Meghan Markle Just Shared Her "Pain Behind Closed Doors" in Her First Podcast

Meghan Markle has finally released the first episode of her highly anticipated podcast, Archetypes. On Tuesday, the Duchess of Sussex dropped the premiere of her Spotify show, along with a new black and white promotional portrait of herself in a white tank top. The first episode, titled The Misconception of Ambition with Serena Williams, features an interview with her best friend, in which the discussion focuses on the misconceptions women face when they are ambitious. During the episode, she shares about the "pain" she has experienced "behind closed doors," how she has been mislabeled and misunderstood by the media and also reveals that Archie, her son, escaped a scary house fire while she was in South Africa with her husband Prince Harry. 

At the start of the podcast, Meghan explains that she went to an all-girls catholic school, Immaculate Heart, for six years. While she wasn't catholic, the school did promote a very feminist approach that as a woman, her future was bright. "This message to me and my classmates was clear: our futures as young women were limitless. Ambition? That was the whole point!"

However, once she entered into the world of the Royals, the word "ambition" took on a new meaning. "So, I don't remember ever personally feeling the negative connotation behind the word ambitious until I started dating my now husband," she said. "And um, apparently ambition is, uh… a terrible, terrible thing, for a woman that is – according to some. 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."

She explained that Serena had experienced her pain and suffering. "In our friendship when you have to see things that are mischaracterizing of me, but you experience behind closed doors the pain that I'm going through," she continued. She also explained that most women should be able to relate. "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," she said. "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."

Later she continued on the topic, insinuating that the media was influential in promoting the "misconceptions" surrounding her. "As you heard in my chat with my dear friend, the notion of ambition comes with many judgments 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 somehow 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."

During the interview, she also revealed that during her tour of South Africa, her son, Archie, narrowly escaped a fire started when his heater caught fire in the nursery. Luckily, his nanny had taken him out of his room shortly before the fire when she went to go get a snack. While it happened, Meghan was giving a speech. "'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.'"