar experiences—though we didn’t know each other at the time—with postpartum, and we both had preeclampsia. Postpartum preeclampsia. It’s so rare and so scary.”
“And you’re still trying to juggle all of these things and the world doesn’t know what’s happening quietly,” she added.
“And, in the quiet, you’re still just trying to show up for people and in the quiet you’re still just trying to show up mostly for your children. But those things are huge medical scares.”
What People Are Saying
Rachel Aroesti’s review in The Guardian read: “The Duchess of Sussex fawns over entrepreneur guests and delivers overwrought messages to listeners, while claiming her lifestyle brand is ‘an extension of my essence.’ It’s a bit much.”
U.K. broadsheet The Times ran the headline: “Confessions of a Female Founder review—Meghan’s vapid lessons in self-love.”
Its review added: “Receiving business advice from a Californian multimillionaire who owes her fortune to marrying a prince is as illuminating as you would expect.”
What Happens Next
Confessions is a weekly podcast so fans can look forward to the next installment on Tuesday.
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek’s The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III and Queen Camilla, Prince William and Princess Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We’d love to hear from you.
