Spotify releases new Meghan Markle podcast with actress Mindy Kaling

Spotify today released the Duchess of Sussex’s third podcast in her ‘Archetypes’ series in which she spoke with The Office actress Mindy Kaling about the ‘stigma’ of life as a single woman.

The new podcast was expected to come out on the streaming service at 12.30pm today – like last week’s episode with Mariah Carey – but ended up being released two hours early at 10.30am as the couple head to Germany. 

The blurb for ‘The Stigma of the Singleton with Mindy Kaling’ said: ‘Meghan speaks candidly with Mindy Kaling who opens up in an unprecedented conversation about the joys, challenges, and stigmas of her life as a single, unmarried woman – plus her decision to start a family on her own. This episode also features New York Magazine writer Rebecca Traister, who unpacks the many archetypes that have followed single women for generations.’

During the podcast, Meghan described herself as an ‘ugly duckling’ growing up at school, saying: ‘Maybe not conventional beauty as it… now maybe that would be seen as beautiful, like massive frizzy curly hair and a huge gap in my teeth. I was a smart one, forever and ever and ever and ever and then just sort of grew up.’

Kaling said: ‘Now I want to say this is a revelation to me because I went through life being like, OK, well Meghan Markle was like that one nice hot girl who like has her head screwed on right, because her mom’s probably like really cool, but knowing that you were not that is news to me, probably news to people listening to this.’

Meghan Markle (left, in a photo issued with her Spotify podcast) spoke to Mindy Kaling (right, in Los Angeles on August 11)

And the Duchess said of her time at her secondary school, Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles: ‘I never had anyone to sit with at lunch. I was always a little bit of a loner and really shy and didn’t know where I fit in. 

‘And so I just became. well, I was like OK then I’ll become the president of the multicultural club and the president of sophomore class and the president of this and French club. And by doing that, I had meetings at lunchtime, so I didn’t have to worry about who I would sit with or what I would do because I was always so busy.’

Meghan spoke about how she planned her wedding aged 14 for an assignment in her religious education class at Immaculate Heart, saying that she wanted it to be at the five-star luxury Hotel Bel-Air with a swan lake.

She told the podcast that she wanted the cake to be from Hansen’s Cakes Bakery and picked a strapless dress that she saw in a bridal magazine, adding that she ‘took this project seriously’ and got an A or an A-minus grade.

Mindy Kaling played Kelly Kapoor (left) in the American version of The Office alongside BJ Novak as Ryan Howard (right)

However, 41-year-old Meghan added: ‘But my grade on the project is actually neither here nor there because what strikes me now from my 40-something vantage point is the fact that this project was even graded at all.

‘The fact that this project even existed at no point, could you say nope. My dream for the future is to be single the message, even at my feminist all-girls school was as traditional as it gets. First comes love, then comes marriage.’

The podcast was released as the Duke and Duchess are set to appear in Germany for an Invictus Games event later on this afternoon, fresh from Meghan’s first in-person address in Britain since quitting as a working royal. 

Spotify has already released two episodes of the podcast over the past fortnight, featuring conversations with veteran tennis player Serena Williams and singer Mariah Carey.

The Duchess of Sussex speaks at the One Young World 2022 summit in Manchester last night

In the podcast with Williams, the Duchess took a veiled swipe at life in the Royal Family while recounting her horror at a time a small ‘fire’ broke out in son Archie’s room during a tour of South Africa.

Despite her upset, she said she was forced to continue with the couple’s official engagements, accusing those running the tour of concentrating on ‘how it looks, instead of how it feels’.

And in the show with Carey, released last Tuesday, Meghan said she was treated ‘like a black woman’ for the first time when she started dating Prince Harry. 

She said she was previously treated ‘like a mixed woman’ and ‘things really shifted’ once she started her relationship with Harry.

Today, Harry and his wife are expected to meet officials and potential competitors in Dusseldorf to mark the one-year countdown to the 2023 games in the city.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex attend the One Young World summit in Manchester last night

The duke founded The Invictus Games to aid the rehabilitation of injured and sick military personnel and veterans across the globe, by giving them the challenge of competing in sporting events similar to the Paralympics.

The Dusseldorf games will take place in September 2023, with more than 500 competitors from 21 nations across 10 sports.

This year’s games took place in The Hague in April, and during that event a camera crew filming for a Netflix documentary called Heart Of Invictus – a series from Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Productions following people competing at the event – was seen close to the couple.

Harry and Meghan’s outing today comes after they made their first public appearance in the UK since returning for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Meghan gave the keynote address in Manchester yesterday for the One Young World summit.