Royal | News - Prince Ricardo De La Cerda
Meghan Markle opened up about her struggle with wearing high heels during both her pregnancies, which left her relying on her husband, Prince Harry, for support. The Duchess of Sussex released the final episode of her podcast, Confessions Of A Female Founder, on Tuesday, when she welcomed the founder of shapewear clothing company Spanx and mother-of-four, Sara Blakely.
In it, Meghan spoke about the challenges faced by female entrepreneurs like herself, who choose to grow a business while raising children. She told her guest: “The amount of what you have created, evolved through the level of what you have done while having this many children, all at that age. It’s something that I think people often forget.
Discussing her own experiences, Meghan added: “People forget that Lili is three, and Archie is five. So you look at the past five, six years of my life, it’s yes, with being pregnant or with a newborn or with a toddler, and then another one.”
But as the episode was coming to an end, the two women talked about Ms Blakely’s latest business venture – Sneex – which is a brand that makes a new hybrid type of shoe that combines heels with trainers.
Meghan made a confession about her experience wearing heels while pregnant, saying: “A friend just said to me the other day, ‘I just saw this picture I had forgotten about when you were so pregnant with Archie’.
“I mean I gained 65 pounds with both pregnancies, ‘and you’re in these five-inch’ – I always wear my five-inch pointy-toed stilettos – they’re like ‘You have the most enormous bump, and your tiny little ankles are bracing themselves in these high heels.'”
The Duchess added: “But all of my weight was in the front, so you’re just going ‘How on earth am I not just tipping, you know, face-planting, I’m always clinging very closely to my husband like ‘Please don’t let me fall!'”
Elsewhere in the episode, Meghan expanded on other challenges facing female chief executives, including what she called a “guilt mentality” over having a lot of money.
“I think so many women, especially, were taught not to even talk about money. And there’s lots of guilt mentality surrounding having a lot”, she said.
“It wasn’t until the 70s that women could even have a credit card, a line of credit on a credit card without her husband.”
The duchess also spoke of the importance of self-care, saying: “I remember my acupuncturist in the UK said to me, and it has always stayed with me, he said, if the baby’s crying, treat the mother. It all starts with us. Good Lord, we have to take care of ourselves first.”