Meghan Markle promised listeners she was going to “be myself and talk and be unfiltered” prompting fears in royal circles she may reveal more about life as she saw it in the monarchy.
The mother-of-two said: “People should expect the real me in this and probably the me that they've never gotten to know.
“Certainly not in the past few years, where everything is through the lens of the media, as opposed to: 'Hey, it's me'.
“I'm just excited to be myself and talk and be unfiltered and... yeah, it's fun".
Many listeners of her first episode took the Duchess’s words about being forced to leave Archie after a small fire back at his nursery while in South Africa for an engagement as a dig at the royals.
Meghan sat down with long-time pal and sporting legend Serena Williams for a chat in the podcast, the first in after she and Prince Harry signed a rumoured £18m deal with Spotify.
In the nearly hour-long podcast, Meghan spoke about "the double standard women face".
Meghan said: "So, I don’t remember ever personally feeling the negative connotation behind the word ambitious until I started dating my now husband.
"And um, apparently ambition is, uh… a terrible, terrible thing, for a woman that is – according to some.
"So, since I’ve felt the negativity behind it, it’s really hard to un-feel it.
"I can’t unsee it, either, in the millions of girls and women who make themselves smaller – so much smaller – on a regular basis."
Introducing the podcast, Meghan recalled a sexist advert from her childhood which she famously addressed on TV at the time in 1993.
She went on to explain what her new series would be about.
She said: "Hi, I’m Meghan. And this is ARCHETYPES – my podcast about the labels and tropes that try to hold women back.
"Over the course of the next dozen episodes, we’re going to live inside and rip apart the boxes women have been placed into for generations – boxes like diva, crazy, the b-word, sl**.
"Some of these words – these labels – are harsh; they’re abrasive.
"And I want to get to the bottom of where they come from, why they’ve stuck around for so long, and – importantly – how we can move past them."
During the podcast she also told of the horror moment a fire broke out in her son Archie's nursery when the Royal Family were on tour in South Africa.
