Meghan Markle is sharing a poignant piece of advice from her friend Serena Williams about living life in the public eye.
The Duchess of Sussex, 43, opened up about the intense public interest — and scrutiny — that has followed her since she started dating Prince Harry, 40, in 2016, during a new podcast interview with businesswoman Emma Grede.
Meghan and Harry stepped back as working members of the royal family in 2020 and relocated their family to California. The couple subsequently addressed their royal exit and the negative press attention they received in the U.K. during a 2021 CBS interview. They said they felt the royal family didn’t protect them.
On the Tuesday, June 17, episode of the “Aspire With Emma Grede” podcast, Meghan was asked how she’d “rewrite” the public narrative about her, prompting the royal to candidly respond: “I would ask people to tell the truth.”
“I would just get so angry if I felt that everyone was lying about me all the time,” Grede, the CEO and cofounder of Khloé Kardashian’s Good American clothing line and a founding partner of Skims, shared with Meghan. “Is there ever a part of you that’s like, ‘Just leave me alone?’”
Meghan said that she has done “a lot of self work,” noting that there are “peaks and valleys” to having a public profile.
“You go, ‘What’s the why?’ It’s happening for a reason,” the As Ever founder reasoned.
Meghan continued, “My dear friend Serena … she told me years ago, ‘A lie can’t live forever.’”
“Eight years is a long time, but not forever,” the duchess added.
Meghan and Williams, also 43, have been friends for around a decade and the tennis star was among the attendees at Meghan and Harry’s wedding in May 2018. “You know, I’ve known Meghan for years, so it was good to see my friend happy,” Williams told InStyle in June 2018 about the nuptials.
Their close bond has continued to flourish over the years, with Williams planning a baby shower for Meghan in New York City when she was pregnant with son Archie, 6. (Harry and Meghan also share daughter Lilibet, 4.)
“Planning something like that takes a lot of effort,” Williams said in an interview with Business of Fashion in April 2019. “I’m a perfectionist, so I’m like, ‘Let’s make it perfect.’”
Elsewhere in her interview with Grede, 42, Meghan discussed her viral “Baby Mama Dance” pregnancy video, which she shared via social media earlier this month to mark Lilibet’s 4th birthday.
“You have to be authentic,” she told Grede, 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, Harry, looked casual in jeans and a sweatshirt as he danced back and forth across the room.
