UK Prince Harry wanted to interview both Russian President Vladimir Putin and former US President Donald Trump for a show he and wife Meghan Markle pitched to Spotify producers in 2020, US media reported on Friday.
As part of a show that was to interview different "controversial" guests, Harry wanted to host both Putin and Trump and ask them about their formative years and how those experiences informed their adult selves, the report said.
Destined for failure, the podcast idea was part of a partnership between Swedish streaming platform Spotify and the royal couple that began in 2020, and promised to produce shows with the Duke and Duchess at the helm that ultimately only resulted in one season of one show, called Archetypes, which debuted last year and was hosted by Markle.
During the early stages of the partnership, Prince Harry met with multiple producers and production houses to discuss potential shows, including the one that would feature both Trump and Putin centered around childhood trauma, the report said.
However, no podcast from the Duke came to fruition, placing Harry's fruitless talks with Spotify among several other exploratory relationships streaming platforms entered with various celebrities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vlad and dads?
Meghan Markle only hosted one podcast, “Archetypes,” under her and Prince Harry’s failed $20 million Spotify deal — but that doesn’t mean the redheaded royal didn’t have podcast ideas of his own.
Bloomberg reported Thursday that unidentified insiders claim Harry, 38, met with several producers and production houses to brainstorm show concepts.
He was reportedly the biggest fan of his own ideas — including a podcast about childhood trauma with a slew of controversial, big-shot guests.
Per Bloomberg, Harry wanted to speak with Vladimir Putin, Mark Zuckerberg and Donald Trump about their early years and how their experiences shaped their adulthoods
Harry reportedly also pitched a podcast centered around fatherhood, as well as another that would explore societal conversations ranging from climate change to religion.
He allegedly envisioned Pope Francis as the perfect guest to dissect the latter topic.
“The practicality of these ideas struck some people in the Harry-podcast cosmos as questionable at best, given that people like Putin and Zuckerberg rarely give wide-ranging interviews about the topics they’re passionate about — let alone about their upbringings and personal childhood traumas,” reporter Ashley Carman wrote in her Bloomberg newsletter.
The Duke of Sussex tragically lost his mom, Princess Diana, at just 12 years old when she was killed in a paparazzi car chase in 1997.
He admitted in January to using drugs and alcohol to cope with her death.
He became a father in 2019 with the birth of his son, Archie. He and Markle welcomed Lilibet in 2021.
In a joint statement to The Post last week, Spotify and Archewell Audio said they have “mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together.”
A source close to the situation told The Post at the time that Archewell didn’t produce enough content to receive the full payout of the hefty deal the couple signed in 2020.
“Archetypes,” which launched in August 2022 and lasted 12 episodes, was the only project the couple provided Spotify during their two-and-a-half-year partnership.
Speculation that Markle, 41, didn’t directly interview her guests resurfaced after the parting-ways announcement.
In August, writer Allison Yarrow expressed thanks to an “Archetypes” producer for being “an excellent interviewer.”
Sources claim that some of the show’s interviews were done by members of the duchess’s staff — and her voice asking the same questions was added in later.
Sportswriter and podcaster Bill Simmons slammed the couple in the wake of the fractured deal, calling them “f – – king grifters” on an episode of his namesake podcast.
“I wish I had been involved in the ‘Meghan and Harry leave Spotify’ negotiation,” said Simmons, the founder of the Ringer and the head of Spotify’s global sports strategy.
“… That’s a podcast we should’ve launched with them. 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,” he added.
On Monday, Page Six Style also confirmed that a previously-rumored “mega-bucks” deal between Markle and Dior will not happen.
“Meghan is continuing to develop more content for the Archetypes audience on another platform,” an Archewell Productions spokeswoman previously told The Wall Street Journal.
Amid the news of the Sussexes’ exit from Spotify, sources accused Markle of not actually conducting some of her interviews on “Archetypes.”
Andy Cohen has since called the claims “insane,” confirming that it was, indeed, the former “Deal or No Deal” model who interviewed him for the now-defunct show.
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