Meghan Markle has revealed she had a ‘huge medical scare’ after giving birth as the first episode of her new podcast Confessions Of A Female Founder came out today.
The Duchess of Sussex announced the arrival of the new Lemonada Media show by posting a series of throwback photos on Instagram of her selling cookies as a child.
In the first episode, Meghan speaks with her friend, the entrepreneur Whitney Wolfe Herd, who founded the female-focused dating app Bumble and co-founded Tinder.
Both women discussed how they had suffered from postpartum preeclampsia, a condition related to high blood pressure and excess protein in urine in the days or weeks after giving birth – which Wolfe Herd described as ‘life or death, truly’.
It was released just hours after Meghan’s husband Prince Harry landed in the UK, and King Charles III jetted off to Italy with Queen Camilla for a four-day state visit.
The Duke of Sussex then arrived at the High Court this morning for an appeal against a ruling on whether he is entitled to armed bodyguards paid for by the taxpayer.
In the podcast interview recorded in February, Meghan said to Wolfe Herd: ‘We both had very similar experiences – though we didn’t know each other at the time – with postpartum, and we both had preeclampsia. Postpartum preeclampsia.’
Meghan did not reveal whether she suffered the condition after the birth of her son Prince Archie, five, or her daughter Princess Lilibet, three. Wolfe Herd has two sons.
The Duchess of Sussex has launched a new podcast called ‘Confessions Of A Female Founder’
Meghan released four throwback photos of herself as a child on Instagram to launch the show
Meghan’s announcement on Instagram today to confirm her new podcast is now live
The Duchess added: ‘It’s so rare and so scary. And you’re still trying to juggle all of these things, and the world doesn’t know what’s happening quietly.
‘And in the quiet, you’re still trying to show up for people – mostly for your children – but those things are huge medical scares.’ Wolfe Herd added: ‘I mean life or death, truly.’
Wolfe Herd spoke about Meghan and Harry introducing their newborn son Archie to the world in a photocall at St George’s Hall in Windsor Castle in May 2019, two days after his birth.
She told the Duchess: ‘I mean, I’ll never forget the image of you after you delivered Archie, and the whole world was waiting for his debut.
‘I was either just becoming or about to become a new mom, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, how is this woman doing this? How is this woman putting on heels and going and debuting a child in this, you know, beautiful outfit in front of the entire world?’
Wolfe Herd added: ‘I could barely face a doorbell delivery for takeout food in a robe’ – to which Meghan laughed.
Meghan also called Wolfe Herd a ‘wildly successful female entrepreneur’ and ‘the kind of friend who just always seems to know the exact right thing to say when I need perspective’.
Harry and Meghan with their baby son in St George’s Hall at Windsor Castle on May 8, 2019. Her podcast guest Whitney Wolfe Herd said of this moment: ‘I was either just becoming or about to become a new mom, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, how is this woman doing this?’
Meghan speaks with Whitney Wolfe Herd, who founded the female-focused dating app Bumble
The podcast was released shortly before Meghan’s husband Prince Harry arrived at the High Court in London today for an appeal against a ruling on his legal claim against the Home Office
Wolfe Herd spoke about Meghan’s ‘brutalising’ time in the public eye, telling her: ‘I do think there is so much to be said for your ability to exist, even in the presence of that.
‘It takes a very strong cookie. When I was going through the media storm and being called this and that, and this and that, at Tinder, I didn’t leave my house for, like, a month and a half.’
Postpartum preeclampsia is a potentially-deadly condition that new mothers can suffer when they have high blood pressure and excess protein in their urine after childbirth.
It is different to preeclampsia, which is a similar condition that develops during pregnancy and normally resolves with the baby’s birth.
Postpartum preeclampsia normally develops within 48 hours of childbirth, but it can sometimes be up to six weeks or later – which is then known as ‘late postpartum preeclampsia’.
If the condition is untreated, it can cause seizures and other serious complications such as organ damage, a stroke or even death.
Signs and symptoms might include high blood pressure, excess protein in urine, severe headaches, changes in vision or pain in your upper belly, usually under the ribs on the right side.
Other symptoms might be nausea and vomiting, shortness of breath and decreased urination.
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Meghan told Wolfe Herd about being ‘absolutely consumed with packaging’, adding: ‘Boxes. It’s all I could think about. I would sit there doing the unboxing in my head: Is there tissue paper?
‘What about the packing peanuts, but they’re biodegradable? Where does the sticker go, and what size the box is going to be?’
She also made reference to a ‘porch pirate’ – a term for someone who steals packages left on porches or doorsteps after delivery.
Meghan said: ‘Someone says, ‘But you don’t want to brand the outside of the box, because of porch pirates. Had never heard that before. What’s a porch pirate?’
Wolfe Herd also said that the ‘one thing you can never get back is time’.
She told the Duchess: ‘The amount of time, Meg, that I wasted on being stressed, being miserable, being overwhelmed, being paranoid about what shoe was going to drop. I actually think I would have been more successful had I not been like that.’
However, Meghan replied, ‘But can you turn it off? I say this because last night, I was – you know when your brain goes in a loop? Those 3am loops, and you can’t stop overthinking the thing.’
Wolfe Herd explained how she has followed the ‘rule of fives.’
She said: ‘Will this matter in five minutes? Five hours? Five days? Yes or no. If it’s not going to matter in five years, throw it out the window.’
And Wolfe Herd told her: ‘I think you have to really take a deep breath and say, ‘You know what, how big of a deal is this? If this is not going to be a defining issue in your business, your life, your family in five years, like, you’ll be fine.’
She also said: ‘When you’re ruminating in the middle of the night and you’re like, ‘Oh, but the box came out the wrong texture.’ Well, is that a problem in five months? Not really because you can switch that box.’
They also talked about how having children had change their perspectives on life, with Wolfe Herd telling Meghan: ‘I think being a mother, as you know, nothing comes before that.
One of the four photos posted by Meghan on Instagram today to announce the new show
Meghan is pictured as a child with friends in one of the pictures to launch her new podcast
A photo of Meghan as a child which she released today to help confirm the new show’s release
‘Their well-being is our wellbeing. And so I think it forces you to prioritise in ways that, for me, I never did before.’
Meghan also talked about balancing home and work life, and explained how her daughter Lilibet would sometimes come into her office at their property in Montecito, California, following a nap.
Quotes from Meghan’s new podcast episode
On postpartum preeclampsia
‘It’s so rare and so scary. And you’re still trying to juggle all of these things, and the world doesn’t know what’s happening quietly. And in the quiet, you’re still trying to show up for people – mostly for your children – but those things are huge medical scares’
On Whitney Wolfe Herd
‘The kind of friend who just always seems to know the exact right thing to say when I need perspective’
On working from home
‘We became moms in the pandemic, post-pandemic culture, where there is so much working from home… I don’t leave the house to go to an office; my office is here.
On Princess Lilibet
‘Lili still naps, she gets picked up early and she naps. She only has a half day in preschool. If she wakes up and wants to find me, she knows where to find me, even if my door is closed to the office’
On having children
What I do love the most about having young kids, in this chapter while I’m building [my business], is the perspective that it brings because you’re building something while your child’s going through potty training… and both are just as important… It’s like, ‘Great, OK, where’s the Cheerios? Well done’.’
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She told Wolfe Herd: ‘We became moms in the pandemic, post-pandemic culture, where there is so much working from home… I don’t leave the house to go to an office; my office is here.
‘Lili still naps, she gets picked up early and she naps. She only has a half day in preschool. If she wakes up and wants to find me, she knows where to find me, even if my door is closed to the office.
‘She’ll be sitting there on my lap during one of these meetings with a grid of all the executives… I wouldn’t have it any other way. I don’t want to miss those moments. I don’t want to miss pickup if I don’t have to. I don’t want to miss drop-off.’
The Duchess continued: ‘What I do love the most about having young kids, in this chapter while I’m building [my business], is the perspective that it brings because you’re building something while your child’s going through potty training…and both are just as important…
‘It’s like, ‘Great, OK, where’s the Cheerios? Well done.’ And then you’re championing your team ten minutes later about something that is really high value for the world. In your own world, that’s super high value. And in [Lilibet’s] world, that’s super high value.’
Wolfe Herd added: ‘Technology is a beautiful tool for parents because you can dial in and be present and do a great job on the call while you sit in the carpool line outside school.
‘Like, why do I need to be at a desk? I have the same mental opinion in a carpool line.’
Wolfe Herd also described Meghan as ‘such an amazing hostess’, adding: ‘When you go to your home, you’re, like, engulfed in love and coziness, just carry – you – through, and the rest writes itself.’
The series is the latest in the former Suits actress’s flurry of output after her much-criticised Netflix lifestyle series With Love, Meghan and her new brand As Ever.
Meghan also released a series of throwback photos to accompany the podcast’s release, saying: ‘Being an entrepreneur can start young. (By the way, all these years later and I’m still selling cookies!)
‘Tune in for the premiere episode of ‘Confessions of a Female Founder’ featuring my dear friend, @whitney, now streaming wherever you get your podcasts! @lemonadamedia.’
The pictures showed her selling cookies while wearing a brown Girl Scouts uniform – a nod to her new lifestyle brand As Ever and its shortbread butter cookies.
The Duchess of Sussex’s new TV show ‘With Love, Meghan’ came out on Netflix on March 4
Lemonada Media co-founders Jessica Cordova Kramer (left) and Stephanie Wittels Wachs
Meghan’s Spotify contract ended in 2023 after one series of her first podcast Archetypes
The previous Spotify podcast Archetypes about female stereotypes ran for just one series
The Duchess also told the New York Times in an email: ‘I hope ‘Confessions of a Female Founder’ reminds listeners they’re not alone. These are honest conversations with women who’ve built from the ground up, faced challenges and kept going.’
The newspaper reported that Meghan and Wolfe Herd ‘discussed navigating media scrutiny, shaping a brand, spreading kindness, embracing self-love, prioritising family and finding strategies to tackle it all’.
Both the New York Times and People had advance access to the podcast before it was released on Lemonada Media and other platforms such as Spotify and Apple.
A trailer for the show was released on March 25, with Meghan promising ‘girl talk’ and advice on how to create ‘billion-dollar businesses’.
Meghan told one guest to think of the experience as being in a ‘dolphin tank’ rather than a ‘shark tank’, asked another whether she is single now, talks about the ‘laser focus’ needed in business, and finished her voiceover with: ‘Let’s do this, ladies.’
The eight-part podcast series is also expected to follow the Duchess’s work on her As Ever brand which has now begun selling jam, herbal teas, flower sprinkles and ready-make crepe mix.
The new show is part of a deal signed in February last year with Lemonada Media, which follows her previous series Archetypes which aired on Spotify in 2022.
That show about female stereotypes ran for just one series, and was part of the Sussexes’ previous £20million deal with Spotify, which ended the year after.
