‘What didn’t you do to bury me?’ asks Meghan Markle on her ‘Archetypes’ season finale

“What didn’t you do to bury me? But you forgot that I was a seed.” The quote is by the Greek poet Dinos Christianopoulos, but it became a pointed comment when made by Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, as she closed the season finale of “Archetypes,” her podcast for Spotify. “Many moons ago, I heard a quote that I will share with you today,” she explained of her choice of words, “because as we talk about labels, tropes and boxes that some may try to squeeze you into and roles and stereotypes that are attributed to you that don’t quite fit the full person that you are, this is what I wanted to leave you with.”

Debuting on Tuesday morning with the title “Man-ifesting a Cultural Shift,” the episode was the first to include men on the podcast Markle created to discuss the stereotypes and tropes that have long plagued women. Reportedly inviting male voices to the podcast at the behest of Prince Harry, Hollywood heavyweights Trevor Noah, Judd Apatow, and Andy Cohen joined the Duchess of Sussex to discuss “the labels that hold women back, and how men in the media can impact the great cultural conversation,” according to People magazine.

Arguably, Cohen has in many ways been a promoter of some of the tropes Markle has explored to date. Bravo’s “Real Housewives” franchise, of which he is an executive producer, is a hotbed of over-the-top personalities and toxic relationships between women since its genesis; an inarguable part of its long-running appeal. In fact, Markle admits she was a longtime fan until her own reality eclipsed any reality show storyline.

“I stopped watching ‘The Housewives’ when my life had its own level of drama that I stopped craving,” she explained, with Cohen finishing her thought with “other people’s.”

“I get why it was such a huge, huge part of pop culture,” she continued, later adding: “But I mean, I would say almost every one of my friends still watches it and I go, ‘Why are you watching that? There’s so much drama!’ And it’s because it’s entertainment. It’s entertaining to them.”

Markle also admitted feeling “conflicted” about how such franchises might be “fueling the fire of archetypes by creating caricatures of women.” Nevertheless, she and Cohen joked about what her own incarnation as a “Bravo-lebrity” might look like.

“You mean really that this is my audition for ‘Real Housewives of Montecito?’ Is this the moment?” asked Markle. Cohen quickly took the bait, saying, “We’ll build the show around you. How about that?”

However, in spite of prior reports to the contrary, “there will be no reality show,” Markle confirmed in response. Instead, Sussex-watchers can wait for the couple’s Netflix docuseries to debut in December, which the duchess admitted “may not be the way we would have told it” in an October profile with Variety.

As for the future of the “Archetypes” podcast, fans are ardently hoping for a yet-to-be-confirmed second season, but after a tumultuous few years in the public eye, Markle indicated that the platform has been a positive one.

 “I feel seen,” she told her listeners. “I had never considered that in using my voice I would feel seen, but I do.”

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