How Meghan's Team at WME Has Been Preparing for the Spotify News

Attempted shade towards the Princess of Wales and slights on Harry: The signs the Duchess of Sussex's team is preparing for a Meghan-only future:

This morning, I ended my coverage of “Trooping the Colour” with some curious news: Out of the blue Meghan Markle was photographed Friday afternoon. And coincidentally, the pictures hit the Daily Mail right as Trooping began.

It is obvious that when she wants to, she can live completely under the radar for months. But conveniently released pics on the day we know that the Princess of Wales is going to be on the front page, here’s Meghan out and about and paparazzi just so happen to find and snap her?

It is indeed odd that Markle, who kept a very low profile while her husband flailed to and fro during his publicity tour for Spare, was seen. On the same day the Royal Family writ large was celebrating a momentous occasion? One day after a Senior Executive at Spotify called she and her husband “f*cking grifters”, Meghan makes an appearance? Without her engagement ring? Without Harry?

The photos themselves are only available via the Daily Mail website. And yesterday, the Mail ran a very interesting story complete with sources from WME, Meghan’s new representation:

'We knew the Spotify announcement was coming,' a source at WME told me. 

'It might be a shock to everyone else but we've been working on the rebranding of Meghan for weeks.

 'Ari is the best in the business when it comes to corporate deals and making money. He's excited to be representing Meghan and has thrown all his energy into it.

“For weeks”. Oh, I know. WME is a PR/Talent Agency. Their main job is to put their clients forth as bankable, desirable, in-demand. Almost two weeks ago, The Times released a story that was clearly a push from Meghan’s team. It was full of laughably obvious exaggerations and clear untruths. The goal: To set the stage for how they wanted Meghan to be seen. At the time, this curious line here stuck out to me:

The £18 million Spotify podcast deal and $100 million Netflix contract for hers and Harry’s series suddenly seem like rather a lot of effort for the cash in comparison with posting the odd selfie or spiel to camera on the grid.

When I read the line above, I remember my ears perking up. This seemed a very far cry from the “inspirational and uplifting” work they hoped to create with Archewell. The Times is a recognized paper of record in the United Kingdom and world. For this story to come out of left field? Something was going on behind the scenes and Meghan’s team at WME wanted to get in front of it. The past few days have shown exactly what they were prepping for. Read on for more analysis into Meghan/WME’s strategy, why shading the Princess of Wales is a strategic error and why I think Prince Harry is looking more and more like a bystander whose bus is probably going to leave without even stopping.