Two years after Meghan Markle and Prince Harry signed a $30 million Spotify deal, the Duchess of Cambridge is finally delivering the content! Her new podcast, Archetypes, is being produced by the couple's company, Archewell Audio, and will drop one new episode each week. As for the agenda? Safe to say, it's no pop culture podcast. The synopsis promises to "investigate the labels that try to hold women back" and "live inside and rip apart the boxes women have been placed into for generations: boxes like 'diva,' 'crazy,' 'the b-word,' 'slut.'" It's also set to include "uncensored conversations" with women, historians, and various scientific experts who are well versed in the stereotypes surrounding women. Here's what went down in the first episode, released on Tuesday!
For the pilot of her show, Meghan recruited one of her closest friends, Serena Williams, and UC Berkley professor Laura Cray. The world-class tennis player and the professor of gender studies sat down with the Duchess to discuss the various experiences women have in the workplace. "I don't remember ever personally feeling the negative connotation behind the word 'ambitious' until I started dating my now husband," Markle told her guests. "So, since I've felt the negativity behind it, it's really hard to un-feel 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."
Williams, who recently announced she would retire after the US Open to spend more time with her family, agreed with the host. "Often women are definitely put in these different boxes when we are ambitious or when we do have goals or when we reach our goals; it's a negative connotation on how we reach the goals," Williams responded. "Ambitious women who have children and then come back to work and attempt to perform at the highest level are violating people's expectations of what the most important thing for women to be is," explained Professor Kray.
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Elsewhere on the podcast, Meghan recalled a horrifying incident that took place during the couple's Royal Tour to South Africa. While carrying out an official engagement, their son Archie narrowly escaped a fire while in the nanny's care. Markle and Williams then discussed their collective experiences of having to continue working under the hardest of circumstances. Check out next week's episode for an in-depth chat with Mariah Carey - and learn more about Meghan's remarkable parenting style, here!