Meghan Markle says she felt ‘so tired’ while expecting Archie and Lilibet

Meghan Markle has revealed she was ‘so tired’ during her pregnancies – while praising Serena Williams for looking ‘sexy’ while expecting on her new Archetypes podcast.

In the first episode of the podcast, entitled ‘The Misconception of Ambition with Serena Williams’, the Duchess of Sussex spoke to the tennis legend, who is one of her close friends, about double standards women face when they are labelled ‘ambitious’. 

In one clip, Serena spoke about how she ‘loved being pregnant’, with Meghan going on to praise her for posing naked on the cover of Vanity Fair with ‘that belly chain.’

The royal mother-of-two continued: ‘Forget it. Yeah. Yeah. It’s just like everything. You made pregnancy looks so sexy. I just waddled around. I was just tired. So tired. Oh my god.’

Meghan welcomed her first son Archie Harrison in May 2019, while her daughter Lilibet was born in June last year. Meanwhile Serena had her daughter Olympia in 2017.  

Starting the discussion on pregnancy, Serena said: ‘I was like, oh, I love this. The nothing, nothing’s oh, I’m so happy. Like, I was literally.’

Meghan went on to refer to the athlete’s 2017 cover of Vanity Fair, in which Serena posed naked with a piece of jewellery draped across her body.

She said: ‘Oh, with the belly chain.’

Serena added: ‘One of…Those women.’

And after the Duchess said ‘forget it’, Serena added: ‘I was the annoying one. You were under a lot of stress.’

Meghan agree, saying: ‘Yeah, it’s true.’

The Duchess is a mother-of-two, and first fell pregnant shortly after her wedding to Prince Harry in 2018. 

The couple announced the news ahead of their tour of Australia and Fiji that year, their first international royal tour. 

During this period, the Duke and Duchess also renovated their home of Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, and moved into the property.  

She went on to continue with royal engagements up till March, when she went on maternity leave. 

The Duchess of Sussex gave birth to her first child Archie at the private Portland Hospital in Westminster in May 2019. 

Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, the seventh in line to the throne and an eighth great-grandchild for the Queen, arrived at 5.26am on May 6, weighing 7lb 3oz.

Meghan then announced her pregnancy with daughter Lilibet on Valentine’s Day last year. 

At the time, a spokesperson for Meghan and Harry said: ‘We can confirm that Archie is going to be a big brother.

‘The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are overjoyed to be expecting their second child.’

It was during this second pregnancy that Meghan and Prince Harry gave their explosive interview to Oprah Winfrey, causing shock waves around the world.  

The Duchess kept a relatively low profile in terms of engagements during her pregnancy, appearing just a number of times on virtual calls due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s baby girl Lilibet was born on Friday, June 4 at 11:40am. She was born weighing 7lb 11oz.

The Archewell foundation announced earlier this year that the couple’s Spotify podcast would finally debut this summer – 18 months after inking the lucrative deal.

‘Archetypes’ is hosted by Meghan who will speak to historians, experts and woman who have experienced being typecast.

In a trailer for the Archewell Audio project, the duchess said: ‘This is how we talk about women: the words that raise our girls, and how the media reflects women back to us. But where do these stereotypes come from? And how do they keep showing up and defining our lives?’.

The duchess, previewing the type of guests who will feature, added: ‘This is Archetypes – the podcast where we dissect, explore and subvert 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. And I’ll talk to historians to understand how we even got here in the first place.’

Meghan and Harry signed a lucrative deal with the audio streaming giant to host and produce podcasts, estimated to be worth around £18million, in late 2020. 

But they had only released one show so far – a holiday special featuring their son Archie and celebrity guests.

Spotify and Archewell Audio said: ‘Spotify and Archewell Audio both value responsible stewardship of the audio landscape, and as explained recently, are committed to working closely to support transparency and strong principles of trust and safety.’

Meghan has long been a campaigner on female empowerment. Spotify and Archewell Audio described her conversations with typecast women as ‘uncensored’ and said the duchess would delve into the origins of stereotypes.

Former Suits actress Meghan is also an executive producer on the series, along with Ben Browning, Archewell’s head of content, and Rebecca Sananes, Archewell’s head of audio.

Prince Harry, the joker! Duke of Sussex calls Serena Williams’ hair a ‘vibe’ as the tennis ace greets him with a British accent on Meghan’s podcast – after he crashed his wife’s 40th birthday call with Melissa McCarthy

Prince Harry made an impromptu appearance on wife Meghan Markle‘s hotly-anticipated Spotify podcast.

Just last year Harry crashed wife’s 40th birthday call with Melissa McCarthy.

The Duchess of Sussex, 41, has today released The Misconception of Ambition with Serena Williams on Spotify, talking to her close friend and tennis superstar Williams about the double standards women face when they are labelled ‘ambitious’. 

Meghan and Harry signed a lucrative deal with the audio streaming giant to host and produce podcasts, estimated to be worth around £18million in late 2020. 

Harry made an appearance in the episode, with Meghan saying: ‘You wanna come say hi? Look who just popped in.’

Meghan and Williams greeted Harry with ‘hello’ in British accents, while Prince Harry told Williams: ‘I like what you’ve done with your hair. That’s a great vibe.’

Williams replied: ‘Thank you. Good to see you too as always, I miss you guys.’

The duke said, ‘Well come and see us’, with Meghan saying they would make a plan.

As Harry leaves, Meghan remarked: ‘Thanks my love.’

Last year Harry made a surprise appearance in his wife’s milestone birthday message.

The video ended with ‘bloopers’ from the recording session – including one shot of Prince Harry juggling in the garden, which can be seen through the window. The Duke of Sussex, 36, who is wearing sunglasses and a polo shirt, tosses three balls into the air before dropping them on the ground.    

He tries again, this time throwing just two balls, and flashes an impish smile at his wife before ducking out of shot. 

Melissa was left in stitches, while an apparently surprised Meghan says: ‘What the?’ before bursting into a fresh fit of giggles. 

During her new Spotidy episode the Duchess of Sussex and sports champion  Williams, 40, share personal stories about the struggles they felt as new mothers.

Speaking about ambition to Williams, Meghan told of the ‘pain’ she has suffered ‘behind closed doors’.  

The Duchess said she does not ‘ever remember personally feeling the negative connotation behind the word ambitious, until I started dating my now husband’ and said it was ‘really hard to unfeel’ this negativity.

Meghan, who now lives in California with Harry and their two children, also complained of a misconception ‘that if you’re an ambitious woman you have an agenda, you must be calculating or selfish or aggressive, or a climber’, adding that ‘the notion of ambition comes with many judgements and nuances – especially for women’.

She hit out at those who criticised her for being ‘ambitious’ when she started dating Prince Harry, in the first episode of her ‘Archetypes’ podcast which was released on Spotify today. 

Meghan added: ‘We came back. And, of course, as a mother, you go, “Oh, my God, what?” Everyone’s in tears, everyone’s shaken. And what do we have to do? Go out and do another official engagement? I said, “This doesn’t make any sense”.’

At one stage, the Duchess recounted how her son Archie narrowly escaped a fire in his bedroom where he was supposed to be sleeping during the Sussexes’ tour of South Africa.

Archie’s then nanny, named only as Lauren, had taken the four and a half month old with her downstairs instead while she went to get a snack when, meanwhile, the heater in the nursery caught fire.

Meghan said: ‘In that amount of time that she went downstairs, the heater in the nursery caught on fire. There was no smoke detector. Someone happened to just smell smoke down the hallway, went in, fire extinguished. He was supposed to be sleeping in there.’

The former Suits star told how they had dropped their young son at the housing unit they were staying in for a sleep straight after arriving on their official tour, with Meghan and the Duke of Sussex leaving to carry out a visit to the Nyanga township, where the duchess delivered a speech.

‘There was this moment where I’m standing on a tree stump and I’m giving this speech to women and girls, and we finish the engagement, we get in the car and they say there’s been a fire at the residence. What? There’s been a fire in the baby’s room,’ she said.

The Archewell foundation announced earlier this year that the couple’s Spotify podcast would finally debut this summer – 18 months after inking the lucrative deal.

‘Archetypes’ is hosted by Meghan who will speak to historians, experts and woman who have experienced being typecast.

Spotify and Archewell Audio said: ‘Spotify and Archewell Audio both value responsible stewardship of the audio landscape, and as explained recently, are committed to working closely to support transparency and strong principles of trust and safety.’

Meghan has long been a campaigner on female empowerment. Spotify and Archewell Audio described her conversations with typecast women as ‘uncensored’ and said the duchess would delve into the origins of stereotypes.

Former Suits actress Meghan is also an executive producer on the series, along with Ben Browning, Archewell’s head of content, and Rebecca Sananes, Archewell’s head of audioThe podcast is being produced by Archewell Audio in partnership with Gimlet Media for Spotify.

‘There was a fire in Archie’s room – and we had to go out and do another official engagement’: Meghan Markle tells Archetypes podcast how nursery caught fire during South Africa tour while Sussexes’ son was downstairs

Meghan Markle has revealed how her son Archie narrowly escaped a fire that erupted in his bedroom during the Sussexes’ tour of South Africa. 

The Duchess, 41, spoke today of her frustration that she immediately had to do another official engagement, wishing that others would have ‘some understanding on the human moments behind the scenes that people might not have any awareness of’.

She made the comments in the first episode of her Archetypes podcast, released today – speaking of her horror at having to ‘leave our baby’ as the drama unfolded while she and Harry were working.

The blaze erupted when a heater in his bedroom became ablaze, setting the nursery on fire – though fortunately four-and-a-half month old Archie was downstairs with his nanny at the time when she went to get a snack. 

But Meghan spoke of the stress the ordeal had on her as a new mother, telling the podcast: ‘In that amount of time that [the nanny] went downstairs, the heater in the nursery caught on fire. There was no smoke detector. 

‘Someone happened to just smell smoke down the hallway, went in, fire extinguished. He was supposed to be sleeping in there.’

The former Suits star told how they had dropped their young son at the housing unit they were staying in for a sleep straight after arriving on their official tour, with Meghan and Harry leaving to carry out a visit to the Nyanga township, where the duchess delivered a speech.

‘There was this moment where I’m standing on a tree stump and I’m giving this speech to women and girls, and we finish the engagement, we get in the car and they say there’s been a fire at the residence. What? There’s been a fire in the baby’s room,’ she said. 

‘As a mother, you go, ‘Oh, my God, what?’ Everyone’s in tears, everyone’s shaken. And what do we have to do? Go out and do another official engagement.

‘I said, ‘this doesn’t make any sense. Can you just tell people what happened?’ And I think the focus ends up being on how it looks instead of how it feels.

‘And part of the humanising 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. Because we did– we had to leave our baby.’

The terrifying incident was unearthed in the first episode of Meghan’s Archetypes podcast, available on Spotify.

Entitled The Misconception of Ambition with Serena Williams, Meghan talks to her close friend and tennis superstar Williams about the double standards women face when they are labelled ‘ambitious’.

The Duchess of Sussex, 41, and the sports champion, 40, share personal stories about the struggles they felt as new mothers.

Speaking about ambition to Williams, Meghan says: ‘I don’t even remember hearing the negative connotations for the word ambition until I started dating my now husband.’ 

‘I was ready to turn off when I heard the soap ad story YET AGAIN’: Meghan Markle listeners ‘yawn’ as she wheels out well-worn anecdote about campaigning against sexist soap advert when she was eleven for podcast

Social media users hit out at Meghan Markle for touting, yet again, how she challenged a major American consumer goods company over its ‘sexist’ dish soap advert at just 11 years old.

Markle, 41, shared the tale during the first episode of her ‘Archetypes’ podcast which was released on Spotify today.

She said she took action by launching a ‘letter writing campaign’ to political pundits, including the-First Lady Hillary Clinton, to challenge the verbiage the company used in the commercial.

The Duchess of Sussex said the experience was ‘awakening to the millions of ways, big and small, that our society tries to box women in.’

Twitter users criticised Markle for sharing the ‘yawn’ provoking childhood story again, alleging it makes her ‘look more pathetic’ to continue discussing the alleged injustice 30 years later.

Her critics also slammed the podcast as being unbearable, noting they were ‘ready to turn it off after 20 seconds.’

Social media slammed Markle for bringing up the advert, which she has discussed at various public events including during a speech she gave for UN Women on International Women’s Day in 2015.

Entitled ‘The Misconception of Ambition with Serena Williams’, Markle spoke to the tennis legend, who is one of her close friends, in the first episode of her new podcast.

The Duchess dove into the podcast saying: ‘When I was 11 years old, growing up in LA, I saw a commercial that would change the way I saw my place in the world.

‘Let me be clear, it wasn’t because this ad was some ingenious piece of marketing. Actually it was just the opposite.’

Markle said she was sitting in her sixth grade classroom, watching television alongside other pupils, when the advert rang out.

The narrator, speaking over catchy music said: ‘The gloves are coming off. Women are fighting greasy pots and pans with Ivory Clear.’

‘I was furious,’ Markle recalled on Tuesday’s episode. ‘Women? Did I really just hear that guy say “women”? As in only women? Only women.’

Furthermore, the royal described how after the commercial played, two boys in her class ‘breathed life into my biggest fear.’

‘They said, “Yeah! that’s where women belong! In the kitchen.” Oh man, this did not sit well with 11-year-old me.’

The Duchess then played a clip from her 1993 interview on children’s network Nickelodeon, where Markle first voiced her concerns about the commercial.

‘It makes me think that they’re going to grow up thinking that girls are less than them – you know, like boys are better than girls,’ young Markle said in the clip.

Young Markle also wrote to Procter & Gamble to object to the sexism in a dish soap advert. She asked them to change the verbiage to ‘people all over America’ and the company subsequently amended the language.

Markle also hit out at those who criticised her for being ‘ambitious’ when she started dating Prince Harry. 

She also told of the ‘pain’ that she has suffered ‘behind closed doors’ – and revealed that her son Archie narrowly escaped a fire in his bedroom where he was supposed to be sleeping during the Sussexes’ tour of South Africa.

Meghan said: ‘Now, look, I’m not Catholic. I wasn’t raised Catholic. But about one year after my letter writing campaign, I started middle school at Immaculate Heart (in Los Angeles). I stayed there, through high school. I was there for six years. And this feminist ideology trickled down into nearly every aspect of my education. 

‘It’s probably safe to say into every aspect of my life. This message to me and my classmates was clear: our futures as young women were limitless. Ambition. Well, that was the whole point. 

‘So I don’t ever remember 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. 

‘So since I felt the negativity behind it, It’s really hard to unfeel it. I can’t unsee it either in the millions of girls and women who make themselves smaller, so much smaller on a regular basis. 

‘So I wanted to talk to someone who embodies the spirit of ambition to see how she thinks about the word and the connotation, and how the other many labels that affect all women have affected her too.’

Speaking to Williams, Meghan also said: ‘In our friendship when you have to see things that are mischaracterising of me, but you experience behind closed doors the pain that I’m going through.

‘What I think is so interesting is that even though that’s on a world stage, I don’t know if that feels much different for any woman. If you’re in a small town and you see someone saying something about your best friend that is just completely untrue, how that feels.

‘The thought of these, like, Archetypes, but it’s the kind of stuff you and I talk about so much, these boxes and these labels – the things that we both have been called and witnessed each other being called.’

Meghan added: ‘As you heard in my chat with my dear friend, the notion of ambition come with many judgements and nuances – especially for women.

‘The misconception that if you’re an ambitious woman you have an agenda, you must be calculating or selfish or aggressive, or a climber.

‘And that if you’re that fierce or strong, or brave then you soemehow deserve whatever gets thrown at you – however disproportionate or unfair it may be, and even when it’s more than most could endure. Most men, most anyone.’

Talking about her guests – which will also include Mariah Carey next week – Meghan said: ‘They’ve all in some way borne the brunt of the labels we’ll be picking apart, and of course I know a thing or two about these labels myself.’

Meghan, 41, and Williams, 40, also shared personal stories about the struggles they have faced being new mothers.

At one stage, the Duchess recounted how her son Archie narrowly escaped a fire in his bedroom where he was supposed to be sleeping during the Sussexes’ tour of South Africa.

Archie’s then nanny, named only as Lauren, had taken the four and a half month old with her downstairs instead while she went to get a snack when, meanwhile, the heater in the nursery caught fire.

Meghan said: ‘In that amount of time that she went downstairs, the heater in the nursery caught on fire. There was no smoke detector. Someone happened to just smell smoke down the hallway, went in, fire extinguished. He was supposed to be sleeping in there.’

The former Suits star told how they had dropped their young son at the housing unit they were staying in for a sleep straight after arriving on their official tour, with Meghan and the Duke of Sussex leaving to carry out a visit to the Nyanga township, where the duchess delivered a speech.

‘There was this moment where I’m standing on a tree stump and I’m giving this speech to women and girls, and we finish the engagement, we get in the car and they say there’s been a fire at the residence. What? There’s been a fire in the baby’s room,’ she said.

Meghan added: ‘We came back. And, of course, as a mother, you go, ‘Oh, my God, what?’ Everyone’s in tears, everyone’s shaken. And what do we have to do? Go out and do another official engagement? I said, ‘This doesn’t make any sense’.’

Harry also makes an appearance in the episode, with Meghan saying: ‘You wanna come say hi? Look who just popped in.’

Meghan and Williams greet Harry with ‘Hello’ in British accents, with Harry telling Williams: ‘I like what you’ve done with your hair. That’s a great vibe.’

Williams replies: ‘Thank you. Good to see you too as always, I miss you guys.’

The duke responds ‘Well come and see us’, with Meghan saying they will make a plan.

As Harry leaves, Meghan remarks: ‘Thanks my love.’

Williams also revealed Harry helped her with the decision to retire from tennis long before it was announced, spending around an hour discussing the issue with her.

Meghan, who quit the monarchy as a senior working royal, said: ‘I think, you know, I think both of us, or the three of us, really know that sometimes the right decision isn’t the easiest decision.’

She told Williams: ‘It takes a lot of courage, I think, too, to stop something in many ways than to keep going sometimes.’

The Archewell Foundation announced earlier this year that the couple’s Spotify podcast would finally debut this summer – 18 months after inking the lucrative deal.

Archetypes is hosted by Meghan who will speak to historians, experts and woman who have experienced being typecast.

In a prior trailer for the Archewell Audio project, the duchess said: ‘This is how we talk about women: the words that raise our girls, and how the media reflects women back to us. But where do these stereotypes come from? And how do they keep showing up and defining our lives?’.

The Duchess, previewing the type of guests who will feature, added: ‘This is Archetypes – the podcast where we dissect, explore and subvert 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. And I’ll talk to historians to understand how we even got here in the first place.’

Meghan and Harry signed a lucrative deal with the audio streaming giant to host and produce podcasts, estimated to be worth around £18million, in late 2020.

But they had only released one show prior to now – a holiday special featuring their son Archie and celebrity guests, in December 2020.

Meghan has long been a campaigner on female empowerment. Spotify and Archewell Audio described her conversations with typecast women as ‘uncensored’ and said the duchess would delve into the origins of stereotypes.

Former Suits actress Meghan is also an executive producer on the series, along with Ben Browning, Archewell’s head of content, and Rebecca Sananes, Archewell’s head of audio.The podcast is being produced by Archewell Audio in partnership with Gimlet Media for Spotify.