The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, released her first episode for her podcast Archetypes on Tuesday featuring no one other than the tennis G.O.A.T Serena Williams.
The episode, which was titled “The Misconception of Ambition with Serena Williams,” was focused on the two being “working moms” while being in the limelight.
Williams and Markle both discussed incidents with their children that happened several years ago. For the tennis star, it was at the 2018 French Open when her daughter Olympia, who was not yet one at the time, fell out of her highchair and broke her wrist while Williams was watching her. This occurred right before her final match, which she ended up winning on 30 minutes of sleep she admitted.
“So [Olympia] fell, we went to the hospital, and she had a small tear or break in her wrist, so she had to get a cast,” Williams said. “We didn’t get back until like four in the morning. Meanwhile, of course, this is the one day I was playing early. I remember holding her the whole night and just rocking her to sleep. I just didn’t let her out of my sight at that point.
“I somehow managed to win, but I was so emotionally spent and so emotionally drained that it was crazy,” Williams continued. “Then, like every night after that, I just was with her the whole time. It was like, ‘You’re gonna be with me.’”
It’s important to note that this is the tournament where Williams wore her famous “catsuit” in order to help with blood clots.
As longtime friends, the two women connected their personal stories with handling being a mother at their level of fame to what women face as mothers all across the world. Markle described it as the meaning of her podcast, to combat some of the stereotypes of working women.
“My podcast’s about the labels and tropes that try to hold women back,” Markle said in the introduction. “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,’ ‘s---.’”
For the 23-time Grand Slam champion, she is often referred to as being “aggressive” instead of being “passionate” about the sport when she is emotional on the court. She went on to discuss the “double standard” she often sees in tennis while speaking with Vogue for this month’s issue. For example, she’s seen as having a “meltdown,” while the men are just seen as “passionate.”
Williams’s Vogue cover allowed her to announce her retirement from the sport, in which she plans to leave after this year’s U.S. Open. Williams expressed to Markle how excited she is for her next journey in life.
“Tennis was chosen for me and I loved that choice and I couldn’t have made a better choice, right?” Williams said. “So I was really happy that that happened. But now, for the first time in my entire life, I’m choosing to do something. I’m making a different choice. One, to stop doing what I love and two, hopefully, have more kids and to focus on other things.”
Williams will play in the U.S. Open beginning on Monday, Aug. 29.
