Meghan, Duchess of Sussex shares 'most important' title
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex has admitted being a parent is her "favourite thing" and mom is her "most important title".
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex's "most important title" is "mom".
The former actress - who has Prince Archie, five, and Princess Lilibet, three, with husband Prince Harry - adores parenthood and admitted her spouse often urges her to take some time for herself, but even when she does, she can't resist retaining her connection to her kids in some way.
Speaking on her 'Confessions of a Female Founder' podcast, Meghan noted mom is her "most important title" and added:
Speaking of her “most important title: mom”, the Duchess said: “I love being a mom. Oh my gosh, I love being a mom so much. It’s my favourite thing.
“It is the thing where you’re like ‘oh my gosh I just need a break, I just need a minute I just need a minute’ and then the second you step out of the room you go, ‘Oh let me scroll through pictures of them on my phone.’
“My husband’s like ‘my love, can’t you just give yourself a minute? Go work out, take a bath.’ I’m like: ‘I know, but I just want to cuddle!’
"The parenting paradigm is so full on, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything”."
But Meghan noted parenting and working from home “can feel incredibly overwhelming” and she believes successful women have “tremendous self-awareness and desire to dig deeper”.
The 43-year-old royal explained she had been "up all night" before recording the podcast, rubbing her children's backs as they were ill.
And of how work and motherhood can collide, she said that in some meetings: “I’m showing up for you in a sweatshirt because I’ve been up all night”.
Elsewhere during the podcast, Meghan urged working women not to be afraid to ask for help, acknowledging that it can take "tremendous" courage to do so.
She said while speaking to Girls Who Code and Moms First founder Reshma Saujani: “The courage that it takes for a female founder, for a woman, when you’re on this path, you’re on this grind, you’ve set expectations... The courage that it takes to say ‘I need help’ or ‘I need a pause’ is tremendous.
“And there’s no way to continue to show up and role model for these young women all the things that you aspire for them to have, that you wanted to have when you were a young girl, if you are not doing it with complete authenticity because you are so close to being burned out.”
Reshma spoke of her health issues and how she'd kept working after hospital appointments and a miscarriage, prompting Meghan to reference her own experience of pregnancy loss as she acknowledged it meant “being OK to let something go that you planned to love for a long time”.
She added of women going through similar: "[They are] not allowed to break, you have to keep smiling – all of these constructs that we’ve all been prey to and have projected.
"And at a certain point, I mean I often find too in advocacy work and showing up and wanting to, am I saying the thing but not doing the thing? And when can we start taking our own advice?
“When will that pivot point be, that inflection point where women – especially the ones who are leading in these movements and leading in this messaging – to actually integrate that advice?
“To not just know it and intellectualise it but integrate it?
“For you to say: ‘You know what, honey, I am going to clear the rest of my schedule after this appointment, please can you drive me and come with me?’
“How do we show that perfect doesn’t exist?”
