Explosive new podcast marks beginning of ’12-week war against the Royal Family’, experts say

Meghan Markle’s bombshell new podcast will ‘start a war’ with the Palace, as angry South Africans have hit out at the Duchess over her Spotify views.

A royal expert has claimed that Meghan’s new podcast, Archetypes, will mark the start of a “12-week war” against the Royal Family.

This comes after the Duchess of Sussex spoke about the difficulties of being an ambitious woman in the Firm.

Speaking to the Daily Beast, royal commentator Duncan Larcombe said: “This was the opening salvo in Meghan’s 12-week war.

Markle at the mic

Markle’s new podcast

“It has the potential to be even more damaging than the Oprah interview because it is Meghan, in her own words, on her own show, doing exactly what she wants, and the fact is she took the first opportunity to plunge the knife in.

“This will have come as a great relief to the executives on the other side of the glass at Spotify, who paid millions of dollars for her.

Serena Williams’ Instagram post of her daughter Alexis and Meghan Markle. "I loved talking about so many important topics with my dear friend Meghan as her first guest on #archetypes for @spotify!” Picture: Instagram

“It’s a huge hit, of course, but the fact that she was interviewing Serena Williams is almost completely irrelevant to the listening figures.

“Meghan has star power and this was all about Meghan being Meghan.”

Meghan Markle’s new podcast is developed in partnership with Spotify, after the streaming giant gave the Duchess a massive £18 million ($A31m) deal.

‘NEVER SET FOOT HERE AGAIN’: SOUTH AFRICA TO MEGHAN

It comes as South Africans have slammed Meghan Markle over her comments about an alleged fire that broke out in her son Archie’s room while she was on a tour of the country.

In her new podcast, the Duchess of Sussex told tennis star Serena Williams how she was left “in tears” and “shaken” after a heater in her son’s room started to smoke during her visit in 2019.

Archie, then four months old, was not in the room in the Cape Town residence when the heater issue occurred.

Meghan Markle during her controversial trip to South Africa in 2019. Picture: AFP

Meghan said in the Spotify podcast that she was obliged to continue with official engagements despite her trauma.

However, angry South Africans have taken to social media to dispute her claims, leading to the hashtag #VoetsekMeghan - an offensive term meaning ‘go away’ - trending on Twitter.

Many were incensed by Meghan’s reference to her luxury accommodation in a Cape Town mansion as a “housing unit”.

Meghan and Harry’s South African trip is back in the headlines. Picture: AFP

One Twitter user posted: “People like Meghan Markle making it seem like going to South Africa was the bravest thing she has done because SA is an uninhabitable place which almost took her son’s life. All the time she is lying and was coddled in a Cape Town mansion.”

Another said: ‘I don’t care about the fire incident but the statement: coming to South Africa was the bravest thing she has done. Speaks volumes. As if she was coming to some apocalypse state or something. She should elaborate on what was brave about it, is it because is in Africa?”

Another went further, warning Meghan to “never set foot here again”.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex gives a speech during a visit to the "Justice desk", an NGO in the township of Nyanga in Cape Town, in 2019. Picture: AFP

During the podcast, Meghan said: “The moment we landed, we had to drop him off at this housing unit that they had had us staying in.

“He was going to get ready to go down for his nap.

“We immediately went to an official engagement in this township called Nyanga, and there was this moment where I’m standing on a tree stump and I’m giving this speech to women and girls, and we finish the engagement, we get in the car and they say there’s been a fire at the residence.”

The Duchess of Sussex cuddles baby Archie in Cape Town. Picture: AFP

The Duchess of Sussex said Archie had not been harmed as he was not in the room thanks to his nanny Lauren, who had taken the tot downstairs with her for a snack.

She continued: “There was no smoke detector. Someone happened to just smell smoke down the hallway went in, fire extinguished.

“He was supposed to be sleeping in there.”

The Duchess said she and Prince Harry were asked to carry on with their work while people were still “shaken” by the incident but it had become clear the baby had not been hurt.

She recalled: “I said: This doesn’t make any sense. I was like: Can you just tell people what happened?”

Originally published as Explosive new podcast marks beginning of ’12-week war against the Royal Family’, experts say