“Ambitious” Meghan Markle felt that she was meeting Prince Harry on two standards

Meghan Markle’s fairy-tale romance is not only about fun and games.

The 41-year-old Duchess of Sussex noticed double standards as soon as she started dating Prince Harry in 2016, she explained in the first episode of her “Archetype” podcast on Tuesday with guest Serena Williams.

“I don’t remember ever having personally felt negative associations behind this word
“Ambitious” until I started dating my current husband, “Markle told the audience.

“Ambition seems to be a terrible, terrible thing for a woman. I mean, according to some, she continued. “Since I sensed the negativity behind it, this [been] it’s really hard to feel it. “

The Deal or No Deal alumni noted that “she can’t help but notice it in the millions of girls and women who regularly shrink – much smaller -“.

Williams agreed with Markle when talking to the Suits alumni about the double standards she experienced over the years as an athlete.

The Grand Slam Champion, who revealed earlier this month that she was retiring from her tennis career, detailed her match in the 2004 US Open quarter-finals against Jennifer Capriati.

During this time, her ball was constantly called out of bounds despite being in the lines, which led to an argument with the referee.

The 40-year-old tennis player was labeled “aggressive” and accused of “melting”, while men in similar situations were labeled “passionate” players.

Williams said she “did not deserve” this treatment, explaining how it led to her loss of herself.

“I remember playing in Australia years, years later, [and] I just didn’t have Serena in me because I was scared, ”she recalls. “I was afraid to be Serena because of all my experiences.

“I ended up losing the game because I was afraid to challenge or be myself,” Williams continued. “I can’t win by being someone else, I have to win by being Serena.”

As mothers, she and Markle are now familiar with the double standards of parenting.

“The [difference] between how men and women are treated after their babies are born is
so real, ”said Markle, who is the mother of 3-year-old Archie and 1st Lilibet. “I felt it”.

The actress reflected on a fire in 2019 in her 4-month-old son’s nursery, explaining that despite being “shocked” by the incident and left “crying”, she had to pretend everything was fine at the royal engagement.

“Part of humanizing and breaking these labels, these archetypes and the boxes we are placed in, is understanding human moments behind the scenes that people may have no awareness of and give each other a break,” said Markle.

Williams cut in, adding that no one really knows what goes on behind the scenes as she tries to balance her career with her 4-year-old daughter Olympia, whom she shares with her husband Alexis Ohanian.

“I would ditch whatever I had to do for Olympia at any moment,” Williams said. “[In the] in the middle of the Grand Slam final, I’d quit if I had to.