Wordpress - Programmatically deactivate default widgets on theme activation

gm1-deactivate-widgets.php

<?php 

// add action
add_action('after_setup_theme', 'gm_remove_theme_default_widgets' );

/**
* function to check if the widgets are already removed by checking options variable
*
* If the options variable isn't already set assign empty array to `sidebars_widgets`
* i.e. storing active widgets
*/

function gm_remove_theme_default_widgets() {
  
  if ( ! get_option( 'gm_cleared_widgets' ) ) {
    
    update_option( 'sidebars_widgets', array() );
    update_option( 'gm_cleared_widgets', true );
    
  }
}