Meghan Markle abandons bid to trademark dumped Archetypes podcast

Just months after her Spotify deal collapsed, Meghan has reportedly made a significant decision about her future.

Meghan Markle. Picture: Spotify

Meghan Markle has given up on plans to trademark her podcast, Archetypes, in a huge sign that she has abandoned plans for it to continue.

It comes just months after her and Prince Harry’s multimillion-dollar Spotify deal collapsed, meaning the streaming giant was not renewing her series for a second season.

At the time of the high-profile termination, which was reportedly a “mutual” decision between both parties, it was suggested that Meghan was hoping to take Archetypes elsewhere.

The podcast is reportedly officially finished.

The Wall Street Journal quoted an Archewell spokesman as saying she was “continuing to develop more content for the Archetypes audience on another platform.”

According to the Daily Mail, applications were lodged with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to revive Meghan’s ongoing trademark bid for her podcast, even after the Spotify deal fell through.

Meghan recorded just one season of Archetypes.

However, the publication reports that the applications have now been withdrawn following an unsuccessful 17-month process.

It means Archetypes will likely remain a one-season series, which aired 12 episodes in total.

Throughout its run, Meghan interviewed high-profile guests including Paris Hilton, Mindy Kaling, Serena Williams, Andy Cohen and Mariah Carey to “examine and subvert the labels that seek to limit women.”

Archetypes reached number one in the podcast charts in more than six countries and won the People’s Choice Award for Pop Podcast of 2022.

Her friend, tennis superstar Serena Williams, featured on the debut episode.

Last month, sources close to Harry and Meghan lifted the lid on what really went wrong in their Spotify deal, claiming the couple were not set up for success when they signed in 2020 and had to deal with an overload of red tape in the months and years that followed.

“They were given no formal lay of the land to kick things off, so they were already on unsteady footing even before the ink was dry,” the insider told People magazine, adding they “have a lot of ideas and did pitch them,” but that “things moved very slowly on both ends.”

The Sussex’s deal with the audio streaming giant – estimated to be worth somewhere between $29 million and $37 million – was declared officially over in a joint statement between both parties in June.

The couple has just wrapped up their appearance at the 2023 Invictus Games in Germany. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Spotify and the couple’s production company, Archewell Audio, insisted they had “mutually agreed to part ways” and were “proud of the series [they] made together” – referring to Meghan’s Archetypes.

Despite the outwardly polite split, leaks began to drip from within Spotify, with sources describing Harry and Meghan as “lazy” and others telling Variety that executives had expected more content from their eye-watering deal with the Sussexes.

One Spotify boss, Bill Simmons, even publicly branded them both “f**king grifters” and mocked Harry’s attempts at pitching a solid podcast idea of his own.

“I have 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 … F**k them,” he said on his own podcast.

Just weeks later, Spotify sources shared details of Harry’s failed podcast pitches to Bloomberg reporter Ashley Carmen, which allegedly involved him interviewing controversial guests like Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump about their childhoods.

Originally published as Meghan Markle abandons bid to trademark dumped Archetypes podcast