Taylor Swift and Meghan Markle.John Shearer/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management, Samir Hussein/Samir Hussein/WireImage
Taylor Swift declined an invitation to join Meghan Markle’s now-cancelled Spotify podcast.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Meghan’s invitation was personally extended.
This comes after Spotify and the Sussexes’ production company said they had agreed to part ways.
Taylor Swift turned down the chance to appear on Meghan Markle’s Spotify podcast, despite the Duchess of Sussex personally extending the invitation, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The allegation came as part of a widely publicized report about her and Prince Harry’s attempts to break into Hollywood after retiring from royal life.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the report said Meghan worked with Spotify’s gimlet division to create a list of potential guests for her podcast after she and Prince Harry signed a streaming deal in 2020 service valued at approximately $20 million.
According to the report, Meghan wrote a personal letter inviting the “Midnights” singer to join her podcast, but Swift declined through a rep.
Representatives for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Swift did not immediately respond to an Insider request for comment, which was made outside of normal working hours.
Archetypes premiered in August 2022 and featured a number of high-profile guests including Serena Williams, Mariah Carey and Paris Hilton. Over the course of 12 episodes, Meghan and her guests discussed some of the stereotypes women face.
Meghan Markle.Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty
After its debut, “Archetypes” quickly rocketed to the top of the Spotify charts in the US, Canada, UK and Australia.
But Spotify and Archewell, the Sussexes’ production company, later announced in a joint statement that they had “mutually agreed to part ways”.
“The podcast is no longer produced at Spotify as we are parting ways,” an Archewell Audio rep told Insider. It’s still unclear if there are any plans to continue producing the show for another platform.
The story goes on
Since then, speculation has abounded as to why the Sussexes and Spotify ended their partnership, although the news came amid a downturn in the tech and media sectors and layoffs at Spotify earlier in the year.
Spotify said the second round of job cuts in June was part of a “strategic realignment” of its podcast division.
There were also reports that the Sussexes weren’t producing enough content for the audio streaming service. A day after the announcement, the company’s head of podcast innovation and monetization dubbed the couple “Gribber” on his podcast.
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