Meghan Markle rages at ‘sl*t shaming’ of women in latest podcast

Meghan Markle has tackled stereotypes of female sexuality on the latest episode of her Archetypes podcast — and she did not hold back.

Meghan Markle has spoken out about how women are “vilified” for their sexual behaviour while men are seen as “players” and are “heralded” for their exploits.

Speaking in the latest episode of her Archetypes podcast on Spotify, the Duchess of Sussex spoke with trans actress and singer Michaela Jaé Rodriguez on the double standards between men and women in society.

The former Suits actor said men are usually celebrated when they explore their sex lives and have no problem flaunting their experiences, whereas women are looked down upon if they show their sexual sides.

“As you're getting older, you’re exploring and starting to understand your sensuality, your feminine divine,” Markle said.

Actress and singer Michaela Rodriguez was a guest on Markle’s latest podcast. Picture: Instagram.

The Duchess spoke out about the double standards between men and women. Picture: Supplied.

“But your sexuality can be very much used against you … [a man] is a player or out having fun or whatever he’s doing, it’s often celebrated, even heralded.

“But for a woman, I don’t care if she is perhaps the most successful woman in finance in her mid-50s, I promise you someone will still come and say ‘yeah, but she was such a sl*t in college’.

“I don’t understand what it is about the stigma surrounding women and their sexuality, the exploration of their sexuality that is so much more vilified than for a man.”

In the episode, entitled ‘Beyond the Archetype: Human, Being’, Markle also spoke to Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell about how women were treated in the entertainment industry.

Meghan Markle has released a new episode of her podcast. Picture: Supplied

She also made a visit to her old school, Immaculate Heart school in LA, and chatted with pupils about whether they were being “labelled” or “given the space to be human”.

She asked if any of them had heard the word “bimbo” – to which one of them replied that they had only seen it once on TikTok.

“Talk about ageing myself,” Markle said, before describing how the word was “something that I grew up seeing all the time”.

Markle recently faced controversy when she claimed she was reduced to a “bimbo” as a briefcase girl on Deal or No Deal.

Meghan Markle when she was on Deal or No Deal. Picture: NBC Universal.

During the podcast, the 41-year-old described the characters in Sex and the City – Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte – as “iconic”.

She said Bushnell‘s writing “still holds up today”, saying: “It still feels boundless today. And in her recent novel and one woman show Is There Still Sex In The City? she continues to peel back the layers of what women can be in all stages of life.”

Bushnell told the US-based royal she did not make “a tonne of money” from Sex and the City, and, when the Markle asked her how that makes her feel, she replied: “Angry.”

“That’s one of the realities. The fact of the matter is, you know, I’m fine, I’m OK, I’m doing OK, so I just keep working,” Bushnell said.

Candace Bushnell also spoke on Meghan Markle’s latest episode. Picture: AFP.

Following another conversation with the poet Amanda Gorman, Markle describes how her guests had made her feel.

“I find it so inspiring to listen to women who are clear on who they are – unwavering, not waffling, confident, in spite of whatever barriers they may have seen in the foreground,” she said.

“And as I thought about closing this episode, how I could just bottle up that feeling, that inspiring feeling of liberation, when you shed all those fears of judgment [and] you sit in your authenticity. When you allow yourself to be human and to be.”

The mother of two finished off the episode with a quote from a poem, saying: “And where there is woman, there is forever a way.”

“Truer words have never been spoken.”

Originally published as Meghan Markle rages at ‘sl*t shaming’ of women in latest podcast