Meghan Markle is all about living life authentically.
Markle, 43, discussed her viral “Baby Mama Dance” video during her appearance on the “Aspire with Emma Grede” podcast, as seen in a sneak peek shared by People on Monday, June 16, ahead of the Tuesday, June 17, episode.
“You have to be authentic,” she told Grede, 42, before asking if the podcast host had seen the viral Instagram video.
The June 4 post showed a heavily pregnant Markle wearing a black dress and dancing to Mic Drop Mama’s 2021 song “Baby Mama Dance” in a hospital room while in labor. Her husband, Prince Harry, looked casual in jeans and a sweatshirt as he danced back and forth across the room.
“Four years ago today, this also happened. Both of our children were a week past their due dates… so when spicy food, all that walking, and acupuncture didn’t work — there was only one thing left to do! ????” Markle captioned the post, which she shared in honor of daughter Princess Lilibet’s 4th birthday. (Markle and Harry, 40, also share son Prince Archie, 6,)
Grede told Markle on the podcast that she and her family watched the dance video “like 20 times,” and the businesswoman couldn’t believe that it was the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
“I was like, is that, is that her? Is that Prince Harry there with the fingers … I was like, ‘OK … good on Harry, let’s go.’ But that’s you, right? Like that’s you in a way that we kind of haven’t been able to see you before,” Grede said.
She continued, “And I did like a little secret cheer, ‘cause I was like, ‘Well, that’s what I kind of want to see from you. Like, I wanna see that happiness, and that honesty, and that ‘I don’t give a f**k’ kind of thing.”
Markle reminded Grede that the video was captured “four years ago” and added, “So it’s also a really great reminder that with all the noise or whatever people do, there’s still a whole life — a real, authentic, fun life — that’s happening behind the scenes. I’m just grateful that now, being back on social as well, I have a place where I can share it on my own terms.”
After about five years away from social media, Markle returned to Instagram on New Year’s Day. Her first post was a video of herself running on a beach and writing “2025” in the sand. Since then, the former Suits actress has used the platform to share glimpses into her family life and promote her various projects, including her Netflix series, With Love, Meghan, her podcast, “Confessions of a Female Founder” and her lifestyle brand, As Ever.
While Grede and her family loved seeing the “Baby Momma Dance” video, other social media users criticized it as “cringe.” Some viewers even claimed that Markle’s movements in the clip didn’t seem to signal that she was uncomfortable in the way that a soon-to-be mother is assumed to be and alleged that her pregnancy was a hoax.
Markle’s friend and tech entrepreneur Christopher Bouzy came to her defense in an interview with Newsweek on June 11.
“Imagine, for a moment, what it would feel like to have some of the happiest and most vulnerable moments of your life turned into ammunition for hate,” Bouzy, 50, said. “Every maternity dress and every baby video becomes ‘evidence’ for strangers obsessively trying to prove your pregnancies were a sham. It is sickening and cruel.”
