Meghan Markle looks downcast at her first sighting since the Spotify split

News

by Catherine Dunleavy

June 18, 2023 | 5:01 a.m

Meghan Markle was seen looking dejected on Friday, the day after her $20 million podcast deal with her and her royal husband was cancelled.

The Duchess of Sussex, 41, was spotted strolling into a salon appointment in Santa Barbara and appeared to be engaging in intense conversation, According to the Daily Mail.

Markle removed her earphones as she walked alongside her security officer and looked at her phone over and over.

The sultry-looking queen opted for no make-up and a casual dress for her date, which she paired with black ballet flats, skinny black jeans, a striped blazer, and gold bracelets with a $5,400 Fendi Peekaboo ISeeU bag.

She ditched her $200 jacket for a long-sleeved black T-shirt for her drive home to Montecito.

Markle’s husband, Prince Harry, and their two children were not seen.

The pair issued a joint statement with Spotify on Thursday announcing that their “Archaetypes” podcast will not be renewed for a second season.

While the platform and Archewell Audio reported to the couple that they had “mutually agreed to separate,” the insider claims the duke and duchess were dropped because they did not produce enough content to receive full compensation for the $20 million deal the couple signed in 2020.

The Markle-hosted show — which explored the labels holding women back — was the only project the pair produced for Spotify during their two-and-a-half-year partnership.

There were only 12 “archetypes” episodes, each usually running about an hour.

The day after the split, Spotify’s head of global sports strategy, Bill Simmons, expressed his frustration with Harry and Markle, They are called “slackers” and “king’s undertakers”.

“I wish I was involved in the ‘Meghan and Harry leaving Spotify’ negotiations,” Simmons said on Friday’s episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast.”

“This is a podcast we should have done with them. I got to have a drink one night and tell the story of Zoom that I got with Harry to try and help him with the podcast idea. It’s one of my favorite stories.”

Royal experts have slammed the podcast’s cancellation as an “appalling failure” and an indication that Harry and Meghan’s empire is on the verge of collapse.

“People are tired of them now,” said Prince Harry biographer Angela Levin, adding that the couple’s upcoming content plans would be “catastrophic.”