Serena Williams ‘consulted’ Meghan Markle and Prince Harry about her decision to retire from tennis

Tennis superstar Serena Williams consulted close friends Prince Harry and Meghan Markle before deciding to retire from the sport this year.

Williams told Meghan Markle’s new Archetypes Spotify podcast that she consulted the couple before making her decision earlier this month.

Prince Harry reportedly was ‘trying to knock some sense’ into the 23-time Grand Slam winner, with Meghan claiming Williams and her husband talked ‘for hours’ about what she should do.

Chatting on the podcast Williams said: ‘You knew about it for a long time, and I talked with Harry about it a lot as well.’

Meghan, 41, replied: ‘I remember that day you were here at the house. And I was like, ‘What are you two just chatting about?’ It must’ve been a solid, like, an hour.’

The couple appear to have been consulted as they are ‘intimately familiar’ with the challenges of ‘walking away from a role that has defined them’, according to Insider.

Harry and Meghan stepped back as working members of the royal family in January 2020 to moved to a lavish mansion in Montecito, California, with their two children Archie and Lilibet.

Speaking on the podcast, Meghan said: ‘The three of us really know that sometimes the right decision isn’t the easiest decision.

The tennis ace, who is set to take part in her final US Open this week, thanked the couple for being a sounding board. She even sent Harry and Meghan a sneak peek of the Vogue article which announced her decision to retire

The couple were reportedly a ‘sounding board’ for Williams to help her make her decision to officially step away from tennis

‘It’s the hard decision. And it takes a lot of thought and a lot of counsel and a lot of support to just go “uh, uh, uh” and then just make the choice.’

Williams went on to describe her decision to retire as even more difficult because her ‘whole life has been one thing’.

Meghan Markle will be speaking to various celebrities for the Spotify podcast, Archetypes

She added: ‘The worst place to be is on the fence, as you know. So, it’s like, make a decision: either be in it or be out of it. And I was on the fence for a while because I love what I do.’

The tennis ace, who is set to take part in her final US Open this week, thanked the couple for being a sounding board. She even sent Harry and Meghan a sneak peek of the Vogue article which announced her decision to retire.

‘I wanted you to understand what it meant to have your support and for H’s support—for everything,’ Williams said.

‘I’ve been doing this my entire existence. Even before I was born, it was what I was meant to do and what I was supposed to do and what was chosen for me.’

Meghan was also slammed for using the first episode of her new podcast to fire a new broadside at the Royal Family.

Serena and her husband Alexis Ohanian were both guests at Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018. The couple have remained close with the tennis ace, and Meghan regularly supports her friend

Prince Harry reportedly was ‘trying to knock some sense’ into the 23-time Grand Slam winner, with Meghan claiming Williams and her husband talked ‘for hours’ about what she should do. Chatting on the podcast Williams said: ‘You knew about it for a long time, and I talked with Harry about it a lot as well’

Meghan last week launched her long-awaited Spotify podcast, talking to a series of guests on Archetypes – starting with tennis star Serena Williams. She again found herself being criticized after making a claim about a fire on a royal tour which were rebuffed by Buckingham Palace

She claimed she was forced to continue with engagements on a tour of South Africa despite being left in tears when her son Archie narrowly escaped a fire in his bedroom.

The former actress also hit out at those who criticized her for being ‘ambitious’ when she started dating Prince Harry, during a wide-ranging discussion.

Her podcast came just before Meghan’s bombshell interview with The Cut, a New York magazine, where she was slammed for ‘comparing herself’.

Meghan claims that she was told by a cast member of the Lion King in 2019 that South Africans ‘danced in the street’ like when ‘Mandela was freed from prison’ when their son Archie was born.

But Americans have branded her latest comments as ‘sickening’, claiming that she is ‘so out of touch’ with the real world.

She has also been slammed for ‘using her title’ to keep ‘trashing the institution’ that gave it to her after the couple decided to step down as working royals.

Meghan’s new bombshell interview even claims that she and Prince Harry were ‘upsetting the dynamic of the hierarchy… just by existing’ before they quit.