Meghan Markle hosts Serena Williams as podcast launches

LOS ANGELES, United States — Meghan Markle, the wife of Britain's Prince Harry, launched her long-awaited podcast with tennis megastar Serena Williams as the first guest.

The Duchess of Sussex said the 12-part series, called "Archetypes," — a play on the name of the couple's oldest child, Archie — would explore the female experience.

"We're going to live inside and rip apart the boxes women have been placed into for generations," Markle said. "I want to get to the bottom of where they come from, why they've stuck around for so long, and — importantly — how we can move past them."

During the hour-long episode, Markle and Williams, who make much of their friendship and their shared Los Angeles roots, discuss the notion of being "ambitious" and how it is applied differently to men and to women.

"I don't ever remember personally feeling the negative connotation behind the word ambitious, until I started dating my now-husband," the host says, referring to Harry, who makes a brief cameo early in the show. "And apparently ambition is a terrible, terrible thing — for a woman, that is, according to some."

Williams, 40, recently indicated she is planning to retire after this month's US Open, lowering the curtain on a glittering tennis career that saw her win 23 Grand Slam titles.

Related: Serena Williams prepares for final curtain call at US Open

Harry and his wife spectacularly quit British royal life in 2020. They moved to California where they now live in a celebrity-spotted enclave with their two children.

Last year the couple told Oprah Winfrey that life inside "The Firm" had been miserable, and that they had experienced racism, including speculative comments from an unnamed royal on the skin color of their then-unborn child.

Markle is mixed race. The royal family has denied racism.

Much ink has been spilled on the souring of a once-strong friendship between Harry and brother William, who is one day set to inherit the British throne.

In July, the internet was set alight with speculation about Prince William's private proclivities, with fans of the Sussexes claiming earlier negative stories about the couple had been planted to distract from the lurid claims.

Markle's podcast series, which is being carried on Spotify, is part of a lucrative suite of deals the couple have signed that also include television, publishing and motivational speaking.

Harry is due to publish his memoirs later this year, with Buckingham Palace braced for further turbulence.

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