Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, have been told it is “open season” after they parted ways with Spotify earlier this month. A royal commentator has claimed the couple, who terminated their podcasting agreement with the streaming platform earlier this month, is now vulnerable to “sharks”. High-profile figures have heaped criticism on the couple, who have been deemed unattractive talents despite reportedly having other incoming projects in the works.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, columnist Allison Pearson observed that the collapse of the Spotify deal opened the floodgates against them.
She told readers they had suffered “nicks and cuts” as people have spoken out in recent weeks.
Several figures have voiced strongly negative opinions of the couple, with some of those voices coming from within Spotify.
Bill Simmons, a company executive, branded them “f*****g grifters” in a furious put-down on his own podcast.
Mr Simmons also called them “grifters”, while a report in the Wall Street Journal claimed they “struggled to make content beyond their own experiences”.
Ms Pearson said the emerging criticism shows that industry “sharks” are sensing “blood in the water”.
She wrote: “After such stinging, spot-on criticism, it is starting to look like open season on the deluded pair…Ouch!
“Such nicks and cuts to the couple’s reputation create blood in the water and, before long, the sharks start circling.”
Other media figures have entered the conversation about the royals’ abilities, with Jeremy Zimmer, the chief executive of United Talent Agency (UTA), stating the Duchess was not “necessarily any kind of talent”.
But the Duke and Duchess’ careers are currently far from in jeopardy, as they still have a multimillion deal with Netflix and Penguin Random House, the publishing house responsible for Prince Harry’s autobiography ‘Spare’.
A spokeswoman for Archewell Productions, the couple’s production firm, told the Wall Street Journal the Duchess is “continuing to develop more content for the Archetypes audience on another platform”.
The spokeswoman did not disclose for which platform she was making the content.
