Why has Meghan Markle released another podcast?

“Success,” Winston Churchill supposedly once remarked, “is the ability to go from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” If this is indeed the case, then Meghan Markle’s 2025 thus far represents a remarkable series of triumphs and victories.

After her recent Netflix series With Love, Meghan received reviews that ranged from the merely sarcastic and rude to the positively vituperative, it was promptly renewed for a second series. Never mind that the second installment was commissioned (and filmed) at the same time as the first, or that the ratings for the much-maligned show have been considerably worse than Netflix’s Harry and Meghan, there will be more of the Duchess of Sussex’s lifestyle tips and hints later in the year. Let joy be unconfined.

To this end, it should perhaps not come as a surprise that to celebrate this, Meghan has announced that she will be launching a new podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, next month. Those of us who might have been hoping that its title was a homage to the much-loved Robin Askwith Confessions… British sex comedies of the Seventies are likely to be disappointed.

Instead, she promises that “I’m so proud of what we’re creating, and the candid conversations that I’m able to have with other female founders as we unpack the twists and turns of building a business. Through my friendships and relationships, we’re able to dive into the type of insights that everyone wants to know as they’re building a business, and that I’m able to tap into as I’m building my own business with As Ever.”

Meghan’s pivot away from royal botherer extraordinaire to girlboss entrepreneur may seem like one of the more surprising volte-faces of recent times, but veteran observers of the duchess’s antics may have seen this coming from a considerable distance away.

While, to the uninitiated, it remains unclear as to why Netflix wants to spend a considerable amount of money promoting both her and her As Ever lifestyle brand, the podcast company Lemonada has firmly rowed in behind her.

The company’s chief creative officer and co-founder Stephanie Wittels Wachs has cooed that “Meghan is such a warm and welcoming person, and you feel that in her interviews. She creates a comfortable space for her guests to bring fascinating personal stories to the table and open up in a way they likely haven’t before publicly.” Her colleague Jessica Cordova Kramer, meanwhile, has admiringly sighed that “As female founders ourselves, Steph and I are grateful to get a chance to build alongside Meghan the exact podcast we needed when we started Lemonada.”

All most admirable. Yet just as With Love, Meghan would never have existed without its subject’s considerable fame, it is tempting to wonder whether Confessions of a Female Founder will genuinely explore the behind-the-scenes exploits of a trendsetting female entrepreneur, or if Lemonada has simply attached itself to one of the most talked-about women in the world in order to raise its company’s profile. Certainly, this is not their first rodeo with Meghan. Last year, they distributed the Archetypes podcast that was originally commissioned by Spotify, before that company had an unfortunate parting of the ways with the Sussexes, best exemplified by the executive Bill Simmons announcing that they were “fucking grifters.”

Meghan’s new direction — a touchy-feely, earth mother vibe exemplified by her tradwife designation of herself as “Meghan Sussex” — is considerably harder to dislike than her previous vituperative railing against the royal family. It may feel affected and precious, as well as self-conscious, but it is at least harmless. Yet even those who feel sympathetic towards the duchess may be inclined to see this latest podcast as a bit much, another barrage of publicity that is unlikely to change anyone’s opinions about its subject. This particular female founder may be striving to break new ground, but it is still unclear as to whether her desired audience will rush to join her, or will regard this new venture with the mild curiosity that second-hand items usually receive.