Meghan Markle appears downcast in first sighting since Spotify split

News

By Katherine Donlevy

June 18, 2023 | 5:01am

Meghan Markle was spotted looking downcast Friday, the day after Spotify axed its $20 million podcast deal with her and her royal hubby.

The Duchess of Sussex, 41, was seen strolling into a salon appointment in Santa Barbara and appeared to be partaking in an intense conversation, according to the Daily Mail.

Markle removed her earbuds as she walked alongside her security officer and repeatedly glanced down at her phone.

The grim-looking royal opted for no make-up and casual dress for her appointment, pairing black ballet flats, black skinny jeans, a striped sweater and a wristful of gold bracelets with a $5,400 Fendi Peekaboo ISeeU bag.

She shed her nearly $200 sweater for a black long-sleeved T-shirt for her return to her Montecito home.

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

The couple released a joint statement with Spotify Thursday announcing that their podcast “Archetypes” would not be renewed for a second season.

While the platform and the couple’s company Archewell Audio stated they ” mutually agreed to part ways,” insiders claim the Duke and Duchess were dropped because they didn’t produce enough content to receive the full payout of the roughly $20 million deal the couple signed in 2020.

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

There were only 12 episodes of “Archetypes,” each of which typically ran about an hour.

The day after the split, head of Spotify’s global sports strategy Bill Simmons expressed frustration over Harry and Markle, calling them “lazy” and “f–king grifters.”

“I wish I had been involved in the ‘Megan and Harry leave Spotify’ negotiation,” Simmons said in a Friday episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast.”

“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.”

Royal experts slammed the podcast cancellation as a “shocking failure” and an indication that Harry and Markle’s empire is on the brink of ruin.

“People are fed up with them now,” Prince Harry biographer Angela Levin said, adding that the couple’s forthcoming content plans will be “disastrous.”