Meghan Markle's new podcast boss Stephanie Wittels Wachs was a Texas ... trends now
Drug addiction, an overdose death and a foray into Scientology set Stephanie Wittels Wachs on an unlikely course to team up with a member of the British Royal Family.
Last month it was revealed that Meghan Markle had signed on to women-run Lemonada Media to host a show after cutting ties with Spotify following a single season of the Archetypes podcast.
Stephanie Wittels Wachs, 43, launched the podcasting company in 2019 with co-founder Jessica Cordova Kramer, which now produces shows around sex, grief and LGBTQ issues to help 'make life suck less.'
Speaking to DailyMail.com, a Hollywood insider and friend said, 'Stephanie didn't set out to become a media mogul and certainly never expected to be in business with members of the Royal Family.'
But it was Wachs's comedian brother's 2015 overdose death at age 30 that sparked her podcasting venture and eventually led her to work with the Duchess of Sussex, who will relaunch Archetypes as well as host an unspecified show.
The Duchess of Sussex has signed on to women-run Lemonada Media to host an unspecified show. Stephanie Wittels Wachs (left) launched the podcasting company in 2019 with co-founder Jessica Cordova Kramer and won a Webby Award for online excellence last year
Wachs's brother Harris Wittels was a successful comedian and Parks and Recreation writer who died in 2015 of a heroin overdose. The brother and sister pair are pictured together
That brother was Harris Wittels who was 'discovered' by comedian Sarah Silverman in his early twenties.
He went on to count household names like Amy Poehler and Aziz Ansari as his co-workers when he signed on as co-executive producer and writer on NBC hit Parks and Recreation.
He was also the author of Humblebrag: The Art Of False Modesty.
'The guy was such a talented joke writer – in addition to being a superstar on Twitter – that he continued to work at an extremely high professional level despite his issues with substance abuse,' a source told DailyMail.com.
'Parks simply wouldn't have been the same without his writing, and everybody knew it.'
A year after his death, Wachs - who was a high school teacher in Houston, Texas, at the time - told DailyMail.com that learning of her brother's passing was 'the worst day of my life'. Stephanie and Harris are pictured at her wedding
Wittels was vocal about his addiction, too, describing his drug use and stints in rehab on podcasts, even admitting to going to LA's Skid Row to score heroin at 2am.
He died of a heroin overdose on February 19, 2015 at 30 years old after a two-year battle.
'Stephanie was a Texas housewife when her brother died after a long and semi-public battle with drugs,' the source said. 'Harris's sudden, shocking death prompted Stephanie to turn her whole life upside down.
'She decided to devote her time to creating and distributing uplifting podcast content.'
Lemonada was founded four years after Harris's death after Wachs teamed up with Kramer, whose brother Stefano also died of an overdose.
The slogan for Lemonada is 'making lemonade out of lemons, one podcast at a time.'
'That in itself was a tribute to her late brother because he was passionate about the podcasting medium and made tons of hilarious podcast appearances that live on,' the insider said.
A year after her
