Meghan Markle launched a new broadside at the Royal Family in the first episode of her new podcast today, claiming she was forced to continue with engagements on a tour of South Africa despite being left in tears after her son Archie narrowly escaped a fire in his bedroom.
During a wide-ranging discussion on the new episode of her long-awaited ‘Archetypes’ podcast on Spotify, the Duchess of Sussex also slammed those who criticised her for being ‘ambitious’ when she began dating Prince Harry.
During a conversation with her close friend, tennis great Serena Williams, Meghan recounted her experience with the fire during the tour of South Africa in autumn 2019.
Meghan expressed her sadness after learning of her son’s near-fatal accident, which involved a heater in a nursery room catching fire, shortly after delivering a speech to girls in Cape Town’s Nyanga township, before rushing back to see Archie and then having to leave him for another official engagement.
Speaking in the podcast about the fire in South Africa in Archie’s room, Meghan said: ‘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.’
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.
She said, ‘This doesn’t make any sense.’
She also spoke of the ‘pain’ she has experienced ‘behind closed doors,’ and stated that she does not remember personally feeling the negative connotation behind the word ambitious until I started dating my now husband.’
In the episode, Meghan focuses heavily on a number of feminist talking points, kicking the podcast off with a story about how she got megacorp, Procter & Gamble, to change one of their advertisements to be less sexist at age 11 after sending them a letter about it.
She then promised that the podcast series will “rip apart the boxes women have been placed in for generations” by deconstructing labels like “slut,” “diva,” and the infamous “b-word,” explaining that “feminist ideology trickled down… into every aspect of my life.”