Latest news with #SPANX
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Meghan Markle Claims She's 'Incredibly Lonely' in New Podcast
Meghan Markle opened up about the difficulties she's faced as a solo entrepreneur in a new episode of her podcast Confessions of A Female Founder. The Duchess of Sussex claims she's felt "incredibly lonely" in recent years, and revealed the stress of running her own business has been life-changing. Markle's admission came during a discussion with SPANX founder Sara Blakely in the episode "Business is Not a Battlefield." Together they discussed the struggles they've faced as female entrepreneurs and finding their place as multifaceted women in a "one note" world. "'If I had to write a résumé, I don't know what I would call myself," she admitted. "I think it speaks to this chapter many of us find ourselves in, where none of us are one note. But I believe all the notes I am playing are part of the same song." As part of her reinvention, the podcaster shared that building her own brand separate from the royal family continues to come with unexpected challenges. Per The Daily Mail, the Duchess of Sussex told Blakely, "I was going to do it all by myself but took a complete U-turn because I really believe in what Netflix and their CPG department are doing. But it is a different experience than when you're doing it on your own." She continued, "When you only have yourself to answer to I think it's twofold. It can be incredibly liberating or it can be incredibly lonely." Additionally, the mom of two discussed the guilt many women feel about success' byproduct, money. She appeared to subtly reference her own life experiences on the topic. "So many women especially, we're taught to not even talk about money and there's lots of guilt mentality surrounding having a lot and then at the same time there's a scarcity mindset that's easy to attach to of I'll never have enough." Markle's initial business dreams shattered when her American Riviera Orchard brand, which soft launched in March 2024, faced trademark issues. She subsequently partnered with Netflix to relaunch the brand under the As Ever banner in February 2025. The ex-royal's products will be sold in the streaming giant's retail stores. The items are also available on her website. The brand and the duchess' Netflix series, With Love Meghan, launched simultaneously, and a second season of the lifestyle series will later this year. Meghan Markle just celebrated her seventh wedding anniversary with Prince Harry. They are parents to Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 3. Meghan Markle Claims She's 'Incredibly Lonely' in New Podcast first appeared on Parade on May 27, 2025
The Age
4 days ago
- Business
- The Age
Meghan Markle shares the parenting advice she also applies in business
Lifestyle Meghan Markle shares the parenting advice she also applies in business during an episode of her Confessions of a Female Founder podcast with SPANX founder Sara Blakely.
Sydney Morning Herald
4 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Meghan Markle shares the parenting advice she also applies in business
Lifestyle Meghan Markle shares the parenting advice she also applies in business during an episode of her Confessions of a Female Founder podcast with SPANX founder Sara Blakely.
Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Meghan 'clung' to Harry while pregnant so she wouldn't fall over at royal events
In the final episode of her podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, Meghan candidly opened up about why, during her pregnancies, she would 'cling' to Prince Harry to make sure she didn't fall over The first series of Meghan's podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, has come to a close, with the final episode seeing Meghan sit down with the founder of SPANX, Sara Blakely. Towards the end of the wide-ranging discussion, which saw the women discuss everything from manifestation to family, Blakely discussed her new venture with the Duchess: a company called Sneex, which makes a brand new kind of hybrid shoe that combines heels with trainers. During their chat, the Duchess discussed her own experiences wearing uncomfortable high-heeled shoes at royal events during her first pregnancy with Prince Archie, a period of time which also saw her seriously struggle with her mental health. Meghan also admitted that in both her pregnancies, she gained quite a lot of weight - 4.6 stone or 29 kilos - which made wearing stilettos even harder. "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'" Meghan explained in the candid discussion, "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'. "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!' "Well, you created the antidote," Meghan said. During her pregnancy with Archie, Meghan was still a working royal and had to attend a myriad of high-profile events. A royal tour in Australia meant she and Harry "had to" announce her pregnancy in October 2018, they revealed in their self-titled Netflix documentary. From the Fashion Awards to the Commonwealth Day service, there were many formal events where Meghan donned her trademark stilettos, but one in particular at the Royal Albert Hall, she revealed in 2021, was also the night that she shared with Harry that she was suffering from suicidal thoughts. Meghan admitted to Oprah that she was "haunted" by photographs of the pair at the Sentebale event, which took place at one of her lowest points, particularly when seeing "how tightly his knuckles are gripped around mine". For his part, Harry has expressed regret over how he handled Meghan's admission, "What took over my feelings was my royal role. I had been trained to worry more about 'What are people gonna think if we don't go to this event? We're going to be late.' Looking back at it now, I hate myself for it.' He said in the couple's documentary series, 'What she needed from me was so much more than I was able to give." During the episode, Sara dived into why she wanted to "invent a comfortable high heel" because she never bought into the common idea that "beauty is pain" and explained that after four years of trying to make a "traditional stiletto" that was ten times more comfortable than what we're all used to, she called it quits, and made a major pivot toward a totally new kind of shoe altogether. "It was more comfortable, Meghan," Blakely explained, "but it wasn't exponentially more comfortable, so I looked at my team, of just two girls that I absolutely adore, and I, through tears, said, we're going to pull like the plug. We tried, and it's not there. "Because as someone who invents and creates products, especially if I'm going to launch a new company or brand around it, I always say I have a mental check that it needs to be 10x better than anything else out there, and it was maybe 4x better, but to me, that wasn't a big to spend my time and energy". Sara then decided to see if it were possible to "merge a sneaker with a stiletto". Meghan then shared that when launching her recent lifestyle brand - As Ever - she herself had to "pivot" away from ideas to which she had been pretty wedded about how her jams would look, realising that as she wanted to scale the size of her company, her original "charming and darling" designs of "jam hats" wouldn't be possible to implement. Over the course of her podcast series, Meghan has made a series of candid admissions during her chats with impressive female businesswomen, including the revelation that she suffered from postpartum preeclampsia, a "rare and scary" condition, which is caused by high blood pressure after birth and can potentially result in serious health issues such as organ failure or strokes. "The world doesn't know what's happening quietly,' Meghan said. 'And in the quiet, you're still trying to show up for people, mostly for your children, but those things are huge medical scares." Her guest Whitney responded: 'I mean, life or death, truly.' Meghan also opened up about suffering from a miscarriage in 2020, saying to one of her guests, "I'll bring this up if you are comfortable talking about it... I have spoken about the miscarriage we experienced. And I think in some parallel way, when you have to learn to detach from the thing that you have so much promise and hope for and to be able to be OK at a certain point to let something go, something go that you plan to love for a long time." Confessions of a Female Founder is Meghan's second foray into the podcasting world. It follows her first show, Archetypes, which was produced by Spotify and cancelled after one series. Get Royal Family updates straight to your WhatsApp! As the royals get back to their normal duties after a difficult year, the Mirror has launched its very own Royal WhatsApp community where you'll get all the latest news on the UK's most famous family. We'll send you the latest breaking updates and exclusives all directly to your phone. Users must download or already have WhatsApp on their phones to join in. All you have to do to join is click on this link, select 'Join Chat' and you're in! We may also send you stories from other titles across the Reach group. We will also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose Exit group. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. The new podcast, produced by Lemonada Media, has received a pretty mixed response from critics. One called the series "sycophantic" and another said it was "45 minutes of platitudes." However, the first episode did make the Top 10 overall podcast charts and took the number one spot amongst business podcasts, though it has since dropped off.
Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Meghan's heartbreaking conversation about dads as Thomas Markle row rumbles on
In the final episode of Meghan's podcast series, Confessions of a Female Founder, Meghan chatted with her guest Sara Blakely about the crucial role her father played in her upbringing and business - amid the Duchess's ongoing feud with father Thomas Markle The final episode of Meghan's podcast Confessions of a Female Founder has been released and sees the Duchess take part in an emotional conversation with her guest Sara Blakely, the founder of SPANX, about the crucial role the businesswoman's father played in shaping her company and mindset - amid Meghan's, 43, ongoing estrangement with her own father Thomas Markle Senior, 80. It was around the time of Meghan's wedding in 2018 that her relationship with her father, with whom she once shared a strong bond, broke down. Thomas was caught taking part in staged paparazzi shots, for which it is alleged he was paid, ahead of the big day. Despite initially being the one who was meant to give Meghan away, after suffering a heart attack, Thomas could not attend - something that Meghan has said she found out "through a tabloid". He later said that the stunt had left him looking "stupid and hammy". Three years later, during her bombshell sit-down with Oprah, Meghan confirmed that the pair were still totally estranged, saying that she grieves "a lot" and that "I've lost my father". Things haven't improved between Meghan and her father, who now lives in the Philippines with Meghan's half-brother Thomas Junior. However, despite the difficulties Meghan faces in her relationship with her own father, she expressed serious enthusiasm in her conversation with Sara Blakely about how important a role the SPANX's founder's father played in her journey. Sara explained that "SPANX never had a board. For 16 years, the board was my dad, so my dad would come into town four times a year, hang out with me and the leadership team, and go over the business." "Wow, wow," Meghan replied, then asking, "I remember reading, or maybe you told me, that when you were younger your dad would ask around the dinner table 'What did you fail at this week? What did you fail at today?' meaning, if you failed, you at least tried, you tried beautifully, and it doesn't matter if you failed. When he started to advise on the business four times a year, was he asking those same kind of questions?" Sara replied: "I was very lucky to have a parent who was incredibly strategic in his thinking. He's a lawyer, but he's very smart, and I trusted him, and that was huge for me. He was always trying to get us to redefine failure growing up, my brother and me. Listen, my brother is four years younger than me. My brother invented a product in a field he knows nothing about and sold his business. So something happened in our house. "My mom is a stay-at-home mother and an artist, and my dad is a litigator; he was a very charismatic trial attorney, and they really fostered something in our house..." Meghan answered: "Wow, that's huge, huge, and you had equal parts of that pragmatism and the creative as well from your mom as an artist, so you had both pieces". The emotional conversation nodded back to how Meghan spoke glowingly about her own "thoughtful, inspiring, hardworking Daddy" long before their estrangement. In a lifestyle blog—The Tig—that the Duchess used to run before her marriage to Prince Harry, Meghan more than once paid tribute to the important role Thomas Senior played in her upbringing. In one post, she described how Thomas would bring his Hollywood expertise as a lighting director to her school drama productions, taking them to the next level, with Meghan later becoming a successful actress herself, making them "as grand as a Broadway show". She also wrote fondly about some of her childhood memories that the pair shared: "Our club sandwich and fruit smoothie tradition post my tap and ballet class—classes, which by the way, he religiously took me to on Saturday mornings after working 75+ hours a week as a lighting director." Despite their long estrangement, for his part Thomas Senior - who has never met grandchildren Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, three - has said he would love to reunite and bring the "whole family together", though he slated the release of Meghan's recent show With Love, Meghan for Netflix, saying his daughter has "never been authentic". Doria Ragland, 68, - Meghan's mum - has said she was left "absolutely stunned" when her ex took part in the staged photographs, adding that "as a parent, that's not what you do. That's not parenting." Whilst Meghan no longer has a relationship with her own father, who has suffered a series of health issues in the intervening years since they last spoke, including a stroke, she has said that seeing Prince Harry parent their two children "is the most beautiful thing to watch". Confessions of a Female Founder is Meghan's second foray into the podcasting world, following Archetypes, which was released through the couple's deal with Spotify back in 2022. Get Royal Family updates straight to your WhatsApp! As the royals get back to their normal duties after a difficult year, the Mirror has launched its very own Royal WhatsApp community where you'll get all the latest news on the UK's most famous family. We'll send you the latest breaking updates and exclusives all directly to your phone. Users must download or already have WhatsApp on their phones to join in. All you have to do to join is click on this link, select 'Join Chat' and you're in! We may also send you stories from other titles across the Reach group. We will also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose Exit group. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
