Meghan Markle, the wife of Britain’s Prince Harry, launched her long-awaited podcast on Tuesday. Tennis megastar Serena Williams was the first guest.
The Duchess of Sussex said the 12-part series, called “Archetypes,” — a play on the name of the couple’s oldest child, Archie — would explore the female experience. “We’re going to live inside and rip apart the boxes women have been placed into for generations,” Markle said.
During the episode, Markle recounted and incident when she, Prince Harry and their son Archie were on a tour of South Africa. The pair had to leave baby Archie to attend to royal duties when a fire broke out in the toddler’s room. Luckily Archie was out of the room during this time as his nanny had taken him out for a bite. This left everyone shaken, said Meghan.
Markle and Williams, who make much of their friendship and their shared Los Angeles roots, discussed the notion of being “ambitious” and how it is applied differently to men and to women.
“I don’t ever remember personally feeling the negative connotation behind the word ambitious, until I started dating my now-husband,” the host says, referring to Harry, who makes a brief cameo early in the show.
“And apparently ambition is a terrible, terrible thing — for a woman, that is, according to some.”
Tennis legend Williams, 40, recently indicated that she is planning to retire after this month’s US Open. This will bring the curtains down on a glittering tennis career that saw her conquer 23 Grand Slam titles.
Last year the couple told Oprah Winfrey that life inside with the royals had been miserable. The couple said they had experienced racism, including speculative comments from an unnamed royal about the skin colour of their then-unborn child.
Markle has mixed ancestry. The royal family has denied all racism accusations.
