Meghan Markle's New Podcast Featured This Iconic First Guest

Meghan Markle has officially joined the podcast scene, and it’s clear that she’s here to stay. On Aug. 23, the Duchess of Sussex released the first episode of Archetypes, a Spotify-exclusive podcast from her and Prince Harry’s production company, Archewell Audio. For her first episode, Markle kicked things off with a major guest. She brought on longtime friend and tennis champion, Serena Williams.

Though this is a new career venture for Markle, the podcast has been on the horizon for a while. In 2020, Markle and Prince Harry inked a multi-year deal with Spotify to spotlight diverse perspectives and voices, according to Harper’s Bazaar. She reiterated this focus in the podcast’s teaser. “This is how we talk about women—the words that raise our girls, and how the media reflects women back to us,” Markle said. “But where do these stereotypes come from? And how do they keep showing up in defining our lives?”

Markle quickly began answering some of these questions alongside Williams in her debut episode, titled “The Misconception of Ambition with Serena Williams.” Specifically, the duo discussed the struggles of mothering in the public eye. Williams recalled a moment in which her 4-year-old daughter, Olympia, broke her wrist the day before she was set to play a morning tennis match. She shares her daughter with her husband, Alexis Ohanian.

Williams said she was conflicted about leaving Olympia when she was hurt. “I think I got, like, 30 minutes of sleep, and then I had to go play this match,” Williams said in the podcast. “And I'm just thinking, How am I gonna play? I somehow managed to win, but I was so emotionally spent and just, like, so emotionally drained that it was crazy.”

Markle sympathized with Williams’ story by revealing a similar story. While touring South Africa with her family in 2019, Markle said Archie's nursery caught on fire while she and Prince Harry attended an engagement. Luckily, their nanny, Lauren, had taken Archie out of the room before the fire broke out; however, she and Harry had to quickly leave to attend another engagement.

Markle said she was dismayed to see that behind the scenes the focus of the incident became about “how it looks instead of how it feels.”

“I said, ‘This doesn't make any sense.’ I was like, ‘Can you just tell people what happened?’” Markle said.

Later in the episode, Williams also opened up to Markle about writing her recent Vogue personal essay. In it, Williams publicly announced her decision to retire from tennis soon.

“I was just sitting in the hotel at the desk, just typing and deleting and typing and thinking and then crying and sitting at my computer and tears streaming down my face as I’m writing these words and going back on these memories,” Williams said. “And it was just like, God, it was, it was really hard. But I was like, if I’m going to do this, it has to be Vogue September issue, right?”

To hear more of Markle and William’s interview, listen to Archetypes here.