Meghan Markle has suffered a Spotify blow two years after being brutally axed by the streaming platform.
Her new podcast "Confessions of a Female Founder" received starkly different receptions across streaming platforms following its launch on Tuesday.
The Duchess of Sussex's show, featuring interviews with female entrepreneurs, soared to fourth place on Apple's podcast charts.
However, the programme failed to break into Spotify's top 100 rankings.
Meghan Markle suffers Spotify blow two years after brutal axe
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This disparity comes two years after Spotify executive Bill Simmons publicly called Meghan and Prince Harry "grifters" following the collapse of their multi-million pound deal with the streaming giant.
The reasons behind this significant performance gap remain unclear.
The Sussexes signed a multi-year deal with Spotify in 2020, which promised multiple podcast series.
By 2023, the partnership had collapsed after the couple produced only one 12-part podcast, Archetypes.
Meghan Markle launched the first episode of her new podcast called 'Confessions of a Female Founder' on TuesdayInstagramThe relationship soured significantly, with Spotify executive Bill Simmons using his own podcast to call the couple "f****** grifters."
This history may explain some of the current disparity in platform performance, though there could be numerous other explanations for why Meghan's new venture is struggling on Spotify.
The first episode of "Confessions of a Female Founder" featured Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder of dating app Bumble.
During their conversation, Meghan revealed a personal health struggle that she shared with Wolfe Herd.
The original version of Meghan's Archetypes podcast cover with SpotifySpotifyLATEST ROYAL NEWS:
The podcast represents Meghan's return to the audio format following her previous podcast endeavours.Getty"We both had very similar experiences—though we didn't know each other at the time—with postpartum, and we both had preeclampsia. Postpartum preeclampsia. It's so rare and so scary," the duchess said.
She added that they both tried to "show up" for others whilst dealing with these serious medical issues.
The podcast has received mixed reviews from critics across British media outlets.
"Confessions of a Female Founder" is scheduled to release new episodes weekly, with the next instalment expected on Tuesday.
