Garmin notifications stop podcasts from resuming .... :-/

I'm trying to troubleshoot an issue I've been experiencing in the last week or two on my 945 and Android S22+ (all latest versions of software), I'm hoping someone will be able to help. Searching online and the forum hasn't helped so far.

Until about a week or two ago everything was working fine. I would use the PodastAddict app on my phone with BT headphones, I'd get a pace announcement from my watch which would pause the audio stream, and then automatically resume. All of this worked fine for at least 4 years. 

Now after I get an alert from the watch (e.g., pace, time) it doesn't resume the podcast (actually, this also happens if no headphones are connected). I have to manually resume the playback which gets pretty annoying, esp during a long run.

Just to be sure it wasn't the podcast app, I installed a different podcast app, the same happens with it, so it must be something with Garmin software/firmware as other notifications don't seem to pause the stream. I wonder if some default setting changed with one of the recent updates to the watch firmware or Garmin Connect (as far as setting for the watch are concerned). I keep all of the software updated on my devices, and since I haven't really changed settings, I'm assuming it's a recent update.

It's very annoying to keep having to manually restart the stream - does anyone have a solution? Or suggestions. Or for that matter, has anyone else experience this? In the meantime I'm looking at the watch manual/settings to see if there's something that might have been somehow reset (possibly in a recent update?)

Thanks.

PS: Just to clarify, I'm not streaming the podcast from my watch, that's solely coming from my phone. The issue is that the Garmin notifications now stop my podcasts from resuming, that wasn't the case before.