Meghan Markle just made her first appearance on someone else’s podcast — and the tears, they were a-flowing.
“We spend so much of our lives just trying to prove something,” the Duchess of Sussex told friend, Montecito neighbour and It Cosmetics founder Jamie Kern Lima on her eponymous show, barefaced and tucked up on a chair in black comfies and fuzzy slip-ons. “Prove that you’re enough, prove that you’re pretty enough, prove that you’re smart enough, prove that you’re a good wife or a good friend … and I am just so done with the ‘prove it’ game.”
The conversation — somewhat surprisingly her first on the other side of the hosting mic, despite the fact that Meghan’s got two podcasts of her own — is just the latest in a string of appearances the retired royal turned lifestyle entrepreneur has made lately.
Last week, she popped up at the Time 100 celebrations for an “in conversation with” event where she talked about how she’s the “happiest she’s ever been,” how her goal at this stage in life is to “just have fun,” and that her love language, in case you’re wondering, is “taking care of people,” like her “so supportive” husband and her two kids, the eldest of which is about to lose his first tooth.
Episodes of her new podcast, “Confessions of a Female Founder,” are also currently dropping weekly. Thus far, the promised “fly-on-the-wall conversations” have hewn more good vibes Girlbossery than they have genuinely revelatory, although in the first episode we did learn that Meghan had postpartum pre-eclampsia in one of her pregnancies, something she said was “so scary.” She and Prince Harry also launched a memorial for children “lost to social media,” part of the internet safety work they undertake through their Archewell charity.
In between it all, she’s been posting on her Instagram, mixing her professional activities with casual glimpses into her life at home, like watching a mother duck and her ducklings cross the road over Easter weekend, or documenting a Sunday “with my loves” featuring jam making, gardening and ultrarare appearances by her two kids (or at least the backs of their heads).
It has, all in all, been a very public year so far for someone who has spent the last few years as a relatively scarce commodity in the market of the public eye. From almost total silence, we now have hours of Meghan sharing her thoughts (and that’s not even counting the eight episodes of ”With Love, Meghan” on Netflix.) To borrow from Meghan herself, it does beg the question: What is she trying to prove? Or, what is this all for?
Promoting her various ventures — the product line, the podcast, the second season of her lifestyle show that’s already been filmed and may come later this year — is the obvious answer to that question. The deeper truth, however, may be one that Meghan hints at herself on this latest podcast appearance: nothing at all.
“If you can’t see it, I don’t need to prove to you that it’s your loss,” she says. “I know that I’m a great friend, I know the kind of mom I am, and I know the kind of human being I am. I love being able to be that person with the people I love.”
Worthiness, she concludes with a nod to Kern Lima’s own book about the topic, might just come when you stop trying to prove that you are, in fact, worthy.
It’s also why she said yes to the podcast with Kern Lima. “I like the idea of being able to be so authentically myself,” she says before the two discuss how “incongruent” it can be to know Meghan in real life and then see how she can be portrayed on social media and in certain outlets. (The Meghan Kern Lima knows, per her anecdotes, cancels a date night to be with her after a hard day or sends over ice cream to help her with the overwhelm of a house full of guests.)
“I’ve tried to distance myself from all of it,” says Meghan, who says she doesn’t really read or look at anything about herself. “And that has challenges, too, because I’m oblivious to a lot of things, but that allows me to live really authentically.”
As for what else they cover in the 90 minutes of “The Jamie Kern Lima Show?” Here are some of the juiciest takeaways.
1. Meghan’s life is now full of “pinch me” moments and “big wins”
The interview starts with Kern Lima asking Meghan if she’s OK, a surely intentional mirroring of the now infamous “Not many people have asked if I’m OK” moment from 2019 that signalled the beginning of the end of her life as a working royal. This time around, she did not look on the verge of tears. Rather, she said, “There are a lot of ‘pinch me’ moments right now,” and that her “most important practice right now is to integrate the joy” and “take a moment to signal and cue, ‘Happy thank you more please,’ this feels really good, this is what I worked so hard for.”
2. She believes in “soul contracts”
Responding to a question about whether she feels her life has been “divinely ordered,” Meghan shares an anecdote about someone telling her that “you signed up for this, this is your soul contract.” For those not familiar with the new age belief, it’s the idea that souls reincarnate, and before every reincarnation we agree to a certain set of life experiences to further our growth. “This is your hand, this is your lap around the sun, you can do this,” Meghan continues, joking about not reading the fine print. “On days that are hard, that’s really grounding and affirming to remember, and then on some days I’m just like, what is this life? I would never have predicted it.”
3. Harry is “such a great partner”
Of her husband, Meghan says, “That man loves me so much,” likening him to the final level of Mario where the task is to “slay the dragon, save the princess. That’s my husband. He’s going to do whatever he can to make sure our family is safe and protected and we’re uplifted.” They are, she says, more in love than they’ve ever been. Dating, she adds, was “straight into the trenches,” and it’s only now seven years in that they can “breathe, have a little bit of a honeymoon period.” Asked if she thinks they’ll be married forever, Meghan says, “Yes! My husband is also a fox. My husband is very, very handsome, but his heart is even more beautiful.”
4. She hopes her children grow up to know that “no one has ever loved us more than our mom loves us”
Meghan says she reads a lot of parenting books, and works really hard at it. Inspired by a friend, she’s made email addresses for her kids that she’ll hand over to them one day. In the meantime, almost every night before bed, she says she emails them on that account. “It doesn’t have to be a heavy lift. It could be here’s your report card, or you did the funniest thing this morning, or here’s a picture of you having breakfast.” She tears up as she continues. “It’s making me emotional, for them to be able to look back and see, ‘She has loved us so much.’”
5. She hasn’t used “Markle” as her last name since she got married
Meghan also reaffirmed something she said on her Netflix show: She goes by Meghan Sussex these days, and has done so since 2018.
6. Her morning routine is very normal
While you might expect her to be a member of the 4 a.m. club, Meghan’s morning routine is actually quite typical in her telling: Getting up at 6:30, changing into workout clothes, brushing her teeth, making breakfast and doing lunch boxes for her kids, the latter making her “very happy.” (This includes a note for her kids every day.) She does school drop-off and is at her desk for 9 a.m.
7. She doesn’t rule out writing another book
Noting that she’s a “twice!” New York Times bestselling author, Meghan indicated she’s open to penning another, possibly in the lifestyle space. But! “People are often curious if I’m going to write a memoir, but I’ve got a lot more life to live before I’m there,” she says.
8. She will “never!” run for office
Like, never. “I have no interest in that,” Meghan says.
