In one of the many quotations spuriously attributed to Winston Churchill, the former British prime minister was supposed to have said “success is the ability to go from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” It is a piece of advice — regardless of its origin — that the Duchess of Sussex seems to have absorbed wholesale, given the announcement that, after her short-lived and largely unloved podcast series Archetypes came to an end with Spotify, she is to return to the fray once again, this time in association with the independent company Lemonada Media.
Meghan has thrown herself into business with an organization that describes itself as an “award-winning, independent, audio-first podcast network, with a mission to make life suck less.” In a statement, the duchess announced that “I’m proud to now be able to share that I am joining the brilliant team at Lemonada to continue my love of podcasting. Being able to support a female-founded company with a roster of thought-provoking and highly entertaining podcasts is a fantastic way to kick off 2024.”
She added that, “Our plan to re-release Archetypes so that more people can now have access to it, as well as launching a dynamic new podcast, are well in the works” — and then finally declared that she is “overjoyed to be joining the Lemonada family.”
Anyone with a reasonably long memory will recall that Meghan’s previous high-profile podcast deal with Spotify, for which she was reportedly paid $20 million, ended acrimoniously, with the company’s former executive Bill Simmons dismissing her and Prince Harry as “grifters.” This invective is unlikely to come from her new paymistresses at Lemonada, a company that also has the likes of Sarah Silverman and Julia-Louis Dreyfus on its books. Yet even though it might be an estimable and forward-looking company, it does not have the global clout of Spotify, and so her move has to be seen as something of a demotion in terms of the reach of her “dynamic new podcast.”
It is currently a strange and unsettling time for Markle. She was relatively quiet last year, as Prince Harry’s antics attracted international publicity, and she has stayed away from Britain and any events connected with the royals, perhaps on the grounds that her presence would be an unwelcome distraction from the serious business of pageantry. Nonetheless, she has still managed to attract controversy recently with her and her husband’s relaunched website, Sussex.com, which talks airily about how she is “one of the most influential women in the world” and a “feminist and champion of human rights,” while Harry is described as a “humanitarian, military veteran, mental health advocate and environmental campaigner.” It is a surprise the words “bestselling author” were left off his website biography, just as, surely, “podcast supremo” could now be included on his wife’s description once more.
Meghan Markle has surely by now resigned herself to the knowledge that she has no future in Britain. She remains uniquely disliked here, regularly coming last in any polls about the relative popularity of members of the royal family — official or otherwise. It seems exceptionally unlikely that she will ever return to live in her husband’s home country, meaning that, as long as he remains married to her, neither will he. Yet Meghan Markle is nothing if not ambitious and focused on her future, and in America, celebrity trumps all over considerations.
Meghan may well have thought of another quotation — genuine, on this occasion, by Churchill — in which he stated “Sometimes, when Fortune scowls most spitefully, she is preparing her most dazzling gifts.” Perhaps Lemonada will indeed be the dazzling gift that she generously intends to bestow upon the world. In any event, her fans will surely be beside themselves with anticipation for the dazzling new podcast, even if the rest of us can surely bring ourselves to wait a while longer.
This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.
