It’s safe to say that Meghan Markle is really traversing the full gamut of womanhood in her new podcast, Archetypes.
So far, she’s spoken to GOAT tennis player Serena Williams about misconceptions around ambition in women, and to global pop superstar Mariah Carey about the nuances of being a ‘diva’.
Now she’s invited writer, actor and comedian Mindy Kaling for the third episode of the podcast to discuss the ‘Stigma of Singleton’, an enduring taboo that still serves to undermine women the world over.
Speaking of the narrative around her own marriage – her second – to Prince Harry, Meghan revealed she quickly tired of the assumption that Harry had ‘chosen’ her.
‘When I started dating my husband, we became engaged and everyone was just like, “Oh my God, you're so lucky he chose you,”’ Meghan said. ‘And at a certain point, after you hear it a million times over, you're like, “Well, I chose him too.” But thankfully, I have a partner who was countering that narrative for me and going, “They've got it all wrong, I'm the lucky one ‘cause you chose me.”’
The two women discussed what it was like growing up as outsiders, with Mindy, who is a mother of two through IVF and has never been married, saying she never felt like she fitted the ‘cookie cutter’ mould.
‘You know, I’m always the harshest critic of myself,’ said Mindy. 'I came from a really happy sort of nuclear family... And I wanted that for myself, plus more. Growing up, I used to write in journals like, I'm going to be married to a guy named Josh and we're going to have five children and I’m gonna start having kids when I'm 24.'
But instead of having babies at 24, Mindy was a writer on the American version of The Office.
‘You know, I was just so focused on keeping that job and earning money and earning a good reputation professionally. And so it just happened.
‘And I would be in these relationships and in the cold light of day when I looked at them and was like, would this be a person who I could share a life with? And the answer would be no. Often, I'd be in relationships because I wanted someone to go to the Arclight with on a Saturday night, so I didn't have to go see a movie by myself. If I'm really being honest.’