MEGHAN Markle has been accused of faking a number of interviews for her axed Archetypes podcast by industry sources.
They claim the Duchess of Sussex, 41, had staff on the show conduct some interviews with her guests and then audio of her voice was edited into the episodes which aired.
The allegations reported by podcast-focused outlet Podnews, come just days after it was announced the Sussexes’ £18million deal with Spotify had come to an end via a “mutual agreement”.
“Multiple sources” claimed “some interviews on the show were done by other staffers, with questions edited-in afterwards”, according to the site.
Podnews though did not specify which episodes where this might have happened.
Meghan’s 13-episode show featured a number of high-profile guests during it one season, including Mariah Carey, Serena Williams and Mindy Kaling.
Mindy shared an image of herself being interviewed by Meghan when her episode aired.
It’s not the first time questions have been raised about the duchess’ input into the interview process for other people who appeared on Archetypes.
New York journalist Allison Yarrow, who appeared as a guest revealed in August last year she didn’t actually speak to Meghan when being interviewed for the show, but actually a member of her production company.
Allison, who appeared on the episode called To ‘B’ or not to ‘B’? which “explored the origin and plague” of the word b***h, said in a social media post shared after her interview was recorded that she had chatted with an audio producer called Farrah Safarfi.
She shared an image of herself in front of a sign for the audio production company Gimlet, and thanked Farrah in the caption for being an “excellent interviewer”.
Last week, Spotify and the Sussexes’ audio production company Archewell Audio issued a joint statement saying the decision had been made not to renew Meghan’s podcast, adding they had “mutually agreed to part ways”.
The statement said: “We are proud of the series we made together.”
Reports said they had been dropped by the streaming giant saying they did not meet “productivity requirements“.
Meghan’s show only produced 13 episodes in 31 months.
It’s thought Spotify had been engaged in discussions about renewing the female-focused podcast but these are understood to have stalled.
WME, the talent agency that recently signed Meghan, told the Wall Street Journal: “The team behind Archetypes remain proud of the podcast they created at Spotify.
“Meghan is continuing to develop more content for the Archetypes audience on another platform.”
However, Bill Simmons, Head of Podcast Innovation and Monetization at Spotify, slammed the Sussexes’ in his own podcast.
On Friday, the sportswriter said: “The f***ing grifters. That’s the podcast we should have launched with them.
“I’ve got to get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea.
“It’s one of my best stories.”
It comes as the couple’s media empire appears to be “crumbling” and future projects are bound to fail, according to a royal expert.
Meghan revealed she had signed the podcast deal in December 2020 following the pair’s departure from the Firm.
It took a further 18 months before the Archetypes series was launched in August 2022.
The podcast previously sparked controversy after Meghan claimed baby Archie had to be saved from a fire when they were on a royal tour of Africa during one episode.
She also appeared to take a swipe at claims by Palace insiders that she was “Duchess Difficult” as she told listeners that setting boundaries doesn’t make her “difficult”.
Meghan told listeners she quit an $800-an-episode job as a briefcase model on American game show Deal or No Deal because she felt “objectified”.
Another episode slammed the Austin Powers comedy films and action movie Kill Bill for their representation of Asian women.
Being ditched by Spotify is the latest shattering loss for the couple, who are set to stop fronting tell-all documentaries and books following their Netflix series and Harry’s memoir Spare.
Meghan’s animated series Pearl, which she was working on with Sir Elton John’s producer husband David Furnish, was ditched by Netflix last year.
The show was canned as part of cutbacks amid a collapse in Netflix subscribers.
It’s understood Harry and Meghan have banked an estimated £118million from multi-media deals since leaving the Royal Family.
Meghan is said to be working on several other projects, including that she is poised to revive her wellness and lifestyle blog The Tig.
Rumours are also circulating that Meghan could also sign on as the latest face of fashion and beauty brand Dior.
