Meghan Markle’s new podcast tells us the same as Kate and Will’s house move

For the introductory episode of her new podcast Archetypes, former actor and one-time royal Meghan Markle spoke with recently retired tennis star Serena Williams. The hour-long conversation, titled “The Misconception of Ambition,” aired on Tuesday, August 23, during which Markle and Williams delved into what it means for women to be ambitious.

“I don’t remember personally ever feeling a negative connotation to the word ‘ambitious’ until I started dating my now-husband,” Markle said, apparently referring to the ways she was treated when she began her relationship with to the prince. Harry. “And obviously ambition is … a terrible, terrible thing for a woman who is — according to some. Because I felt the negativity in the background, it’s really hard to let go. I can’t overlook this even in the case of millions of girls and women who regularly shrink themselves – they shrink so much.”

The exchange eventually turned to children and the ways in which men and women are treated differently when they become parents. “The double standards between how men and women are treated after they have children is so real,” Markle says in the episode’s narration. “I felt it.”

Both Markle and Williams have children: Williams gave birth to daughter Olympia in September 2017, while Markle gave birth to son Archie in May 2019 and daughter Lilibet last June. “People always ask me, ‘How do you balance being a mom and working?'” Williams said. “And even my husband [Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian], he talks about it all the time. He said, ‘I never get asked that.'”

Williams recounted the time her young daughter fell from her high chair and broke her wrist the day before her mother was scheduled to play. “I was basically devastated. Like I literally couldn’t think,” she said. “I felt so guilty.” Williams slept maybe half an hour that night and won the match the next day. “Anytime I would drop anything to do anything I would have to do for Olympia,” she added. “In the middle of a Grand Slam final. I would leave if I had to.”

In response, Markle shared her story: In 2019, when she and Harry (then members of the British royal family) toured South Africa, there was a nursery where their son Archie was supposed to sleep. caught fire. The couple, Markle said, didn’t find out until they returned from their official engagement. “And of course, as a mother, you go, ‘Oh, my God, what?’ Everyone is in tears, everyone is shaken,” she said. “And what are we to do? Go out and make another official engagement? I said, ‘That doesn’t make any sense.’ … I thought, ‘Can you just tell people what happened?'”

I’ve never had a hard time understanding why Markle and her husband decided to step back from their royal duties, but if they had, this story would probably have given me some clarity. There is something so relatively frustrating about this situation. Being faced with a problem that could easily be solved with a little pragmatism (they you can issued a statement explaining what had happened and postponed formal engagements until the next day) and when I was told it couldn’t be for completely amorphous reasons (optics, stiff upper lip, “that’s not how things are done around here “) is uniquely exciting. It’s a short story, but it illustrates the utter dysfunctionality of royal life: No, you can’t do this very simple thing to help you exist as a human being. Why? Well, because an illegitimate and antiquated institution might… look a bit bad? maybe? Some people have a strange concept of what “bad” means? We’re not entirely sure, but not in any case!

It doesn’t help the royal family that Markle’s podcast is airing at the same time Kate Middleton and Prince William are moving into their new home in Windsor. The couple will decide on a third residence to give their children – George, Charlotte and Louis – “a bit more freedom than they have living in central London”, according to a royal source. As their official residence and work base, they will still “retain flat 1A of Kensington Palace, which was renovated in 2013 with £4.5 million of taxpayers’ money.” The huge cost of this renovation was justified at the time by British taxpayers – those who paid the bills – as Kate, Will and their children were expected to make it their permanent home.

But they will also keep their 10-bedroom Anmer Hall country house in Norfolk, which was a gift from the Queen, has a swimming pool and tennis court and has carried out extensive building work at their own expense, the PA reported. “The downsizing at Adelaide Cottage, which is not considered large, means that William and Kate’s full-time nanny, Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo, will live elsewhere for the first time, as will other staff, including the housekeeper and cook.”

For an institution that works on optics, this is a rather interesting decision. I am not an expert on advertising, but perhaps unelected, high-profile figures in the country facing devastating housing crisis should avoid getting a third home (they also have a cottage on the Queen’s Balmoral estate in Scotland) on top of their already large one when inflation starts to rise. Or, as Graham Smith, chief executive of Republic (an organization campaigning to end the monarchy in the UK) put it: “While ordinary households struggle with their energy bills and face crippling inflation, why are we giving another home to William and Kate? It’s shameful.”

Of course, you can’t blame William and Kate for wanting to give their children more privacy and a more normal existence. I understand that part. But the more I hear about the royal family these days, the more it seems clear to me that the monarchy doesn’t work for anyone – including the royal family. And based on what we heard on her podcast, it’s clear that Markle made the right decision to call it quits and run away.