Inside Meghan’s Big Bazaar Moment: Authenticity, Ambition, and a Cappuccino With Her Own Face

0:03 Caloroga Shark Media. Hello, and welcome to Palace Intrigue Game. Your host Mark Francis Megan Mirkle is on the cover of Harper's Bizarre, and the piece frames this moment as Megan finally authoring her own story after years are being defined by everyone else. The profile follows her from an event at the LaBrea tar Pits meeting girls from a STEM academy, to lunch at the Polo Lounge, to a stormy day in New York a week later. Throughout it, Meghan is unusually open, and she gives a long list of quotes that tell you exactly how she sees herself now.

0:43 At the tar Pits, she immediately zeros in on the kids. She tells the writer, I don't know how any woman could see a young girl and not see herself in her, especially at that age. She jokes with them about their nails, asks what they're studying, and lights up when one mentions languages. Megan says, I'm learning French on doing lingo and proudly mentions her ninety day streak. When the piece shifts into Meghan's childhood, she calls herself such a little nerd and says my entire identity was wrapped up in being the smart one. She brings up the early nineties dating show studs, saying kids at school would play their own version and declare, well, Meghan can be the host. She laughs, saying she was always the kid who thought I can help coordinate, I can help organize, and I can facilitate. And she adds, I think I'm probably the same now. The reporter asks about Meghan's memories of the nineteen ninety two LA uprising.

1:33 Meghan answers it in what the writer describes as almost cinematic detail. She says, it was cinematic in a way I don't think many people can understand. Smoke everywhere, smashed windows, so much fire and ash falling from the sky that it felt like snow. But she keeps returning to the same refrain. Los Angeles is resilient, and she says it was scary, but LA survived it. The profile then shifts to Meghan's current philosophy, work, motherhood's ambition, and the desire to play and have fun in her life. She says, I like the community of work and the connection. I think a lot of it is in my DNA. She pushes back softly against the trendy soft life idea, saying people should do what works for them, but that for her, showing up consistently is what matters. She says, how are you in one place is how you are in other places, and she clarifies that applies to potlucks at the kid's school, parties for friends, and her business. On mistakes and growth, Megan is unusually direct. You learn not to do it again.

2:33 Then she expands, if all goes swimmingly, you don't learn from it. You don't learn anything. You're not going to grow. She calls herself a founder still learning, saying there's no such thing as perfect. I too get to make mistakes. She adds there's also not a lot of fun in trying to be perfect, so why try to do that if you want to have fun. One of the big thesis quotes in the piece is about authenticity. Meghan says, I think the moment that you start making all of your personal decisions based on external judgment, then you lose your authenticity. When the topic shifts to how people obsess over perfect moments, she says, I don't like things that feel overly realized. If you overwork the dough, it's not going to rise. She talks about working from home, saying my office is right by the kitchen, and I love that I can work from home. It's a great luxury.

3:22 And she mentions that Lillabit often sits on her lap during meetings, whether she's reviewing P and L sheets or brainstorming creative. When the writer asks what she wants her kids to see when they watch her work, Meghan says, I hope they see the value of being brave, and she talks about letting them watch the preserves and jam bubbling on the stove. When you're young, you're a little more fearless, she says, and as we get older, we lose some of that. There's a lighter moments at the Polo Lounge. When the staff bring her a cappuccino with a photorealistic image of her face printed in the foam. Meghan smiles and says, oh, I recognize this picture. That's on my trip to South Africa. The New York section covers her surprise front row appearance and Balanciaga during Paris Fashion Week. Megan explains it by saying I was excited for him and that before the show she emailed the designer happy to come and support you, then adds we kept it a secret and was really fun. She gets reflective about boundaries. My boundaries became stronger once I came into the public eye, and this very she pauses and makes a face. I could think of any adjective to fill the blank and it would probably work. Then you find different ways to protect yourself, whether that's self preservation or it's just growing up. There's also a long section about her relationship with Harry. She says he loves me so boldly fully. She says he sees media she doesn't, and that no one in the world loves me more than him, so I know he's always going to make sure he has my back. Megan says Harry still has that childlike wonder and playfulness and that she was drawn

4:55 to that and that shapes everything, even in business. I want us to play and have fun and explore him creative. She talks about being an old soul as a kid and says my mom would say I was just born that way. But she also says her mother taught her how to play, and she tells the stories about traveling with her picking greens in her grandmother's garden and learning how to make preserves. She laughs about Archie comics, saying people always ask her Betty or Veronica, and she says, oh, Betty, of course, she was so nice. There's also a section about Megan and Harry volunteering with the World Central Kitchen after the devastating wildfires in California. Meghan says she saw homes from her childhood reduced to ash and talks about service with dignity. It was less about just giving someone a handout, but giving it to them with dignity. She adds, can you treat it with the same level of care that you would if you had lost everything. The peace ends with Megan mentioning she's heading to lunch with Gloria steinem Glow as she calls her and saying, I've just always admired her. More palace in just a moment. Half as Bizarre was able to get some friends and colleagues of Meghan to say nice things about her first up as Terry Wood. She ran production at Oprah's Harpo Studio's executive produced the Oprah Interview with Meghan and Harry and worked with Meghan on the seemingly twice failed Archetypes podcast.

6:19 Wood says Meghan understands her voice better than you know, better than any producer could put it out there. She says Meghan knows exactly how she wants to connect with people, and that with everything written about her, Megan focuses on trying to break through the noise so people see she's authentically herself. On the business side, Wood says not everyone launching a brand has to do it under this level of scrutiny, and that what Meghan is learning to navigate is the judgment that comes with being a businesswoman who is also globally famous. Then there's Kelly Zefgin, part of Meghan's tight in a circle in Montecito. Zeifchin says it's a small group of us that protect each other. She explains that Meghan reached out to her immediately when she lost her nine year old son and that from that moment on, there's not a day that goes by she hasn't checked in or I haven't checked in. She says.

7:08 Megan isn't the type to show up once and disappears. She stays consistently and Meghan is funny, which she says might surprise people. Serena Williams is also quoted, and she talks about how natural their friendship is. Serena says, we love a good mimosa, and we could talk for one hundred hours and it feels like ten minutes go by. She calls Meghan so smart and says she's always learning something from her, including parenting advice. Serena says the last time they hung out, Meghan was talking about a child development expert she follows, and Serena has already started using the techniques Megan mentioned. Serena also explains why they clicked in the first place. She says they both have the same dry sense of humor and that they met at a Super Bowl party years ago, looked around and basically thought, why are we here, and they've been close to it since.

7:57 And then you get the little detail from the New York trip. Meghan walks into a private brownstone and even though it's just her and the writer, the house manager still announces Meghan Duchess of Sussex, a reminder of the world she now lives in, even behind closed doors. In case you've glanced over that Meghan is having people announce her presence, don't worry. We'll get to that during the week anyway. That's the vibe of the supporting voices in the peace, protective friends, long term loyalty, and people who say she's smarter and funnier than the public narrative tends to allow. I have it. If you'd like to email us and addresses the palaceindric at gmail dot com, please follow us Spotify, Apple, the app of your choice, and leave us a nice review. If I'm joining the show by Mark Francis my thanks to John McDermott. This is Palace Injured and good terms