With tennis superstar Serena Williams as the first guest, Meghan Markle has started her podcast. The wife of Britain’s Prince Harry and the world-class tennis player spoke about ambition – and how the trait is perceived differently in women and men – in the first episode of the Archetypes podcast, released on Tuesday.
“I don’t remember ever personally feeling the negative connotation of the word ‘ambitious’ before I started dating my now-husband,” said the Duchess of Sussex. “And apparently, for some, ambition is a horrible, horrible thing — in a woman, mind you.”
Williams said women are often pigeonholed “when we’re ambitious and we have goals” – also pointing to negative connotations for women. She read an article that schoolgirls were less and less likely to speak up in class because they would otherwise be the target of derogatory remarks. “Hopefully we can teach girls to keep raising their hands and not be afraid,” said the 40-year-old, who is considered one of the best tennis players in history.
In the 12-part Archetypes podcast series, Markle says he wants to explore how women “have been pigeonholed for generations.” She wanted to raise the question of where such role models come from, as they have been able to assert themselves for so long – “and most importantly how we can leave them behind”.
In her first podcast episode, Markle also spoke about a personal experience that scared her as a mother. When son Archie was four and a half months old, a fire broke out in the room he was supposed to sleep in.
She and Prince Harry were on a trip to South Africa with Archie in 2019, leaving him in the care of a nanny during an appointment, according to the Duchess of Sussex. When they returned from the appointment, they found out: “There was a fire in the residence. There was a fire in the baby’s room.”
Meghan describes the bad seconds: “Our great nanny Lauren was in tears.” Actually, she should have put Archie to sleep, but then decided to get something “from below” – luckily, because she took the baby with her.
The fire broke out on a heater, and there was no smoke detector in the room. “Someone happened to smell smoke in the hallway, so they looked into the room and put out the fire,” Markle said. Luckily nothing happened to her son, but the thought that he should have been sleeping in the room at that moment came as a shock to her. After the incident, they moved to another accommodation, she said in an interview with Williams.
The podcast will be broadcast on the streaming platform Spotify. Markle and Prince Harry retired from their royal duties in the British royal family in April 2020. They’ve since landed a number of lucrative deals, including one with streaming platform Netflix. Prince Harry also plans to publish his memoirs soon.