Stephen A. Smith claims no one cares about Harry and Meghan ‘unless they’re insulting their family’

ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith took a bizarre look at the British Royal Family on Tuesday as he delivered a scathing verdict against Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

The expert is the latest media personality to give his opinion on the couple following their split from Sportify.

Bill Simmons, top Spotify executive and former ESPNer, called Harry and Markle “f***ing grifters” following the Sussexes’ split from the music streaming giant.

Now Smith, speaking on his self-titled podcast, has claimed no one is interested in the couple unless they make headlines with their feud with the Royal Family.

“If Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex don’t complain about the Royal Family, I don’t know if anyone cares what they have to say,” Smith said on “The Stephen A. Smith Show. “.

Spotify and the Sussexes said last week that they had “mutually agreed to go our separate ways and are proud of the series we have achieved together”. Meghan and Harry are seen at the Ms. Foundation Women of Vision Awards in New York, May 16, 2023

‘[…] i’m not trying to dog [Meghan Markle] like she had no talent or something. She did damn well [the show ‘Suits’]… I love ‘Costumes.’ I’m actually going to see it again… I love this show […]

“But what I’m saying is you don’t really care what they have to say unless they insult their family.”

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have produced just one 13-episode series of a podcast for the company despite signing a $20million deal three years ago.

Spotify and the Sussexes’ production company Archewell Audio released a joint statement on Thursday evening saying they had “mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we have made together”.

“The fucking crooks,” Simmons said as he proposed the pair in an episode of his own The Bill Simmons Podcast on Friday.

On the recent episode, Simmons told guest sportswriter Ryen Russillo, “The fucking crooks. This is the podcast we should have started with them.

“I have to get drunk one night and tell the Zoom story I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea. It’s one of my best stories,” he added.

Smith, who was continually confused about whether to refer to Meghan as the Princess or the Duchess of Sussex, then played a snippet of Simmons’ comments about Harry and Meghan, noting that his former colleague seemed happy to have left Spotify .

Bill Simmons, who sold his podcast and sports journalism company The Ringer to Spotify for $200 million in 2020, now works as a podcast innovation manager at Spotify. He is pictured at the GRAMMY Museum on March 23, 2023 in Los Angeles

The Duchess of Sussex has produced just one 13-episode series of a podcast for the company

‘Damn, you thought I was bad? Bill Simmons is gone! said Smith. ‘Now Bill Simmons is my contemporary, former colleague at ESPN… I love Bill. I respect the hell of Bill Simmons, there’s no shade here. But Bill Simmons was leaving… The Duchess of Sussex, as well as Prince Harry, Bill Simmons seemed very happy that they were gone.

Smith went on to admit he had to research the definition of a “scammer”, saying he didn’t know what that meant.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I pride myself on having a relatively large vocabulary,” he said. ‘I never knew what crooks from hell meant. So, I had to look for it.

‘… A crook is a crook: someone who defrauds people out of their money through fraud. This is what Bill Simmons called Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle.

“Seriously, he’s qualified to say that. I’m not, because I don’t know anything about them. I don’t know anything about them. [Spotify] OK. I’m appalled that my daughter would talk to me about this…and then I realized, even though I wouldn’t call them any names and certainly wouldn’t be disparaging or inflammatory to them on a personal level.

Smith also admitted that he thought Simmons’ comments had gone too far.

“I didn’t think it was necessary, but again he works at Spotify, not me. So he knows more than I will ever know about this particular situation, which means it comes from a personal place,” he said.

“Again, I don’t know anything,” he added. “You can’t find a human being on this planet less interested in the royal family than me.”

Simmons first gained notoriety with his website The Boston Sports Guy in which he began writing sports columns. He was successful enough that he was picked up by ESPN in the early 2000s, eventually writing for his section and then running his blog Grantland.

The decision to scrap the Duchess of Sussex’s Archetypes podcast follows discussions months ago about its renewal for a second series. The two are pictured at the Nelson Mandela Centenary Exhibition at the Southbank Centre, July 17, 2018

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex signed a $20million deal three years ago

During his tenure at ESPN, he was at one point the most read sportswriter in the United States.

After leaving ESPN and a short failed venture with HBO, Simmons launched his own The Ringer website in 2016. The outlet focused on sports and pop culture as well as podcasts.

The Ringer was later sold to Spotify in 2020 for $200 million. Simmons still remains CEO of the outlet and retains editorial control.

He also joined Spotify as an executive, leading podcast innovation and monetization where he worked with the Sussexes on their somewhat lackluster podcast projects.