Meghan Markle Is Reminding Everyone She Built Her Business — While Taking Care of Archie and Lilibet

Meghan Markle recently opened up about launching a business from scratch while raising her two kids, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. In the final episode of her podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, the Duchess of Sussex told guest Sara Blakely that working mothers are often taken for granted. She also gushed about her children, stressing how quickly they are growing up.

Markle began by praising Blakely for building a successful business while raising four children. As reported by People magazine, she said, “But 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.” Markle, who recently rebranded her lifestyle brand As Ever, shared that people often undermine the struggles of mothers. She added, “It's something that I think people often forget…So you look at the past five, six years of my life, it’s with being pregnant or with a newborn or with a toddler, and then another one.”

In response, Blakely asked about Archie and Lilibet, prompting Markle to gush, “They are so grown!” As per InStyle, Markle also revealed that she had gained 65 pounds while pregnant with Archie, but was still required to wear five-inch stilettos for events. She said, “‘How on Earth am I not just tipping, you know, face planting?’ I was clinging very closely to my husband, like, ‘Please don’t let me fall.’” Markle was pregnant with Archie in 2019, when she was still a senior working royal, and as protocol dictated, flat-soled shoes weren't an option.

Speaking about her children, the Duchess also underlined the significance of relying on one’s instincts to make identity-shaping decisions. She compared naming her children to naming a business, saying she relied on her gut feeling for both. She advised women who are about to have children, “If you have an idea of what you’re gonna name that baby, you keep it so close to your heart until that baby is born and it’s named. Don’t ask anyone’s opinion.” This is rather interesting, as after Lilibet’s birth, reports emerged that Markle and Harry had not sought the late Queen Elizabeth’s permission to name their child after her. A spokesperson for the Sussexes, however, denied the claims, stating that the pair had gotten the Queen’s consent.

Coming back to her business, Markle has previously opened up about the struggles of balancing a business with her children's needs. According to The Mirror, on her podcast, she told her guest, Reshma Saujani, about an incident when one of her children had respiratory syncytial virus, while the other had influenza A. Speaking of her challenges as a working mother, she added, “With that comes the woman who is juggling it all and doing it all from home, being confident enough, to tell the truth about what’s going on, because you can’t give grace to someone in the same way if you just have no sense of it.”