Meghan Markle’s “female founder” podcast is on hold, her Netflix show is suffering in the ratings department, and her lifestyle brand hasn’t exactly gotten stellar reviews, but she is still making the media rounds.
Late last month, Bloomberg dropped a “wide-ranging interview” with “Meghan, Duchess of Sussex” about “life and business beyond the royal spotlight,” and, yes, it was as tedious as it sounds. Markle complained about having to wear pantyhose as a member of the royal family and called out those who criticize her while also whipping up her (borrowed-from-Martha-Stewart) one-pot pasta dish.
On Friday’s show, Megyn was joined by Maureen Callahan, host of MK Media’s The Nerve, to discuss the latest cringe comments and whether Markle was actually throwing shade at them in one of her responses.
Pantyhose Problem
Markle’s authenticity (or lack thereof) has been a major topic of conversation since she began her foray into the influencer/lifestyle expert space. Bloomberg’s Emily Chang inquired about whether the former Suits actress sees an “insert tension in trying to be relatable while also being a duchess.”
At first, Markle scoffed at the concept. “No,” she snickered. “I don’t find– I’m just being myself.” But then she realized the opportunity to victimize herself had arisen, and she didn’t pass up the chance to complain about… pantyhose.
“I think probably it was different several years ago where I couldn’t be as vocal, and I had wear nude pantyhose all the time,” she lamented. “Let’s be honest, that was not very myself. I hadn’t seen pantyhose since movies in the ’80s when they came in the little egg. That felt a little bit inauthentic… That’s a silly example, but it is an example of when you’re able to dress the way you want to dress, and you’re able to say the things that are true, and you’re able to show up in the space really organically and authentically, that’s being comfortable in your own skin.”
Megyn was moved. “Single tear,” she quipped. “She had it so tough. She couldn’t be her true self because they made her wear the nude pantyhose.”
As it relates to showing up “really organically and authentically” and “able to say the things that are true,” Callahan wondered what exactly it is that Markle wants to say. “[You want to] say what you want to say, but I don’t know what it is. What is it you wan to say,” she asked. “Like, get it out. It’s been 10 years. Spit it out! What are you trying to say?”
To Callahan’s point, Megyn believes the problem for Markle is that she does not come across as authentic. “No one knows who she is. What we hear behind the scenes that she’s a bully, who fires everybody and runs around only worried about herself,” she noted. “But when she gets on camera, she actually is a decent actress in being like, ‘I’m just this super relatable person with her own flower sprinkles and candle line, and I just sit around being a working mom just like all the other working moms. That’s me.'”
Horrified by Homemakers
One moment of the 45-minute that stood out to Megyn came when Chang asked Markle about the negative reviews her Netflix series With Love, Meghan received. The former royal was horrified at the notion that she was, as Chang put it, “glorifying homemaking or glorifying trad wives” with the show.
“That feels odd to me. I mean, I hadn’t heard that,” Markle said, visibly taken aback. “But I’m really unapologetic about the fact that I– though, would it be lovely to go and churn your own butter? Sure, maybe. I don’t have time for that. I don’t have time for that. And I don’t think you get an extra gold star if you do that.”
Megyn called it a “missed opportunity” for the self-proclaimed champion of women. “She should have said… ‘Why would that be a bad thing? What’s wrong with staying home, creating a great home for your family,'” she said. “I would have loved for her to turn it back on that interviewer, but instead she’s like, ‘Oh my god, I’m getting out-progressived by my progressive interviewer.'”
Throwing Shade?
But it was the first part of Markle’s answer to that line of questioning that really caught Megyn’s attention. When asked about how the “mixed reviews” landed for her, Markle had a pointed message for her critics.
“I think I knew who I was trying to meet. I think oftentimes the negative voices, are they saying negative things and then secretly going home and making single-skillet spaghetti? Possibly,” she said. “And that’s all right. They’re trying to pay their bills, and that’s for them to sort out if they’re comfortable doing it at someone else’s detriment.”
Megyn joked that she “feel[s] attacked” at the assertion because, as you may recall, she and Callahan tested Markle’s one-pot pasta dish – which was actually derived from a Martha Stewart recipe – in their parody With Love, Megyn.
“I think that was us [she was referring to],” Megyn said to Callahan. “But we weren’t even secretly doing it. We made the one-pot pasta to mock you. We didn’t actually make it to enjoy it.” (To be fair, both of them did say the dish was pretty good.)
As for whether they are “comfortable” criticizing Markle, Callahan suggested the duchess look in the mirror. “She did it to the British Royal Family,” she noted. “No, I didn’t cut my husband off from his entire family of origin and keep my children from a historical lineage the likes of which has never been seen since.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Callahan by tuning in to episode 1,158 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.