Today Show host Ally Langdon unleashes on Meghan Markle

Ally Langdon has admitted that while she ‘tries to like’ Meghan Markle, there’s ‘something’ about the royal that rubs her up the wrong way, while another Australian TV star has turned his nose up at Prince Harry’s wife’s new podcast.

The Today Show host discussed Meghan’s new Archetypes podcast with Australia’s minister for sport and aged care, Anika Wells, on Tuesday morning, when she made the admission. 

Channel Nine’s entertainment reporter Peter Ford also weighed in on the Duchess of Sussex’s new project in a tweet, writing that it was ‘just another way she can talk about herself’.

Langdon said: ‘I really try to like Meghan Markle, I think some of the arguments she makes about ambition are very true, but there’s just something, you know?’

In her podcast, Meghan complained of a misconception ‘that if you’re an ambitious woman you have an agenda, you must be calculating or selfish or aggressive, or a climber’.

She also said that ‘the notion of ambition comes with many judgements and nuances – especially for women’.

Langdon made the comments after a snippet from the podcast played out on the Today Show, where Meghan relived the moment Archie narrowly escaped a fire in his bedroom during the Sussexes’ tour of South Africa – and spoke of her frustration that she immediately had to do another official engagement.

The drama unfolded when a heater in Archie’s bedroom caught fire, setting the nursery alight – though fortunately four-and-a-half month old Archie was downstairs with his nanny, who had gone ‘to get a snack.’

But Meghan spoke of the stress the ordeal had on her as a new mother, telling the podcast: ‘In that amount of time that [the nanny] went downstairs, the heater in the nursery caught on fire. There was no smoke detector. 

‘There was this moment where I’m standing on a tree stump and I’m giving this speech to women and girls, and we finish the engagement, we get in the car and they say there’s been a fire at the residence. What? There’s been a fire in the baby’s room,’ Meghan said. 

‘We came back. And, of course, as a mother, you go, ”Oh, my God, what?” Everyone’s in tears, everyone’s shaken. And what do we have to do? Go out and do another official engagement? I said, ”this doesn’t make any sense”.’

While discussing the clip, Langdon pointed out that Meghan often ‘divided opinion’.

Ms Wells agreed and said Meghan ‘should have pushed harder’ to be with her child and taken him to the second public engagement.

‘Ultimately I think, she should have pushed on, she should have fought harder,’ the minister said.

‘She should have just brought the baby, made the point and said something.

‘Because I think ultimately what everyone wants is authenticity in people in public life, and if that means being honest about caring responsibilities that ultimately creates better public policy.’

Ms Wells brought up her own struggles as a working mum, detailing a time she had to bring her twin babies into the House of Representatives – adding there were ‘very strong rules’ about what you can bring inside, with even a coffee frowned upon.

‘I was really terrified about it but I had to do it, and I was really surprised and gratified by the support that I got for it,’ she said.

Today Show host Ally Langdon said she ‘really tries’ to like Meghan Markle, but said ‘there’s just something’ while discussing her podcast on Wednesday

Meghan has declared that she is going to ‘be myself and talk and be unfiltered’ in her new podcast, in a hint that she is planning on dropping more ‘truth-bombs’ about the Royal Family.

The podcast has taken two years to get off the ground after Meghan and Prince Harry signed a lucrative deal with Spotify estimated to be worth around $30,805 million after they quit royal duties.

The Duchess said ‘people should expect the real me in this and probably the me that they’ve never gotten to know’.

She said: ‘Certainly not in the past few years, where everything is through the lens of the media, as opposed to: “Hey, it’s me”. I’m just excited to be myself and talk and be unfiltered and… yeah, it’s fun’.

It comes after the former Suits star also hit out at those who criticised her for being ‘ambitious’ when she started dating Prince Harry, during a wide-ranging discussion on the new episode with her close friend, US tennis great Serena Williams. 

The podcast comes ahead of the duke and duchess’ return to the UK next month for events in Manchester and London before heading to Germany.

Meghan, who now lives in California with Harry and their two children after the couple quit as senior working royals at the start of 2020, also said that ‘apparently ambition is a terrible, terrible thing – for a woman that is, according to some’.

Meghan said of her new podcast that ‘people should expect the real me in this and probably the me that they’ve never gotten to know’