Bill Simmons is both a podcast host who sold his show, “The Ringer” to Spotify in 2020 and an executive at Spotify who is currently in charge of podcast innovation and monetization. He recently ripped into Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, in an episode of The Ringer.
Referring to them as “f–king grifters,” Simmons blasted the former royals for their laziness and expressed relief at Spotify having parted ways with them after signing a $20 million deal with them in 2020.
Blasting them on his podcast and mocking Harry for being utterly unable to come up with any sort of idea for a podcast, Simmons joked that one night he should tell the story of trying to deal with Harry over Zoom, He said: “The f-cking grifters. That’s the podcast we shoulda launched with them. I gotta 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.”
Simmons added that he wished he had been involved in giving the two grifters the boot from Spotify after it got tired of their laziness and antics, saying, “I wish I had been involved in the ‘Meghan and Harry leave Spotify’ negotiation. That’s a podcast we should’ve launched with them.”
Deadline also reports that Simmons said, when discussing Harry, that he’s so tired of the former royal whining about everything despite living a charmed life in the royal family, off which he just tried to grift and make money, and living in one of the most beautiful areas in the world. Simmons said:
“Shoot this guy to the sun. I’m so tired of this guy. What does he bring to the table? He just whines about shit and keeps giving interviews. Who gives a shit? Who cares about your life? You weren’t even the favorite son. … You live in fucking Montecito and you just sell documentaries and podcasts and nobody cares what you have to say about anything unless you talk about the royal family and you just complain about them.”
Listen to Simmons talk about Harry here:
Bill Simmons absolutely HATES Prince Harry
We need to know what Harry said to Bill on that Zoom pic.twitter.com/lsxNoSPaCU
— The r/BillSimmons Podcast (@rBillSimmonsPod) June 16, 2023
Commenting on the Spotify situation, a source close to it said that it’s embarrassing Meghan only got one season of her podcast, saying, “Although ‘Archetypes’ did well and got a couple of awards, when you go into a deal like this, to have just one series over that course of time is not great. To put that into context, the Obamas and their production company, Higher Ground, delivered multiple new series.”
Another insider described the Duke and Duchess as being “lazy and difficult” compared to others in the space who are eager to do a good job, saying, “Spotify wants to focus on people who drive strong audiences, like Alex Cooper, Dax Shepard and Emma Chamberlain. There are a lot of great creators who are very eager. Meghan and Harry are the outlier on all of this, I think they have come off as being lazy and difficult.”
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