Prince Harry’s Podcast Ideas
The “divorce” between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Spotify was announced with a joint official note just a few days ago. And now we discover that Prince Harry – before the $15 million contract signed at the end of 2020 was broken – had in mind a podcast in which he intended to interview some controversial characters such as Pope Francis, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Mark Zuckerberg, on their education and their childhood traumas. To make matters worse, the prince had thought of another religious-themed podcast, and among his guests he even imagined Pope Francis. Bloomberg reports this, adding that Harry presented his projects to Spotify executives, leaving them decidedly perplexed. “Harry’s ideas seemed to everyone at least questionable”. As well as completely fanciful: “Imagine if characters like Putin and Zuckerberg would grant interviews about their education and their childhood traumas,” writes journalist Ashley Carman in her Bloomberg newsletter. Adding that after listening to Harry’s proposals, Spotify bosses, aghast, “were left scratching their heads”.
Mutual Agreement to Break Contract
The break between the Sussexes and Spotify was agreed “mutually”, with “pride for the series they made together (Meghan Markle’s podcast Archetypes, ed.). This is what the official note released in recent days said. But then Bill Simmons, Spotify manager, publicly attacked the dukes calling them “swindlers”: “The f***ing swindlers, this is the podcast we should have launched with them. I should get drunk one night to tell the story of the conversation I had once on Zoom with Prince Harry to try to help him develop an idea for the podcast. It’s one of my best stories”. To make matters worse, another accusation was made against Harry’s wife: she would have deceived her listeners by proposing fake interviews.
Suspicion of Overflow
Now the new background: Harry had set his mind to discuss religion with Pope Francis, and childhood traumas with Putin, Trump and Zuckerberg. Was this the classic drop that made the vase overflow, pushing Spotify to tear up the million-dollar contract with the Sussexes?
