Meghan Markle wears Princess Diana's Cartier watch in portrait by her friend Misan Harriman - released to announce deal with female-founded Lemonada Media who want to 'make life suck less' with shows around sex, grief and LGBTQ issues

READ MORE - Harry and Meghan arrive in Vancouver for Invictus Games event 

Meghan Markle has released a new photo of herself wearing Princess Diana’s old watch to announce a podcast deal just hours after the couple launched their new website Sussex.com.

The Duchess of Sussex said she was ‘overjoyed’ to make a ‘dynamic’ new series after joining forces with female-founded US podcast network Lemonada Media, which aims to ‘make life suck less’ with shows around sex, grief and LGBTQ issues .

The move, which comes after the couple’s £18million Spotify contract ended early last year, will also see Lemonada distribute Meghan’s previous series Archetypes.

She made the announcement on Sussex.com just 24 hours after the website was launched, alongside a new portrait photo taken by her friend Misan Harriman.

Meghan wore a £310 Totem grey dress and a gold Cartier watch worth £17,800 which once belonged to her husband Prince Harry’s late mother Princess Diana.

She also had a £5,000 Cartier Love bracelet, which she has worn many times in the past and is said to have been a gift from Harry in the early days of their romance.

The Duchess had her dark brown hair styled in large curls, and previously sported the look and dress at the 2023 Invictus Games in Dusseldorf last September.

Hinting that other projects could be in the pipeline, Meghan said the deal was a ‘fantastic way to kick off 2024’ and she was ‘eager’ to share the new podcast.

It comes as Harry and Meghan touched down in Vancouver yesterday to begin a three-day visit to Canada from today until Friday tied to next year’s Invictus Games.

Photographer Misan Harriman has tweeted the portrait photograph he took of Meghan Markle

Misan Harriman and Meghan Markle are seen at an event in Montecito on November 15, 2023

Harry and Meghan are pictured at the Invictus Games One Year To Go Event yesterday

Work has already started on the new series which Meghan will host. The amount she has been paid has not been revealed – but given that Lemonada Media is a much smaller player in the podcast market, it is unlikely to be as big as the Spotify deal.

Lemonada Media was founded in 2019 by Jessica Cordova Kramer, an executive producer, and Stephanie Wittels Wachs, co-founder of a theatre company.

Meghan said in a statement on Sussex.com: ‘I’m proud to now be able to share that I am joining the brilliant team at Lemonada to continue my love of podcasting.

‘Being able to support a female-founded company with a roster of thought-provoking and highly entertaining podcasts is a fantastic way to kick off 2024.

‘Our plan to rerelease Archetypes, so that more people can now have access to it, as well as launching a dynamic new podcast are well in the works. I’m so eager to be able to share it soon, and am overjoyed to be joining the Lemonada family.’

The new deal comes after the Sussexes and Spotify ‘mutually agreed to part ways’ in June last year, three years after the contract began in 2020.

The audio firm said it would not renew Archetypes, which featured 12 episodes from August 2022, for a second series.

Meghan was pictured beaming as she watched her husband in Whistler, Canada yesterday

Harry and Meghan were pictured on Valentine’s Day in Canada

Meghan wore the Cartier Tank watch, gifted by Harry that once belonged to Princess Diana

Meghan’s watch was originally owned by Prince Harry’s late mother Princess Diana, who is seen wearing it on her wrist at an engagement at the British Lung Foundation in London in 1997

Meghan also wore a Cartier Love bracelet, which is thought to have been a gift from Harry

Top Spotify podcast executive Bill Simmons then called Harry and Meghan ‘f***ing grifters’, adding: ‘I’ve got to get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea. It’s one of my best stories.’

Archetypes had around one million listens per episode and debuted as Spotify’s number one podcast in 47 countries around the world when it launched in 2022.

The series explored the labels that try to hold women back and included guests such as Mariah Carey, Serena Williams, Jameela Jamil and Pamela Adlon.

The series won a People’s Choice Award for The Pop Podcast of 2022 and Meghan won best entertainment podcast host at the Gracie Awards.

Under the new deal, Archetypes will now be rolled out to all audio platforms with Lemonada distributing.

Ms Kramer said: ‘We are beyond honored that Meghan has trusted us to help democratise access to Archetypes, and that so many more people around the world will have access to the series soon.

‘Meghan’s talent as host, creator and conversationalist is unparalleled and we are thrilled to co-create a new series with her that fosters her approach to creating art that matters.’

Meghan Markle is pictured recording her Spotify podcast which launched in August 2022

The end of the couple’s Spotify deal was announced in 2023, three years after it was signed

And Ms Wittels Wachs added: ‘As we’ve started development with The Duchess of Sussex, we are blown away by her collaborative spirit and clear vision, along with her deep desire to build compassion and community through this work.

‘The Lemonada team felt immediate kinship with Meghan and the Archewell Productions team, and we are delighted to be working together.’

Lemonada produces shows around sex, grief and LGBTQ issues to help ‘make life suck less’.

The company was launched in 2019 by Ms Kramer and Ms Wittels Wachs who bonded after both losing their brothers to overdoses.

In May 2016, Ms Wittels Wachs told MailOnline of her horror at how news of her late brother Harris Wittels’s death was leaked by TMZ before her mother had been notified.

Mr Wittels, who was best known for his work on US comedy TV series Parks and Recreation as a co-executive producer, died aged 30 of a heroin overdose in February 2015 after a two-year battle with drug addiction.

Ms Wittels Wachs said his death ‘the worst day of my life’ but she also found it strange to be ‘grieving privately and seeing all this public grief’ because he was a trending topic.

Lemonada Media founders Jessica Cordova Kramer (left) and Stephanie Wittels Wachs (right)

Ms Kramer’s brother Stefano Cordova Jr died of a fentanyl overdose in October 2017, which she later described as the ‘worst f***ing thing that ever happened’.

Ms Kramer first got in touch with Ms Wittels Wachs in April 2018 after hearing her talk about her brother’s death in a podcast with humour, with the intention of booking her on a show she was helping to produce called ‘Pod Save the People’.

The two bonded instantly, having attended New York University at the same time and suffering similar family tragedies – and soon set up a podcast called Last Day.

This was a 25-part series, during which Ms Kramer spoke about the circumstances leading to Mr Cordova’s death.

Speaking about the show to the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 2019, Ms Kramer said: ‘Stefano might be a little p***ed. He was a very private person. But the choice of telling his story creates space for other people to feel less shame and celebrate the life he had. I think he’d eventually understand.’

The pair now work with a host of celebrities from Sarah Silverman to Julia Louis-Dreyfus and have big backers including Stephanie Hannon, who served as chief technology officer for Hillary Clinton ‘s 2016 presidential campaign.

Ms Hannon has joined Lemonada’s advisory council, which already includes former US Representative Democrat Patrick J. Kennedy – the nephew of former President John F Kennedy – and activist DeRay Mckesson.

Ms Wittels Wachs said in a interview in 2022 that they realised ‘people are struggling and feeling really alone’, adding: The mission for Lemonada was born. Our desire to make the hard things easier.’

Prince Harry and Meghan at the Bob Marley: One Love film premiere in Jamaica on January 23

One of Lemonada’s most popular shows is Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, which spent 29 days in a row at the top of the Apple Podcast charts.

In the podcast she sits down with Jane Fonda, Carol Burnett, Amy Tan, Diane von Furstenberg, Isabel Allende and Fran Lebowitz ‘to get schooled in how to live a full and meaningful life’.

Another podcast, Being Trans, follows a group of transgender people navigating their daily lives and promises ‘over the season, you’ll get to experience what it’s like Being Trans.’

Also on Lemonada is Raised by Ricki which revisits the iconic 90s talk show, the Ricki Lake Show, hosted by Ricki herself.

Meanwhile Burnout, hosted by Connor Franta, looks at ‘how society reached a burning point and what we can do – really, actually do – to break the cycle.’

Ms Kramer and Ms Wittels Wachs have said before that they try to choose difficult topics that impact a lot of people and to offer solutions.

Before Lemonada, Ms Kramer worked as a Wall Street lawyer and then Teach For America, while Ms Wittels Wachs was working as a theatre director and writer.

Within their company, they focus on workplace culture, saying in a 2022 interview: ‘We want to make life suck less for our listeners but also for our staff. We lead with empathy.

The new homepage of Sussex.com features an image of Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex at the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games in September 2023

‘We have a generous PTO (paid time off) and paternal leave policy along with bereavement leave.’

In 2021 the New York Times reported that ‘every production meeting begins with a round-robin mental health check-in.’

On Monday night, Harry and Meghan launched a new website – with their previous site, Archewell, now automatically redirecting to ‘Sussex.com’, which consistently refers to the couple by their official royal titles.

A picture of the couple dominates the main web page, overlaid with the text: ‘The Office of Prince Harry & Meghan, The Duke & Duchess of Sussex’. It also features Meghan’s royal coat of arms.

In the ‘About’ section, the website states: ‘The Office of Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex is shaping the future through business and philanthropy.

‘This includes: The Archewell Foundation, Archewell Productions, patronages, ventures, and organisations which receive the support of the couple, individually and/or together.’

In individual biographies of the couple, Harry is highlighted as a ‘humanitarian, military veteran, mental health advocate, and environmental campaigner’, while Meghan is described as a ‘feminist and champion of human rights and gender equity’ who has been named ‘one of the most influential women in the world’ across a series of rankings.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in June 2018

Archewell had replaced Harry and Meghan’s previous Sussex Royal brand after they quit royal duties.

The name was inspired by their son Archie – combining ‘arche’, the Greek word meaning source of action, and ‘well’ as ‘a plentiful source or supply; a place we go to dig deep’.

The new website links to the couple’s non-profit organisation the Archewell Foundation and their production company Archewell Productions.

The launch of the site comes as the King’s slimmed-down monarchy has been put under pressure in a way not seen before during his reign, with Charles postponing all public-facing duties due to his cancer diagnosis and the Princess of Wales out of action for the immediate future following abdominal surgery.

Harry, who lives in California with his wife and their two children – Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet – flew to the UK last week to meet with the King following his diagnosis.

He made the visit without Meghan and their children less than 24 hours after the announcement about Charles’ health was made to the nation by Buckingham Palace.

But there was no meeting with his brother, the Prince of Wales, after Harry spent around 45 minutes at Clarence House seeing Charles.