Taylor Swift reportedly declined an invitation to join Meghan Markle’s podcast despite receiving a “personal letter” from the Duchess.
The pop singer was asked by Meghan herself to perform at Archetypes, but she declined through her rep, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The newspaper summed up Harry and Meghan’s deals with Netflix as “big ideas, underperforming” after executives at the streaming giant and Spotify reportedly said they were “disappointed” by the couple’s lack of strong ideas and productivity.
Since the couple stepped down from royal duties in 2020 and flew to California to live in their new $14 million nine-bedroom mansion, the pair have built an intricate network of “entertainment” businesses to ” to spread their truth”.
Following Spotify’s axing of Archetypes and the £18million partnership with the couple, Netflix has also said it’s unlikely to renew its deal after it expires in 2025.
However, it has been confirmed that the couple is currently creating a Great Expectations-inspired show for Netflix titled Bad Manners.
Described as a prequel to the Charles Dickens classic, the series tells the story of a lonely Miss Haversham living in a patriarchal society.
Despite sending a personal letter herself, Meghan Markle’s (pictured) request to add Taylor Swift to her Archtypes podcast was turned down
Taylor Swift (pictured at this year’s Grammy Awards) reportedly turned down an invitation to join Meghan on her podcast
Spotify confirmed last week that the podcast won’t be getting a second season
It is currently unknown if the show was commissioned by Netflix itself.
A documentary about the Invictus Games, a production the couple agreed on shortly after signing the £80million deal with Netflix in 2020, is also in the works.
The Heart of Invictus program will accompany participants around the world as they train for the games in The Hague, originally scheduled for 2020 but postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic.
It’s one of the couple’s only ideas that hasn’t been turned down by the streaming giant.
The Wall Street Journal analysis said Harry and Meghan had proposed shows too similar to already popular Netflix programs, such as sitcoms like Emily in Paris but “about a man,” and a show about LGBTQ characters, similar those in Heartstopper.
Another proposal was a documentary on misinformation, which also didn’t come off the draft board.
A documentary about the Invictus Games, a production agreed shortly after signing the £80m deal with Netflix in 2020, is still in the works
Harry and Meghan are pictured in their Netflix docuseries making bombastic revelations
A team assigned to the task at Archewell inevitably had questions, including whether Harry and Meghan would appear on the show and offer their opinions on the matter.
According to the WSJ, the couple had a poor response to the requests and the idea was scrapped.
Also rejected was an animated series about powerful women in history called Pearl.
When it was announced that the children’s show was canceled in May 2022, Netflix officials said they had decided that children would not be affected by the fact that the show was produced by a duchess.
Meghan’s podcast, which was produced by Spotify as part of her deal and deals with stereotypes about women, also fell through this month and will not be signed for a second season.
The streaming giant and the Sussexes’ audio production company, Archewell Audio, released a joint statement last week, saying they had “amicably agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we’ve made together.”
Meghan and Harry reportedly signed a £15million ($20million) deal with Spotify for the project in late 2020, but insiders close to the audio giant claim the royal couple have what it takes to receive the full payout Productivity threshold not reached, Wall Street Journal reported.
Talent agency WME, which recently signed Meghan, said: “The team behind Archetypes continue to be proud of the podcast they have created at Spotify.”
Meghan’s podcast is produced by Spotify as part of their deal talks about stereotypes women face
Netflix reportedly spent a whopping £81million on bombshell documentary series Harry & Meghan last December as part of a multi-year deal with the company
“Meghan continues to develop more content for the Archetypes audience on another platform.”
It also revealed that while working on the Archetypes podcast, Spotify executives grew increasingly frustrated with Archewell’s snail’s-pace approach, stressing that it would take a long time to conceive an episode idea and Meghan would ask for last-minute changes.
It also proved difficult to get guests for the show – Taylor Swift turned down an appearance.
Despite these pressures, the podcast launched in August last year and topped the streaming charts in its first week.
It didn’t come from Harry’s appearance on podcasts – which was part of the Spotify deal.
He reportedly struggled to get a concrete idea, as The Wall Street Journal revealed, he suggested topics about veterans, misinformation and a point of view article about being a new resident of America.
However, the couple has found that their personal experiences, recounted in Harry’s memoir Spare, and their joint six-part Netflix documentary, led to book sales and Netflix popularity.
Harry’s bombastic autobiography grossed £16million and became the fastest-selling non-fiction book since records began in 1998, according to publishers. In its first week, more than 3.2 million copies were sold worldwide.
According to publishers Transworld, the UK division of Penguin Random House, more than 750,000 copies were sold in the UK over the same period.
Prince Harry is understood to have donated a significant portion of the money raised from the release to charity. The father of two is expected to donate around £1.6million to charity.
Harry’s bombastic autobiography, Spare, grossed £16million and became the fastest-selling non-fiction book since records began in 1998
The couple hoped to chart their documentary, Live To Lead, but failed to make the top ten
Netflix reportedly spent a whopping £81million on bombshell documentary series Harry & Meghan last December as part of a multi-year deal with the company.
The series became the second highest-grossing documentary of all time on Netflix – behind The Tinder Swindler.
The project is understood to have caused tension at Archewell after Harry and Meghan helped with the final touches and were sometimes overruled.
The pair then hoped to re-enter the streaming charts with their Live to Lead series, a documentary about global leaders and activists, which aired on New Year’s Eve 2022.
However, the show failed to make the top ten most-streamed shows during that period.
Both her failed Spotify deal and her limited-time deal with Netflix were reportedly impacted by external factors, in addition to allegedly strained working relationships with the couple, Archewell and the streaming giants.
Post-pandemic, Netflix struggled to retain loyal viewers who sat in front of their screens during lockdown, bringing profits to the company.
Netflix’s subscriber growth began to slow as customers returned to normal life and in 2022 announced its first quarter of subscriber losses in a decade. In turn, producers and film studios are much more selective when it comes to content output.
And recently, Spotify announced it would lay off about 200 employees — about 2 percent of its workforce — who work on its podcast teams. It was pointed out that although podcasts are popular with listeners, it is difficult to make them profitable.