With her record-breaking success and unparalleled fan base, you won’t have to go far to hear Taylor Swift described as the Queen of Pop.
But today her royal ancestry was laid bare for the first time, as it was revealed the global superstar is in fact a descendant of French King Louis XIV.
Swift, 34, is the eighth cousin – 11 times removed – of Louis, the monarch behind the iconic Palace of Versailles, according to the global family history platform MyHeritage.
While they may seem the most unlikely of relatives at first glance, the heritage site notes that Swift is no stranger to her ancestor’s life of luxury, having filmed the music video for her hit Blank Space in an opulent building bearing similarities to that of Versailles.
She’s the world’s biggest name in pop and is the subject of countless parasocial relationships with her fans. Turns out, the Duchess of Sussex shares our obsession as the details of Meghan Markle’s bid to be friends with Taylor Swift has been revealed.
According to royal commentator Kinsey Schofield, “Meghan is desperate to be Taylor’s friend,” she said on GB News on February 21, 2024. “Meghan invited Taylor Swift on her podcast by sitting down and writing her a handwritten letter begging her to be on Archetypes.”
She continued, explaining that the Duchess “wanted people to know” she went to the Eras tour when it was in California. “Meghan attended the Taylor Swift concert in Los Angeles, but she made sure that People Magazine knew she attended,” Schofield explained.
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“It was important for Meghan to release to gossip sites here that she was there; she wanted people to know. I think she wants to be like Taylor Swift marketing-wise,” Schofield added. “Taylor went from villain to hero, and I’m sure Meghan is looking at that transition and thinking, ‘How can I do something similar?’”
by Taboola
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Swift’s appearance on Markle’s podcast would never come to be, however, because, in June 2023, Spotify announced the series had been canceled. “We have made the difficult but necessary decision to make a strategic realignment of our group and reduce our global podcast vertical and other functions by approximately 200 people, or 2 percent of Spotify’s workforce,” the streaming platform’s head of podcast business, Sahar Elhabashi, said in a statement.
A source with insider knowledge of the situation told the New York Post that Archewell simply didn’t produce enough content to receive the full pay-out of the multi-million-dollar deal in 2020, which was originally described by Spotify as a “multiyear partnership,” with the promise of delivering “podcasts that will inspire.” The collaboration, believed to be inked sometime in December 2020, resulted in just one season, 12 episodes, with the first episode released almost two years later in August 2022.
Markle launched her podcast with Spotify in 2022. According to Forbes, the former royal couple signed a contract worth $18 million in December 2020 for a three-year podcast deal with Spotify. “On Archetypes, you’ve listened to others tell their stories—now, Archewell Foundation is encouraging you to share your experience with archetypes, learn how they impact our lives, and take action,” the description for the podcast read.
