Meghan Markle released the second episode of her new weekly podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, yesterday. Although criticism of the controversial royal was largely expected, one thing that Meghan supposedly “failed” to do doesn’t make sense to me at all.
The 43-year-old has returned with a second attempt at podcasting, after her first season of Archetypes was not renewed by Spotify. In her new podcast, Meghan has been accused of making it “all about her” – but I don’t agree as she does repeatedly ask her guest questions.
The idea of Meghan’s podcast is to gain “insights from a handful of amazing women who have scaled small ideas into successful companies” – but as she’s behind the podcast, the Duchess was always going to discuss her own experiences.
As for the comments that she isn’t “asking follow-up” questions, Confessions of a Female Founder is, as many podcasts are, involving a two-way discussion.
Speaking in episode two, Meghan is joined by Reshma Saujani whom she previously met at Kensington Palace when she was “pregnant with [Prince] Archie” in 2018. Reshma is the founder of two successful non-profits that help close the gender gap for women – firstly, Girls Who Code and, secondly, Moms First.
Having listened to the second episode, which was around 47 minutes long, I noticed that Reshma spoke for the majority of the first 20 minutes.
Although she is the podcast host, Meghan appears to let the guest run the show and, even if she doesn’t provide many “follow-up questions”, she lets them just speak and say exactly as they want. It’s not Meghan-dominated, and I don’t think those who are claiming it is are fair or right.
According to Lemonada Media, who Meghan signed with last year, Confessions of a Female Founder includes “fly-on-the-wall conversations” which will “inspire anyone who’s interested in turning their own entrepreneurial dreams into a reality”.
Even if listeners are not entrepreneurs themselves, Lemonada Media promises that they will enjoy the episodes.
They added: “Anyone else who just wants to hear what really happens behind the scenes.”