American actress Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, recently launched a podcast called Archetypes where the public can finally hear the truth about her experiences navigating the press. Listeners will hear her stance on the labels women receive and how to change the narrative.
Her first guest happens to be a close friend, Serena Williams. The world knows her as a U.S. Open powerhouse and an all-around sports icon, but she is also a devoted wife and mother. The title of the episode is “The Misconception of Ambition.”
Markle and Serena Williams discussed how being ambitious can play a role in how women are negatively viewed. During the episode, Serena shared the other side of ambition with her experiences at the U.S. Open. “Eventually I remember playing in Australia years later and I just didn’t have this Serena in me.
“I was afraid to be Serena because of all the experiences I’ve had and I ended up losing the match because I was afraid to challenge or to be myself. And I can’t win being someone different, I have to win being Serena.”
The tennis great went on to explain how she specifically remembers being archetyped by the press as “having a meltdown,” but a fellow male sports athlete was described as “passionate.” Meghan Markle chimed in on how this “double standard can be dehumanizing.”
Fast forward, Markle also recently aired an episode with Mariah Carey to talk about the label ‘diva’ and how the term went from “high class to high-maintenance.”
Mariah Carey who has been referenced as a diva on several occasions shared how the diva persona is all for the laughs. She knows it is simply a term the press has re-defined as negative but sees nothing wrong with being a high-class, confident woman. The image the press paints is not always a true depiction of someone’s character or a reflection of what they’ve been through. Carey even went on to briefly share her humble beginnings.
Markle responded by saying, “It’s important that people remember that there might be this persona and yes the diva thing we can play into … it’s not something that I connect to.”
Carey interrupted saying, “you give us diva moments sometimes, Meghan. Don’t act like that. It’s the visual too, a lot of it is visual.”
Podcast lovers can stream the “Archetypes” podcast on Spotify.
