Meghan tells of turning to ancient Indian medicine doctor during pregnancy

South Wales Guardian

06-05-2025

Meghan, in her latest podcast which was released on Archie's sixth birthday, also spoke of the benefits of 'adaptogens' such as mushrooms but admitted some see the approach as a 'little psychedelic and super woo-woo'.
The former Suits actress discussed her belief in the ancient Indian holistic Ayurveda philosophy while chatting with Hannah Mendoza, founder of Clevr Blends.
The instant organic lattes firm is another in which the duchess has financially invested and then invited on to her podcast.
In an earlier episode of her Confessions Of A Female Founder series, Meghan spoke to her hair colourist Kadi Lee, co-founder of hair wellness brand Highbrow Hippie, which the duchess invested in last year.
Mendoza, who grew up in London but later set up home on the west coast of the US, described how she began making a friend – her now co-founder Roger Coppola – mushroom-based cappuccinos to help him during a time of grief.
Meghan acknowledged the fungus often had other 'connotations'.
The Duke of Sussex famously admitted taking magic mushrooms in California in 2016 in his autobiography Spare.
The duchess said: 'I think a lot of people when they hear mushrooms, they go 'OK, she's talking about being hippie-dippy, grounded in all these things'.
'If you aren't familiar with adaptogens, you can go to this place of 'Oh, it's feeling a little psychedelic and super woo-woo'.'
Adaptogens are active ingredients in certain plants and mushrooms which are said to impact how the body deals with stress, anxiety and fatigue.
Meghan described how she turned to an Ayurvedic practitioner when pregnant with Archie and Lili and how it was about seeing 'food as medicine'. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex with their baby son Archie in 2019 (Dominic Lipinski/PA)
'So there are these items and ingredients that have been part of our natural ecosystem and dietary system for a long time, whether acknowledged or not, that somehow you say mushrooms, and now people have a connotation attached to it,' she said.
'But it's really just a food trend that I believe you were far ahead of in terms of saying, 'Hold on, these have properties that can in some way make you feel differently in a really safe way'.
'During my pregnancies, I had an Ayurvedic doctor and so much of it was about seeing food as medicine.'
Harry told in his memoir how the couple listened to Sanskrit songs in the delivery room with Archie on the advice an Ayurvedic doctor and whispered to their newborn that they loved him after the practitioner told them babies absorb everything said to them in the first minute of their life
Ayurveda, which means the 'knowledge of life' in Sanskrit, is a holistic approach to balancing the body, typically using natural herbs and massage.
Meghan also spoke of facing 'so much exposure' and being under a 'microscope'.
'Some might look at it and say, at least for me, it will have so much exposure, whatever I put out in the world will have so much attention,' she said.
'I go, yeah, and there's a flip side to that coin, which we know, it's a microscope that a lot of people don't have to experience.'
The duchess said she realised people 'believed in me' after she went into partnership with 'global powerhouse' Netflix and when her first As Ever products sold out. View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Netflix US (@netflix)
'When I think about big milestones for my own business with As Ever,' she said.
'I mean, Netflix coming on as my business partner, huge, just having a global powerhouse that believed in me and the site selling out in the first 45 minutes of launch, everything, every single piece that we had been working on.
'That told me that customers, people, believed in me in this vision, that's all you really want as a founder.'
In 2020 after Meghan invested in Clevr Blends, she sent her neighbour, chat show queen Oprah Winfrey, a basket of the company's goods. View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Oprah (@oprah)
Winfrey went on to share a post, filming herself making a cup of her 'new favourite' turmeric Golden SuperLatte to instructions she received from 'M'.
Mendoza described watching the post, saying 'I think I fell on the floor.'
'It was 5,000, 10,000 people on our website within a matter of 30 seconds,' she added.
Meghan also revealed how she was unable to eat oats or oat milk at one stage.
'I went through that whole phase, do you remember, where I couldn't have oats or oat milk so you made me my own special version,' the duchess told her guest.