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Daily Record
Daily Record
Entertainment
Jon King & Nicola Croal

Harry and Meghan dubbed as 'spoiled royals' who are 'afraid of hard work' by expert

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been dubbed as "spoiled royals" who will struggle to get by in the "real world" by GB News presenter Dan Wootton after the collapse of their Spotify podcast deal.

His claims of the couple being 'afraid of hard work' come after their lucrative agreement with the streaming giant for their award winning podcast show came to an end through an alleged mutual agreement.

Mr Wootton, who is also a columnist for MailOnline, wrote: "So while there'll always be a company stupid enough to flush millions down the loo for the initial PR of being connected to a deal with Harry and Meghan, the opportunity to make an impact as a game changing content creator working with streaming giants who could bring them an audience of billions across the globe has now been dashed.

"It's a cautionary tale of why spoiled royals will always struggle to cut it in the real world."

Meghan and Harry's Archetypes podcast ran for 12 episodes from August last year and with Meghan inviting multiple celebrity guests, experts and historians onto the show to discuss the history of stereotypes levelled against women.

GB News Host Dan Wootton has dubbed the couple as 'spoiled royals' who will struggle to survive in the 'real world' (Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Barclaycard Exclusive)

Tennis star Serena Williams, Paris Hilton, Mariah Carey and actor Mindy Kaling were among the guests who appeared alongside the Duchess on the Spotify podcast.

A joint statement from Archewell and Spotify to announce the end of their partnership read: "Spotify and Archewell Audio have mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together."

But Bill Simmons, Head of Podcast Innovation and Monetisation at Spotify, told listeners on his own podcast: "I wish I had been involved in the Meghan and Harry leave Spotify negotiation.

"The f***ing grifters. That's the podcast we should have launched with them."

Mr Wootton said the saga "is all catastrophic" for Harry and Meghan's "woke dream of living an A-list Californian lifestyle" similar to the likes of US TV hosts Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey.

He claimed that the royal couple wanted to live that sort of dream "without any of the toil that both those ladies put in five days a week to build their fortune".

He spoke of previous claims from Buckingham Palace staff whom he said had alleged that the Sussexes' were afraid of hard work".

However the Times columnist Kevin Maher challenged the claim that the couple were 'grifters' and instead questioned whether or not "they are in fact geniuses".

The end of the couple's Spotify deal comes just weeks after Meghan was awarded top Entertainment Podcast Host at The Gracie Award (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

In a breakdown of the Sussexes' multiple deals, he listed £15m from Archetypes, £81m from Netflix and their involvement in smaller projects in the media.

Mr Maher added that Harry and Meghan have managed to pull together some very impressive earnings which he estimated would make them around "£142,000 per minute, or £8.5million an hour."

However, Mark Borkowski, a public relations and crisis consultant claimed the Spotify announcement would greatly diminish what the Sussexes' might receive from possible future episodes of the series.

He said: "Spotify and all the streamers who did very well out of lockdown are now looking hard at the costs - their algorithms don't lie.

"If they were successful and they were valued by Spotify they would still be there."

He added: "It shows that they don't really have anything interesting to say and more importantly they don't have critical friends in the centre of their organisation.

"And whatever you are as a content producer, you've got to sustain it over a period of time and you need the best team around you."

Serena Williams who is a close pal of Meghan was one of the celebrity guests to feature on the Archetypes podcast (Serena Williams/Instagram)

The end of their Spotify deal comes just weeks after the Duchess of Sussex was named as top Entertainment Podcast Host at The Gracie Awards for her revolutionary Archetypes podcast.

The Archewell Foundation's latest impact report over the course of 2020 to 2022 highlights its work on a number of different areas including the settling of refugees from the war in Ukraine with not-for-profit Welcome.US. as well as the rescue of over 7,000 people from Afghanistan through its partnership with Human First Coalition.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex left the Firm in 2020 and moved to California for personal and financial freedom.

Their Spotify deal along with their Netflix partnership rumoured to be worth in excess of £100m appeared to vindicate their decision.

However, after leaving the royal family they have also been required to pay for their own security, meaning they need to generate a large income which has always been problematic for members of the monarchy.

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