As Meghan Markle has began opening up more about her two pregnancies, a psychologist shares how the Duchess Of Sussex is trying to ‘rewrite memories’, but excluding struggles.
Experts have revealed how Meghan Markle may be failing to recognise her struggles as a mother and presenting an ‘overly polished’ image, after the duchess gave an intimate insight into her pregnancies with her children Archie and Lilibet last week.
Explaining that she gained just over 4½st during each pregnancy, she said, “I always wear my five-inch, pointy-toed stilettos. You have the most enormous bump and your tiny little ankles are bracing themselves in these high heels… So you’re just going, how on earth am I not just tipping, you know, face-planting? I was clinging very closely to my husband, like, ‘Please don’t let me fall.’”
But as well as the more humorous memories, Meghan, 43, also opened up about sometimes feeling consumed by motherhood. “People forget that Lili is three, and Archie is five. So you look at the past five, six years of my life, it’s yes, with being pregnant or with a newborn or with a toddler, and then another one.”
According to psychologist Stefan Walters, Meghan’s increasingly frequent disclosures on her Confessions Of A Female Founder podcast could well be a sign that she is feeling broody.
“Women often romanticise and enjoy that stage of pregnancy and having a newborn baby, and want to really share that with the world at large because it can be such a unique and beautiful time,” he tells Mirror.
Stefan also suggests that Meghan’s podcast has given her a much-needed platform to be able to work through some of the traumatic episodes she experienced during her pregnancy and the early years.
During one shocking interview at the end of the Sussexes’ official tour to South Africa shortly after Archie’s birth, Meghan seemed to be struggling under the weight of the spotlight amid the growing tensions with their extended royal family.
When a reporter asked how she was coping, Meghan responded, “Any woman, especially when you’re pregnant, you’re really vulnerable, so that was made really challenging. So then when you have a newborn… especially as a woman, it’s a lot.”
According to Stefan, Meghan’s recent personal disclosures could be rewriting some of these memories. “There’s an element of getting a second chance here,” he explains. “Pregnancy was a difficult, painful time for them, and at times she seemed to be struggling. It wasn’t necessarily associated with a lot of happy memories.
“So, now she’s perhaps feeling that she’s able to create and relive some happy memories around pregnancy and the early years of her children’s lives.”
Speaking recently about those hazy early months of new motherhood, Meghan recently confessed that, despite always wanting to be a mum, it didn’t go as she had imagined or hoped.
“I was like ‘Oh gosh, I’m going to give a speech with a baby on my hip,’” she revealed on her podcast. “I had a whole vision – and then you fast forward… granted, I had a lot of external things happening by the time I had both pregnancies and both babies. But it was not the way I envisioned it.”
Today, her glossy Instagram feed is packed with personal posts featuring Harry, 40, and, increasingly, their children, including a sweet recent clip of her and Lilibet, who turns four this week, beekeeping in matching bee suits, and her wedding anniversary montage.
The latter featured a baby scan labelled Archie, who turned six in May, as well as one of Harry cradling one of the children as a newborn.
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It’s in stark contrast to the protocol that governs most working royals, when family photos are generally only released on occasions like birthdays or at Christmas. Indeed, Stefan believes Meghan appears to be embracing the freedom of no longer being bound by strict royal rules.
“I think she’s partly creating a platform for herself, because she was ridiculed publicly and when she and Harry left the UK, there was a lot of scorn directed at them. By doing her podcast she now has a brand, but more importantly a voice.
“She probably feels that she wasn’t allowed to have an authentic voice before because it went against what the royal protocol was, and it went against the brand of the royals. So she’s creating an authentic voice and just being honest and open.”
Branding expert Lynn Carratt claims the couple, and Meghan in particular, are walking a bit of a PR tightrope when it comes to their public image because there’s a fine line between sharing the positives of their life and appearing “overly polished”.
“While recent glimpses into her life hint at a softer side, some of the narratives still feel unattainable for many people,” she says. But Lynn says it’s a definite “positive shift” to see the pair focusing on their life in California as a family of four, rather than in conversations involving the wider royal family.
“I think their future PR strategy should aim to portray a family image that is still positive but maybe more grounded and relatable,” she adds.
“Life isn’t perfect – and acknowledging the struggles, much like she does when discussing the challenges of running a business with two young children on her podcast, would resonate more authentically with the public.”
