Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, discussed the double standard of labeling powerful women “ambitious” in the first episode of her new Spotify podcast Archetypes.
Meghan, who has been a controversial person in the public’s eye since her marriage to Prince Harry, said she grew up with the idea that being ambitious was a good thing and had never felt a negative connotation with the word until she met the prince.
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“This feminist ideology trickled down into nearly every aspect of my education. It’s probably safe to say into every aspect of my life,” Meghan said in the podcast episode that premiered on Tuesday. “This message to me and my classmates was clear: Our futures as young women were limitless. Ambition? That was the whole point. I don’t remember ever personally feeling the negative connotation behind the word ‘ambitious’ until I started dating my now-husband. And apparently, ambition is a terrible, terrible thing for a woman that is — according to some.”
Meghan also said the royal family forced her to continue engagements on a trip to Africa when the heater in the room of her son Archie caught on fire and would not let her cancel some appearances. She stepped back as a working member of the royal family with Harry in 2020.
“The focus ends up being on how it looks instead of how it feels,” Meghan said, “and part of the humanizing and the breaking through of these labels and these archetypes and these boxes that we’re put into is having some understanding on the human moments behind the scenes that people might not have any awareness of and to give each other a break.”
Meghan was joined in the first episode by tennis star Serena Williams, who has been a friend of the duchess’s since 2014. Williams credited Harry with helping her reach her decision to step away from tennis professionally, to focus on expanding her family.
“I’ve been trying to decide what to do, and I’ve been in and out and not really sure where to go, and that’s the worst place to be, is on the fence,” Williams said in the podcast. “So, it’s like, make a decision. Either be in it or be out of it, and I was on the fence for a while because I love what I do, and like I said, I’ve been doing this my entire existence even before I was born. It was what I was meant to do and what I was supposed to do and what was chosen for me.”
The duo first met in 2010 at a Superbowl party and reunited in 2014 but became closer following the royal wedding. Williams defended Meghan, who received backlash following the royal’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey last year.
“The mental health consequences of systemic oppression and victimization are devastating, isolating and all too often lethal,” Williams said, according to the Daily Mail. “I want Meghan’s daughter, my daughter and your daughter to live in a society that is driven by respect.”
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Meghan teased her new podcast series in March after signing a multiyear contract with Spotify. Meghan claimed her podcast would “investigate the labels that try to hold women back.”
“I’ll have conversations with women who know all too well how these typecasts shape our narratives,” the duchess shared at the time, “and I’ll talk to historians to understand how we even got here in the first place.”
Pop megastar Mariah Carey is expected to join Meghan next week, according to Fox News.
