Meghan Markle‘s new Spotify podcast ‘Archetypes’ released its first episode on Tuesday and was met by scathing reviews from UK critics.
The self-aggrandizing Duchess of Sussex, who has been known to whine about her “hard life,” has made a podcast that gives her another platform on which to complain and be the center of attention.
On her new podcast, Markle’s first guest was tennis star Serena Williams, who she says is her “dear friend.” Celia Walden at the Telegraph expressed deep disappointment in the episode, writing that it was “an interview with this inspirational sporting figure in name only,” and that Markle was really just “interviewing herself.”
Walden bashed the podcast as “just another way she can talk about herself,” adding that Markle is the type of person “who hijacks every distressing anecdote with one of their own – only theirs is longer drawn-out, more distressing.”
“Even the anecdote about how Meghan first met her supposed interviewee – at a 2010 Super Bowl party – is somehow turned into self-aggrandisement,” wrote Walden. “Spotting Serena heading towards someone, Meghan wondered who on earth could have sparked this woman’s interest, and – oh, my goodness! – it was her.”
Bel Mooney from the Daily Mail agreed with Walden’s review of the podcast, saying that the “bizarre, saccharine and faintly queasy schmooze-fest between Meghan and ‘my dear friend Serena’ (as we hear over and over again) tells us next to nothing at all about the making of Serena Williams’s towering ambition.”
James Marriott from The Times labeled the podcast as “almost entirely preposterous,” calling it a “soundtracked parade of banalities, absurdities and self-aggrandising Californian platitudes.”
Another review from The Spectator suggested that tennis fans who tune in might be “a bit disappointed” since “the show is in fact all about Meghan.” “It’s hard to believe that it took 28 people, including eight executive producers, to make the episode,” the article added.
Journalist Hilary Rose from The Times found listening to the podcast to be a torturous experience, writing, “In hindsight, I should have beaten myself unconscious an hour ago with a copy of Finding Freedom. Instead, I’ve listened to 57 minutes and 28 seconds of Meghan Markle’s syrupy California drawl, while rocking back and forth moaning softly under my breath.”
Rose also criticized the podcast for being “pure, narcissistic gibberish.”
MailOnline’s journalist Angela Levin criticized the way Markle views the privileged life she has been given as a curse, and still finds ways to make herself seem like a victim in the pampered life she married into.
Levin wrote, “She would still be a D-list celebrity if she had not married a prince. She aligns herself with them [Serena Williams and next podcast guest Mariah Carey], but they have done brilliantly and overcome difficult childhood, whereas she has married a prince and spent a lot of money.”
