Meghan Markle Says She Stopped Watching ‘Real Housewives’ When Her ‘Life Had Its Own Level of Drama’
Meghan Markle has made some extent throughout her Archetypes podcast series to maintain the highlight on her subjects. But she did expose a little bit, on the primary season’s finale episode, about how Prince Harry affected the series and why she will’t watch the Real Housewives franchise anymore.
Harry is the rationale her last episode was all male guests. “Now, in case you’ve been listening to the past 11 episodes, you will have noticed that you simply haven’t heard many men’s voices… In reality, until now, outside a pop-in from my husband in the primary episode, this show has featured exclusively women’s voices,” she began. “And that’s by design. It was necessary to us that ladies have an area to share their authentic and complex, complex, and dynamic experiences. To be heard. And to be understood. But through that process it also occurred to me, and truth be told, on the suggestion of my husband – that if we actually need to shift how we take into consideration gender and the limiting labels that we separate people into, then we now have to broaden the conversation… and we now have to actively include men in that conversation, and definitely in that effort. So today, we’re doing just that.”
The Duchess of Sussex began the conversation along with her guest, Andy Cohen, the person behind the Real Housewives franchise. To Cohen, she revealed she had been a fan of the truth show franchise, but her appetite for it modified as her own life became British tabloid fodder amid her entry to the British royal family.
Meghan revealed to Cohen that she met him twice before, but he hadn’t remembered meeting her. The primary had been before Suits aired, and the second was during its second or third season. “I used to be so desperate to be in your show [Watch What Happens Live] because I used to be such a Housewives fan on the time and I just couldn’t get booked, Andy! So thanks for being here with me.”
Cohen admitted he and his team suspected Meghan had expressed interest on being on the show before. “We were like, I feel she could also be a Housewives fan, but even worse, Andy, we expect we did not have her on the show. And I used to be like, oh my god. If it seems that Meghan Markle actually expressed an interest to be on ‘Watch What Happens Live’ and we—it’s now the most important blunder within the 13 years of the show. So it’s an awesome story.”
Cohen went on to ask Meghan if she still watched the series. That is when she gently touched on the impact being within the royal highlight has had on her the past couple years.
“Well, I’ll inform you the reality. I finished watching The Housewives when my life had its own level of drama that I finished craving–”
“Other people’s,” Cohen finished.
“Yeah, there was so—I get why it was such an enormous, huge part of popular culture. And when it began, since you began with Orange County and I’m from California, at the least it felt remotely like a world that I knew but still felt so foreign. But I mean, I’d say almost every one in all my friends still watches it and I’m going, why are you watching that? There’s a lot drama. And it’s since it bring—it’s entertainment. It’s entertaining to them.”
Meghan admitted having a more nuanced tackle it now. “This can be a tough one for me. This can be a tough one,” she said of discussing the show. “Because, as you heard, Andy describes this as a feminist show… and I need to listen to him out on that, because this drama, it tends to feed off the kinds of girls they, they often feature on the show, or at the least one facet of their personalities. And yes, some might call them stereotypes. And I feel because of this, people have really—like I’m explaining–mixed feelings concerning the show.”
You may hearken to their whole conversation here on Spotify and the way Meghan gracefully confronted him on the show’s portrayal of girls.
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring Recent York City.
