That the Duchess of
Sussex invited tennis superstar Serena Williams to be the first
guest on her long-awaited podcast series, Archetypes, was no surprise.
It was high time that the
£18million deal with Spotify, signed in 2020, got off the ground, and of
course, the first episode – entitled The Misconception of Ambition – had to be a
cracker. And certainly, the potential was there for two high-profile women to do
as billed – investigate the ‘labels that try to hold women back’.
Since Serena is one of the
most successful and fearless players in the history of her sport, I was keen to
hear her analyze her ambition and desire to win, and reflect on the personal
cost of her dazzling triumphs; to find out what originally put the steel in her
spine and to hear her serve up some devastating backhand shots against male
put-downs.
But it didn’t happen. This
bizarre, saccharine and faintly queasy schmooze-fest between Meghan and ‘my
dear friend Serena’ (as we hear over and over again) tells us next to nothing
at all about the making of Serena Williams’s towering ambition.
What’s more, the encounter
ends with Miss Williams breathing huskily: ‘Above all, I’m just a mom and I
love being a mom.’
Oh, come back Martina
Navratilova, and teach this self-congratulatory pair how to stop their inane
gushing and talk tough about what matters!
This bizarre, saccharine and
faintly queasy schmooze-fest between Meghan and ‘my dear friend Serena’ (as we
hear over and over again) tells us next to nothing at all about the making of
Serena Williams’s towering ambition
What’s more, the encounter
ends with Miss Williams breathing huskily: ‘Above all, I’m just a mom and I
love being a mom.’
