The Duchess of Sussex’s two pregnancies left her wearied and stressed.
She opened up on the struggles of carrying her children Archie and Lilibet on her new podcast, Archetypes, which also featured a guest appearance from her husband, the Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry.
The Duchess – known as Meghan Markle before she married the royal – told her first guest and long-term friend Serena Williams that she simply “waddled around” and was “just so tired” while expecting.
Williams also revealed her close friend the Duchess, 40, endured “a lot of stress” during her pregnancies.
The Duchess said: “I just waddled around. I was just tired. So tired. Oh my God.”
Meghan had her first son Archie Harrison in May 2019, while her daughter Lilibet was born in June last year.
Williams, 40, had her daughter Olympia in 2017.
The Duchess first fell pregnant shortly after her wedding to Prince Harry in 2018, with her and Harry, 37, announcing the news ahead of their tour of Australia and Fiji that year, their first international royal tour.
During that time period, the Duke and Duchess also renovated their home of Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, and moved into the property.
She went on to continue with royal engagements until March, when she went on maternity leave.
The Duchess gave birth to her first child, Archie, at the private Portland Hospital in Westminster in May 2019, with the seventh in line to the throne and the Queen’s eighth great-grandchild arriving at 5.26am on May 6.
She then announced her pregnancy with daughter Lilibet on Valentine’s Day last year.
It was during the second pregnancy that Meghan and Prince Harry gave their infamous TV interview to Oprah Winfrey, before Lilibet was born on Friday, June 4 at 11.40am, weighing 7lb 11oz (3.48kg).
The Duchess admitted to Oprah that during her pregnancy with Archie, she felt so low, she experienced suicidal thoughts.
She told the chat show host: “I knew that if I didn’t say it that I would do it – and I just didn’t want to be alive anymore.
“And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought.”
On her new podcast, Meghan praised her friend Serena for looking “sexy” and referenced the tennis icon’s Vanity Fair pregnancy photo shoot, for which she posed naked wearing a belly chain.
At the start of the podcast, “Archetypes with Meghan”, which aired Tuesday, Prince Harry made a quick appearance and told Serena her hair was a “good vibe”.
The Archewell foundation announced earlier this year that the couple’s Spotify podcast would debut this summer, 18 months after signing a deal with the firm.
“Archetypes” will see Meghan speak to historians, experts and woman who have experienced being typecast.
In a trailer for the “Archewell Audio” project, the Duchess said: “This is how we talk about women: the words that raise our girls, and how the media reflects women back to us. But where do these stereotypes come from? And how do they keep showing up and defining our lives?
“This is Archetypes – the podcast where we dissect, explore and subvert the labels that try to hold women back.
“I’ll have conversations with women who know all too well how these typecasts shape our narratives. And I’ll talk to historians to understand how we even got here in the first place.”
Meghan also told how her and Prince Harry’s son Archie narrowly escaped a fire in his bedroom when he was meant to be sleeping, during the Sussex’s tour of South Africa.