Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were branded “lazy” and “f–king grifters” by Spotify employees Friday after the podcasting network canned their $20 million deal.<br /><br />Bill Simmons, the sportscaster who is also head of Spotify’s international sports content, said on his own podcast, “’The f–king grifters.’ That’s the podcast we shoulda launched with them.” <br /><br />His attack deepened the couple’s crisis as sources said they were “lazy” compared to the Obamas, who also had a Spotify contract.<br /><br />The collapse of the deal piles financial pressure on the Sussexes as exorbitant bills for their Montecito, Calif. lifestyle mount. <br /><br />Their sprawling Tuscan-style estate, bought for $14.7 million in June 2020, has a hefty mortgage.<br /><br />Annual property taxes alone cost $144,427 and there is staffing and maintenance on top.<br /><br />The bill for the couple’s private security detail is believed to be about $2 million a year, there are legal fees from Harry’s unending battles with the British press — and they have to keep their Archewell company afloat without Spotify’s cash.<br /><br />“They’re not broke,” stressed a source.<br /><br />“But they’re going to have to keep spending their money, instead of banking it.”<br /><br />The Sussexes’ Spotify deal was signed in 2020 but delivered just 13 hours of programming in two and half years — 12 episodes of Markle’s “Archetypes” podcast, and a one-off holiday special. <br /><br />They will not be paid anything close to the full amount they could have earned under the deal.<br /><br />Sources pointedly contrasted the Sussexes’ failed deal with the Obamas’ similar deal, which ended last year.<br /><br />Although ‘Archetypes’ did well and got a couple of awards, when you go into a deal like this, to have just one series over that course of time is not great,” a source close to the Sussexes’ deal said.<br /><br />“To put that into context, the Obamas and their production company, Higher Ground, delivered multiple new series.”<br /><br />Simmons told how he had been called in to help Harry — unsuccessfully — saying, “I gotta get drunk one night and tell the story of this Zoom I had with Harry to try to help him with a podcast idea. It’s one of my best stories.<br /><br />He added, “I wish I had been involved in the ‘Meghan and Harry leave Spotify’ negotiation. That’s a podcast we should’ve launched with them.”<br /><br />Another industry insider added, “Spotify wants to focus on people who drive strong audiences, like Alex Cooper, Dax Shepard and Emma Chamberlain. There are a lot of great creators who are very eager.<br /><br />“Meghan and Harry are the outlier on all of this, I think they have come off as being lazy and difficult.”<br /><br />In a statement, both Spotify and Archewell said they “mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together.” <br /><br />Losing Spotify is a dramatic change in fortunes for the pair since they quit being full-time royals, pleaded for privacy and launched their new American lives with <br />
