Meghan Markle abandons bid to trademark dumped Archetypes podcast

Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, has ditched plans of trademarking her podcast Archetypes, seemingly confirming the end of it. Photo / AP

Meghan Markle’s latest career move includes a telling detail about her plans for the future of her Archetypes podcast.

Just months after her and Prince Harry’s multimillion-dollar Spotify deal explosively came to an end, it has been revealed the Duchess of Sussex has now abandoned her plans to trademark Archetypes — a podcast she created with the streaming giant.

At the time of the Spotify Sussex deal collapse, it was suggested Meghan would continue the podcast elsewhere, with an Archewell spokesman telling the Wall Street Journal she was “continuing to develop more content for the Archetypes audience on another platform”. However, her latest act seems to prove otherwise.

Daily Mail reported at the time of the deal collapse that Meghan’s team had lodged an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in hopes of gaining trademark status.

The news outlet has since reported after 17 months of trying, those applications have been withdrawn — meaning it’s unlikely Meghan’s podcast, Archetypes, will return for a second season.

Meghan's podcast series Archetypes ran for one season of 12 epsiodes. Photo / AP

During its 12 episodes, the duchess interviewed high-profile guests including Paris Hilton, Mindy Kaling, Serena Williams, Andy Cohen and Mariah Carey.

The podcast — which aimed to “examine and subvert the labels that seek to limit women”, was a chart-topper for more than six countries and won the People’s Choice Award for Pop Podcast of 2022.

It comes after a source close to the couple spoke to People magazine in August revealing what went wrong before the Duke and Duchess of Sussex lost their eye-watering multimillion-dollar deal, claiming there was no “formal lay of the land”.

“They were given no formal lay of the land to kick things off, so they were already on unsteady footing even before the ink was dry,” the insider said, adding they “have a lot of ideas and did pitch them” but “things moved very slowly on both ends”.

The insider continued to say the couple were forced to deal with an overload of red tape since the signing of the deal — estimated to have been worth US$20 million ($41m) — in 2020.

It was announced in June that the California-based royals’ contract with the streaming giant was coming to a mutual end. At the time, the Daily Mail reported the decision to cancel the podcast came down to Spotify making big changes and revamping its output.

Meghan Markle had her friend, tennis legend Serena Williams, on her podcast. Photo / AP

However, sources close to the audio giant have revealed the royals didn’t meet the productivity requirements to receive the full payout, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Shortly after the cancellation of the podcast, Spotify executive and podcaster Bill Simmons slammed the couple on his own podcast, calling the royals “f***ing grifters”, according to Deadline.

Simmons, who still runs Spotify’s Ringer podcast and is head of podcast innovation and monetisation at the company, criticised the Montecito royals on his eponymous podcast.

“The f***ing grifters. That’s the podcast we should’ve launched with them,” he said. “I gotta get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try to help him with a podcast idea. It’s one of my best stories.”

It’s not the first time Simmons has spoken out about the Sussexes. When the couple were still under contract with Spotify, last January, he slammed Harry, saying it was “embarrassing” to be affiliated with the same company.