Harry was lucky I chose him, says ‘ugly duckling’ Meghan
Duchess rejects ‘gendered’ idea that prince picked her and says she was the smart one not pretty one at school
THE Duchess of Sussex has spoken of her frustration at people believing she was “lucky” that Prince Harry chose to marry her, saying she had always wanted to retort: “Well, I chose him too.”
The Duchess, speaking in the third episode of her podcast, said “everyone” had believed she was fortunate to be dating the grandson of the Queen, then considered one of the world’s most eligible bachelors.
Claiming she had heard how lucky she was “a million times over”, she said she had been grateful that the Prince himself was “countering the narrative for me” by saying: “I’m the lucky one because you chose me.”
The Duchess argued that the tendency to praise a woman’s good fortune in finding a husband was “gendered, archetypes and stereotyped”.
The podcast episode, in which she interviewed Mindy Kaling, an actress, writer and producer, tackled the “archetype” of the “spinster”: the reputation of women who are unmarried through choice or circumstance.
“[Being] unmarried still carries a stigma,” the Duchess told her Spotify audience. “What’s so threatening about women who live outside of marriage?”
The Duchess also spoke of her
‘When I started dating my husband and got engaged, everyone was like “oh my God, you’re so lucky he chose you”’
upbringing, describing herself as a “latchkey kid” who was often alone, in a claim that will raise further questions about her relationship with her estranged father and the mother she is thought to be close to.
A self-described “ugly duckling” at school, she also spoke of how she made herself the “smart one” rather than the “pretty one”, filling her lunch break with clubs rather than eating alone.
In a discussion of the tendency of women to “settle” for a man who is not quite right for them for fear of ending up alone and without children, the Duchess spoke of her astonishment at being asked to plan her perfect wedding for an RE lesson at her all-girls secondary school three decades ago.
Of meeting Prince Harry, when she was an actress on Suits and living in Canada, she said: “When I started dating my husband and got engaged, everyone was like ‘oh my God, you’re so lucky he chose you!’” she said.
“And at a certain point after you hear it a million times over, you think ‘Well, I chose him, too?’
“Thankfully, I had a partner who was countering that narrative for [me.]”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex spent yesterday in Düsseldorf, to publicise the “one year to go” countdown of the Invictus Games in the German city.
The Duke delivered a speech, saying the ability to “show respect and appreciation” is just as important as receiving it, referring to athletes at the Games.
The Sussexes are midway through a short trip to Europe, in which they are not believed to be seeing members of the Royal family.