Prince Harry reportedly wanted to interview some controversial guests on a podcast before his £16 million deal with Spotify was axed.
The duke, 40, and his wife Meghan Markle, 43, quit life as senior royals in 2020 to move across the pond to America and become financially independent.
To earn their own money, the couple signed a deal with Spotify to produce podcasts, with this deal later ended in 2023.
While Meghan launched her own Archetypes podcast, which pop star Taylor Swift apparently declined an invite to appear on, the prince did not excel in the podcast field and only appeared on one himself.
The dad-of-two also failed to produce his own series, despite reportedly having some slightly strange ideas, according to The Mirror.
According to Bloomberg, Harry once voiced the idea of a podcast where he would speak to controversial guests such as Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, who he now famously does not get on with.
The duke reportedly wanted the talks to discuss childhoods and how these people’s formative years shaped them as adults, a branch of thinking not too dissimilar to Princess Kate’s Shaping Us campaign.
Bloomberg reported: “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.”
Despite having these ideas, the duke’s plans never came to light and the couple released a joint statement with Spotify in 2023 to mark the end of their deal.
Since then, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – who have now lived in their Montecito mansion for four years with their two children – have gradually gone their own ways professionally, especially over the last few months.
While Meghan is appearing at red carpet events and launch parties, the prince is focusing on his charitable work, having recently completed a successful solo tour.
Discussing the couple’s strategy, Renae Smith, founder and director of PR firm Atticism, exclusively told Express.co.uk: “I think their decision to pursue individual brands could indeed work in their favour over the long term, although it’s bound to spark a fair amount of public speculation in the short term.
“From a PR perspective, this shift might allow each of them to create distinct brands that better reflect their different priorities and resonate more coherently with their individual audiences.”
