Meghan Markle‘s timing for the release of her new podcast series was put into question by a PR expert, who argued whether it was a strategic move or not as the duchess was deemed not “smart enough”. The Duchess of Sussex released two episodes of Confessions of a Female Founder – her new podcast with Lemonada Media – with the first episode airing earlier this month.
The first episode featured Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder of dating app Bumble, while the second one featured Reshma Saujani of Girls Who Code and Moms First. But the release of her first episode on April 8 coincided with two major royal events taking place: the King and Queen’s four-day state visit to Italy and her husband, Prince Harry‘s, return to the UK for an appeal against a High Court ruling regarding his downgraded security in Britain.
Now a PR expert said that while questions were raised about the timing of her podcast’s release, it could very well have been accidental.
Renae Smith, founder and director of the Atticism, told the Express: “I don’t think it was a particularly strategic move in terms of trying to upstage anyone. I don’t think it will affect her listenership either way.
“If you do a demographic breakdown, there’s very little crossover between people who are tuning in to royal tours and those subscribing to Meghan’s content.
“I don’t imagine anyone who was interested in Charles and Camilla’s Italy visit was ever going to hit play on her podcast, so it’s unlikely this timing will hurt her audience.”
She added: “The overlap with Harry returning to the UK for his security appeal is perhaps a little more odd, but again, I don’t think Meghan operates with that level of external awareness, even when it comes to her husband.”
Ms Smith claimed that the duchess is in full “Meghan mode” right now, explaining: “[She is]deep in her own brand ecosystem, focused on personal content, and seemingly not clocking what anyone else (including Harry) is doing, or might need support with.”
However, while she dismissed any suggestion of the timing being a “tactic”, she said that if it was one indeed, it would be a “very clever one”.
She said: “People often say this is all deeply calculated, but I’m not sure.
“Sometimes I think we give her too much credit for strategy. It may be coincidence, or it may be manipulation – but I can’t quite tell if she’s smart enough, in a strategic thinking kind of way, to be that manipulative. Either way, it doesn’t really work in her favour.”
