EXCLUSIVE: Why Meghan’s podcast has hit a snag before it even begins: Duchess’s much-heralded new Archetypes audio shows are put on ice ‘until next year at the earliest’ while she focuses on her lifestyle brand, reveals RICHARD EDEN

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were damningly described as ‘f*****g grifters’ by a Spotify executive hours after the parting of the ways was announced between them and the audio giant last year.

So I’m sorry to hear that Meghan’s new deal with a much smaller podcast company is struggling to get off the starting blocks.

Prince Harry’s wife announced amid great fanfare in February that she had signed a deal with Lemonada Media, a female-founded company that wants to ‘make life suck less’.

The Duchess, who produced only one series of her podcast Archetypes for Spotify before parting ways with the company, had signed with Lemonada to develop and host a new series.

However, a source tells me that there is not expected to be any work broadcast this year. ‘The relaunch of Meghan’s Archetypes podcast got pushed back to 2025,’ the California-based source says.

It is understood that Lemonada did not want the podcast’s launch to be overshadowed by the former actress’s television series, which she began filming at a rented house in Montecito last week. Netflix said the show would ‘celebrate the joys of cooking and gardening, entertaining and friendship’.

Lemonada is said to be concerned that there would also be ‘scheduling conflicts’ between the launch of its podcasts and that of Meghan’s lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard.

A spokesman for Meghan declined to comment, but sources claim she had a list of ‘very high-profile guests’ scheduled to participate in her new podcasts.

Guests on her series of 12 podcasts for Spotify included Wimbledon champion Serena Williams, pop star Mariah Carey, and Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell.

Bill Simmons, Spotify’s head of podcast innovation and monetisation, blasted the Duke and Duchess as ‘f****** grifters’ just hours after their reported £15million deal was axed last summer. The damning putdown is an American term for people ‘who engage in petty or small-scale swindling’.

He ranted: ‘I’ve 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.’