Meghan Markle’s new podcast boss Stephanie Wittels Wachs was a Texas schoolteacher who ‘never set out to be in business with the Royal Family’ but an untimely heroin overdose death led her to the Duchess

Drug addiction, an overdose death and a foray into Scientology set Stephanie Wittels Wachs on an unlikely course to team up with a member of the British Royal Family.  

Last month it was revealed that Meghan Markle had signed on to women-run Lemonada Media to host a show after cutting ties with Spotify following a single season of the Archetypes podcast. 

Stephanie Wittels Wachs, 43, launched the podcasting company in 2019 with co-founder Jessica Cordova Kramer, which now produces shows around sex, grief and LGBTQ issues to help ‘make life suck less.’

Speaking to DailyMail.com, a Hollywood insider and friend said, ‘Stephanie didn’t set out to become a media mogul and certainly never expected to be in business with members of the Royal Family.’

But it was Wachs’s comedian brother’s 2015 overdose death at age 30 that sparked her podcasting venture and eventually led her to work with the Duchess of Sussex, who will relaunch Archetypes as well as host an unspecified show.

The Duchess of Sussex has signed on to women-run Lemonada Media to host an unspecified show. Stephanie Wittels Wachs (left) launched the podcasting company in 2019 with co-founder Jessica Cordova Kramer and won a Webby Award for online excellence last year

Wachs’s brother Harris Wittels was a successful comedian and Parks and Recreation writer who died in 2015 of a heroin overdose. The brother and sister pair are pictured together 

That brother was Harris Wittels who was ‘discovered’ by comedian Sarah Silverman in his early twenties. 

He went on to count household names like Amy Poehler and Aziz Ansari as his co-workers when he signed on as co-executive producer and writer on NBC hit Parks and Recreation. 

He was also the author of Humblebrag: The Art Of False Modesty. 

‘The guy was such a talented joke writer – in addition to being a superstar on Twitter – that he continued to work at an extremely high professional level despite his issues with substance abuse,’ a source told DailyMail.com. 

‘Parks simply wouldn’t have been the same without his writing, and everybody knew it.’

A year after his death, Wachs – who was a high school teacher in Houston, Texas, at the time – told DailyMail.com that learning of her brother’s passing was ‘the worst day of my life’. Stephanie and Harris are pictured at her wedding 

Wittels was vocal about his addiction, too, describing his drug use and stints in rehab on podcasts, even admitting to going to LA’s Skid Row to score heroin at 2am. 

He died of a heroin overdose on February 19, 2015 at 30 years old after a two-year battle.  

‘Stephanie was a Texas housewife when her brother died after a long and semi-public battle with drugs,’ the source said. ‘Harris’s sudden, shocking death prompted Stephanie to turn her whole life upside down. 

‘She decided to devote her time to creating and distributing uplifting podcast content.’

Lemonada was founded four years after Harris’s death after Wachs teamed up with Kramer, whose brother Stefano also died of an overdose. 

The slogan for Lemonada is ‘making lemonade out of lemons, one podcast at a time.’  

‘That in itself was a tribute to her late brother because he was passionate about the podcasting medium and made tons of hilarious podcast appearances that live on,’ the insider said. 

A year after her brother’s death, Wachs – who was a high school teacher in Houston, Texas, at the time – told DailyMail.com that learning of her brother’s passing was ‘the worst day of my life’.

She said that after his third stint in rehab ‘it was very clear to us that [death] was a possibility.’

‘We’ve been dealing with this hell for a long time. When I saw the number on my phone I knew what was going on but I don’t think you’re ever prepared to get that call,’ Wachs said. 

The Hollywood insider said they couldn’t help but to think that Scientology led to Wittels’s downfall.

‘What’s utterly bizarre about this whole situation is that shortly before his death Harris basically went to war with Scientology by publicly recounting his weird, recruitment-oriented encounters publicly on as many podcasts as he could,’ the source said. 

‘Stephanie was a Texas housewife when her brother died of a heroin overdose after a long and semi-public battle with drugs,’ a source told DailyMail.com. ‘ Harris’s sudden, shocking death prompted Stephanie to turn her whole life upside down’

Harris Wittels counted household names like Amy Poehler and Aziz Ansari as his co-workers when he signed on as one of the top writers on NBC hit Parks and Recreation

Wachs’s brother Harris Wittels was ‘discovered’ by comedian Sarah Silverman in his early twenties. Silverman now has a podcast with Lemonada 

On an episode of the ‘You Made It Weird’ podcast, recorded just months before his death, he spoke of his foray into Scientology for a girl he was dating – but said he eventually backed out.  

‘I was always a little weird about the Scientology thing with this girl that I loved. And I couldn’t handle that inner turmoil and instead of thinking about it I could take a pill and relax and be fine,’ Wittels said. 

He admitted that it was the stress of dating a Scientologist that led him to hard drugs, including opioids and eventually heroin. 

Wittels goes on to say that the girl he was dating and her father pushed him to enter Scientology rehab. He initially declined but months later entered the church’s program. 

‘They lock you up for three months and pump you with niacin,’ he said. 

Wittels said he went to Promises in Malibu and paid $57,000 for a 30-day treatment, and he got clean. 

But it was short lived.  

Our source said, ‘There has always been this nagging suspicion among his surviving friend group that Harris’s weird experience with Scientology led to his death, like a chain of dominos tipping over.’ 

Jessica Cordova Kramer (left) and Stephanie Wittels Wachs founded Lemonada in 2019

The slogan for Lemonada is ‘making lemonade out of lemons, one podcast at a time’

In addition to Meghan Markle, Lemonada works 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.  

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

There are no details on what Markle’s new show with Lemonada will be yet – just that she will be the host. 

Wachs said in a 2022 interview they realized ‘people are struggling and feeling really alone. The mission for Lemonada was born. Our desire is to make the hard things easier.’

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.’