RICHARD EDEN: As Meghan's podcast relaunch struggles to get off the starting ... trends now

Showbusiness bosses are rarely known to criticise the 'talent'. Who knows when they might have to work with them again?

So, there was widespread shock last summer when an executive at music streaming platform Spotify publicly described the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as 'f****** grifters'.

That's an American term for people 'who engage in petty or small-scale swindling', not a characterisation the Sussexes would embrace.

Bill Simmons, who goes by the title Head of Podcast Innovation and Monetisation, used the intemperate putdown last summer, just hours after Harry and Meghan's podcast deal with Spotify, reported to have been worth £15million, was axed.

'I've got to get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom [call] I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea,' ranted Simmons. 'It's one of my best stories.'

Why would he say such things?

An ever-growing list of eye-catching ventures and initiatives from Harry and Meghan might help provide an answer – projects which, for all the carefully constructed razzmatazz of their launch, have so far come to little.

Simmons's comments certainly suggest a dramatic loss of faith.

He won't be the only one to recall that the Sussexes had been hailed as 'powerful voices' who appreciated the 'potential of audio storytelling' when Spotify signed up their podcasts in 2020.

That was soon after the couple had quit royal duties and sought a new life and fortune in the United States.

In the event, they produced 12 podcasts in two and a half years before splitting with the company, a decision described as having been made by mutual consent.

Meghan, however, is undaunted. In February this year, she attempted to revive her Archetypes series of podcasts, announcing amid great fanfare that she had signed a deal with Lemonada Media, a female-founded company that wants to 'make life suck less'.

The duchess gushed that she was

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