Meghan Markle revealed unflattering nickname after making ‘veiled swipe’ at royal life

An expert has claimed “clever” Meghan Markle hinted at a nickname that she’d been given by palace staff before stepping away as a senior royal.

Meghan Markle signed off her last ever episode of the now-cancelled Archetypes podcast with what has been described as a “veiled swipe” at her life within the palace walls.

The Spotify podcast saw the Duchess of Sussex lay bare an unflattering nickname she was reportedly given by staff, said to be “Duchess Difficult.”

The podcast was launched back in 2022 before an announcement said Spotify and Meghan had come to a “mutual agreement” to “part ways.” The 12-episode production saw the former Suits actress chatting to celebrities, experts and historians about the history of stereotypes that get levelled against women.

The streaming service is said to have dropped the show because it didn’t produce enough content to warrant a full payout of $20m, equivalent to £15m, from the deal both Harry and Meghan had signed in 2020, as reported by the Mirror.

Despite Meghan discussing a contentious nickname in her last episode, it’s not thought the mother-of-two was actually aware it would be the final word.

Meghan ended her Spotify show by hinting at her former nickname as “Duchess Difficult” and other “labels that try to hold women back”. It included TV producer guest Andy Cohen, movie director Judd Apatow and comedian Trevor Noah.

The supposed nickname had already been floated in the press when Harry and Meghan were still senior royals. It came after reports emerged Meghan would send several emails early in the morning all containing “huge demands” to her staff.

In a conversation with Mellody Hobson, a businesswoman, and Victoria Jackson, Meghan said: “I was just chatting with my girlfriends recently and I was asking them for the show, what a sort of archetypes, you think we should discuss and almost immediately unequivocally they all jump to difficult.

“That’s the word you have to talk about, ‘difficult’.” She told listeners how it had made her “feel seen”.

She added: “I heard a quote that I will share with you today because we talked about the label, tropes and boxes some may try to squeeze you into and the roles and stereotypes that are attributed to you, that don’t quite fit the full person that you are.

“It’s from a couplet within a piece of writing by Greek poet Dinos Christianopoulos and he says ‘What didn’t you do to bury me?’ But you forgot that I was a seed to that point’. My friend, keep growing and I’ll see you on the flip side as ever.”

Phil Dampier, a royal expert and biographer, labelled Meghan as “clever” for the way she gave a “veiled reference to the restrictions in the Royal Family”, in an interview with The Sun.

He said: “It’s a clever way of doing it because she’s not directly saying something but people can still read into it what they like. “Then if anyone takes offence she can say ‘oh I didn’t mean it like that’.”