Meghan Markle’s podcast was outperformed during its nine-week run by rival shows from staunch critics.
The Duchess of Sussex launched Confessions of a Female Founder on April 8 and the final episode dropped on June 3.
At its height, Meghan’s show hit second place among Apple podcasts but quickly slipped down the charts after the first two episodes while on Spotify it hovered around 21st place.
That put it behind some big-name political and debate podcasts from commentators with whom she does not see eye to eye.
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Meghan Markle’s Position in the Spotify Charts
Newsweek reported Confessions came into the Spotify charts at number 24 on April 10 and archived versions of the site show that by April 12 it had dropped out of the top 100 again.
By April 14, it was back in at number 21, polling in the same position on several other dates leading to June 7, according versions of the chart list that were archived across April, May and June. The show has since dropped out of the top 100.
Meghan’s Position in the Apple Podcast Charts
Historical Apple chart data is more difficult to recover due to the way the website is set up, with archived versions limited to the top six podcasts only.
Confessions did particularly well on Apple after its first episode, which featured Bumble’s Whitney Wolfe Herd, dropped on April 8, landing it in second place by April 12 and 13.
And its second episode, featuring Reshma Saujani, founder of nonprofit Girls Who Code, also landed Confessions in fifth place on April 15.
However, Newsweek has not been able to find record of the podcast returning to the top six beyond that point and news reports recorded it dropping out of the top 200 by April 26.
All of which puts it someway behind high-profile rivals and critics of the couple.
Tucker Carlson
Former Fox News host Carlson consistently came in the top 10 on Spotify throughout this period, usually fifth or seventh, with The Tucker Carlson Show.
He has previously said that Piers Morgan losing his job for doubting Meghan’s account of suicidal thoughts “was the most insane thing I’ve ever seen.”
He added in the January interview with Morgan: “Meghan Markle does not represent Black people in the United States.”
Candace Owens
Candace came in ninth or tenth place in the week’s when Meghan’s show was at 21st.
In January, Owens denounced Meghan and Harry for visiting the L.A. wildfire disaster zone, telling Newsweek in a statement: “I agree with the general public sentiment that Meghan and Harry are inauthentic ambulance chasers.”
Joe Rogan
The Joe Rogan Experience was at the top of the Spotify charts on Monday, and was consistently among the top few shows on both Spotify and Apple throughout the period.
Its host has been far less personally critical of the Sussexes than Carlson, Owens and others but Harry and Meghan took aim at him in January 2022, during the COVID-19 era.
The couple released a statement via their spokesperson confirming they had been “expressing concerns to our partners at Spotify about the all-too-real consequences of Covid-19 misinformation on its platform.”
The comment was widely interpreted as a veiled swipe at Rogan, who also appeared to read it that way and hit back during a light-hearted skit on his Netflix comedy special Burn the Boats in August 2024.
Rogan joked he wanted to do magic mushrooms with Harry and wait until they kick in before saying: “I’m going to hover over him and say, ‘Are you sure vaccines are safe? B****, you’re not a scientist!'”
Other High-Profile Critics
During the weeks in which Confessions was number 21 on Spotify, Meghan outperformed Ben Shapiro and Megyn Kelly, who are both consistent features of the Spotify and Apple top 100 lists but at times lower down.
The fact Meghan’s show quickly dropped down the lists, however, will leave hosts like Shapiro and Kelly able to claim a greater degree of consistency.
Shapiro gave an interview to Piers Morgan in 2023 in which he said: “They’re just the worst. I actually read Prince Harry‘s awful memoir and the number of things that are obviously not true, and the absolute self-delusion, and arrogant self-delusion…”
Kelly regularly criticizes Meghan. For example in 2023, she addressed Prince Harry: “Your wife’s a bully. Her former press communications person who worked for both you and your brother, Jason Knauf, is on the record about the bullying she committed against people who were younger than or were less powerful than she was within the palace, who she made cry all the time.” Meghan has denied bullying palace staff.
Link Lauren, a former Robert F. Kennedy Jr. aide, also hit a peak on Apple when his show Spot On first launched on May 12, entering the charts in fifth on May 13.
It too subsequently dropped down the list and was positioned at 159th on Monday. Lauren earlier this year said: “Meghan Markle the Duchess of Scamalot just dropped the trailer for her new Netflix show and let me just say it was one of the most out of touch things I’ve seen in a while.
“Most Americans right now, most people in the world, are struggling to put food on the table, they’re struggling to pay their rent, to pay their mortgage. Who wants to watch an ex-duchess traipse around her mansion picking flowers?”
Both Meghan’s two podcast series, Confessions and the 2022 show Archetypes, have opted for limited runs which means they have come and gone in the space of only a few months, never cementing a long-term position in the charts.
That may well work for Meghan in terms of the range of commitments she has, including her Netflix contract and online shop, though a longer-term consequence may be that her shows become less embedded in the public imagination as a result.
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek’s The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about Charles and Queen Camilla, Prince William and Princess Kate, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We’d love to hear from you.
