Prince Harry pitched his own podcast idea to Spotify during his three-year deal with the streaming giant.
The Duke of Sussex pitched a podcast idea which involved interviewing a range of controversial guests including Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump about their childhoods, it’s been claimed.
Last week, it was reported that Harry and Meghan Markle were cutting ties with Spotify just three years after agreeing to a deal believed to be worth somewhere between £15 to £19 million.
Following the news, Bill Simmons, sportscaster who is also head of Spotify’s international sports content, labelled the pair “f**king grifters,” and claimed he was commissioned to help the Duke with ideas for a podcast.
“I gotta get drunk one night and tell the story of this Zoom I had with Harry to try to help him with a podcast idea. It’s one of my best stories.”
Now, Bloomberg reporter Ashley Carman has spoken to “people with knowledge of the situation,” to tell her what sort of ideas Harry was toying with for a podcast.
According to anonymous sources, Harry reportedly wanted to interview various “controversial guests” – names that were mentioned included Russian President Putin, former US President Donald Trump, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg – about their early years, and how they made them the people they are today.
Carman reports that the Duke also had suggestions for specific topics for episodes of the podcast including Fatherhood, climate change and religion among them, with Pope Francis his top pick to be interviewed on that last topic.
Reports also revealed that those tasked with helping Harry bring his podcast ideas to fruition found the idea “questionable,” given how difficult it would be to secure huge figures including Putin to give in-depth interviews about what happened in their past.
Clearly, the podcast never materialised.
The total of Harry and Meghan’s three-year deal was one 12-episode season of her podcast, Archetypes, which saw her sit down with Hollywood stars like Mariah Carey, Paris Hilton and Mindy Kaling for hour-long episodes.
The Sussexes’ Spotify arrangement was declared officially over in a joint statement from the streaming giant and Harry and Meghan’s company, Archewell Audio, last week.
In it, both parties stated they had “mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together”.
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