The word still holds too much negative connotation for the Duchess

It’s that time of the week again! Meghan Markle has released a second episode of her brand new podcast, Archetypes, in which she discusses the meaning of the word “diva” in our culture with the help of Mariah Carey.

During the episode, the two women spend lots of time looking at “diva” from every angle, and talking about how it can be used positively, negatively, and even neutrally. Mariah also talks about embracing her diva-ness unabashedly.

But at one point during their discussion, the singer says the Duchess of Sussex sometimes has a diva-like quality, which makes the royal stall and respond nervously, and even tell Mariah that maybe they think of the word in different ways.

And because the Duchess is determined to show up as her authentic self within this podcast, at the end of the episode, she looks back on why this was her reaction — and she gets full marks from us for self-awareness.

‘It was all going swimmingly, I mean really well, until… that moment happened, which, I don’t know about you, but it stopped me in my tracks — when she called me a diva!’ Meghan explained in conclusion.

‘You couldn’t see me, obviously, but I started to sweat a little bit. I started squirming in my chair in this quiet revolt, like: ‘Wait, no, what? But that… How could you…? That’s not true, that’s… why would you say that?’ My mind was just spinning with just what nonsense she must have read or clicked on to make her say that.

‘I just kept thinking in that moment: ‘was my crush [on Mariah] coming to a quick demise? Does she actually not see me?’ So, she must have felt my nervous laughter. And you all would have heard it too.’

But Meghan knows that Mariah meant it in a nice way, even if it took some reflection afterwards for her to distance herself from her own understanding of the word “diva.”

The podcast host continued: ‘She jumped right in to make sure I was crystal clear, when she said ‘diva,’ she was talking about the way that I dress, posture, the clothing, the quote-on-quote fabulousness, as she sees it.

‘She meant ‘diva’ as a compliment, but I heard it as a dig. I heard it as the word ‘diva’ as I think of it, but in that moment, as she explained to me, she meant it as chic, aspirational.’

For Meghan, the lessons she learned from Mariah beautifully summed up the whole purpose of Archetypes, which is to challenge some of the labels that are placed on women in our world.

‘How one very charged word can mean something different for each of us, it’s mind-blowing to me,’ the Duchess explained.

‘And it actually made me realise that in these episodes, as I’ve opened the door for conversation surrounding the archetypes that try to hold us back, what I hadn’t considered was that for some reclaiming the words is what they feel will propel us forward.’

So here’s to reclaiming our power and our self-definition.

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