Meghan Markle Says Serena Williams Saw 'The Pain That I'm Going Through'

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Emma Mayer

By Emma Mayer

Staff Writer

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Meghan Markle revealed that tennis legend Serena Williams saw "the pain that I'm going through" as she looked back on their friendship in her new podcast.

On Tuesday, the Duchess of Sussex released the first episode of Archetypes, a podcast that will delve into "how we talk about women: the words that raise our girls, and how the media reflects women back to us."

In the first episode, Meghan sat down with her guest and friend Williams to chat about ambition and the often negative stereotypes that surround ambitious women.

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Meghan Markle, Serena Williams

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Reflecting on their friendship, Williams and Meghan agreed they had a lot in common.

"I mean, the things people think and the things that people don't," Meghan said. "But in our friendship when you have to see things that are mischaracterizing of me, but you experience behind closed doors the pain that I'm going through, and vice versa.

"But I think what's so interesting is even though that's on a world stage, I don't know if that feels much different for any woman," she continued. "If you're in a small town and you see someone saying something about your best friend that is just completely untrue, how that feels, you know."

Ambition

Meghan went on to speak with the Grand Slam Champion about the disparity between men and women when it comes to ambition and the way that ambition shaped Williams' career.

"Often women are definitely put in these different boxes when we are ambitious, or when we do have goals or when we reach our goals, it's a negative connotation on how we reach the goals," Williams said.

The athlete, who recently announced that she is "evolving away from tennis" to focus on other passions and her family, told Markle that she has struggled with facing double standards in tennis for years.

"Is it fierce when guys are saying 'c'mon' and pumping their fists? It's pretty exciting? But for me, it's aggressive," said Williams. "Oh my goodness, I'll never forget, there was this one article that said this guy was passionate and I 'had a meltdown,' and I was like, 'wait, how did I have a meltdown but this guy is passionate?'"

The podcast is the first official series after Meghan and Harry announced a partnership with Spotify in 2020. In the episode's introduction, Meghan said, "My podcast's about the labels and tropes that try to hold women back. Over the course of the next dozen episodes, we're going to live inside and rip apart the boxes women have been placed into for generations. Boxes like 'diva,' 'crazy,' 'the b-word,' 'slut.'"

She added, "Some of these words, these labels, are harsh. They're abrasive. And I want to get to the bottom of where they come from and why they've stuck around for so long and, importantly, how we can move past them."

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Ambition