‘Ambition is only worth celebrating if it’s worthwhile’: Author says when Meghan Markle and other celebrities talk about ambition being a ‘dirty word’ it comes across as ‘whining’ about ‘not being celebrated enough’
- The Duchess of Sussex’s long-awaited podcast Archetypes dropped yesterday
- in it she said she was ‘labelled’ ambitious when she started dating Prince Harry
- While discussing the ‘dirty word’ ambition with tennis ace Serena Williams
- But Ella Whelan says celebs are ‘whining’ about ‘not being celebrated enough’
- Rob Rinder agreed with ‘polarising’ Meghan’s views that ambition is a ‘dirty word’
- Another author said people view women as ‘pushy, selfish and unlikable’ at work
An author has claimed that when Meghan Markle and other ‘powerful’ celebrities talk about ambition being a ‘dirty’ word for women it can come across as ‘whining’ about ‘not being celebrated enough’.
Journalist Ella Whelan said ‘ambition is only worth celebrating if what you’re being ambitious about is worthwhile’ after the Duchess of Sussex spoke about the double standards women face in her new podcast, Archetypes.
Meghan told guest Serena Williams, in a wide-ranging discussion entitled ‘The Misconception of Ambition’, that she does not ‘ever remember personally feeling the negative connotation behind the word ambitious, until I started dating my now husband’, Prince Harry.
She also revealed to the tennis ace the ‘pain’ that she has suffered ‘behind closed doors’.
Taking part in a debate on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Ms Whelan said she believes ambition is not a ‘dirty word’ for women anymore and added in Britain that it is part of the national character to deflate people’s inflated egos.
The author of What Women Want added: ‘The thing for me is ambition is only worth celebrating if the thing you’re being ambitious about is worthwhile.
‘And the problem with Meghan Markle and other celebrities or Royals and very powerful professional women [..] whining [and saying all] you’re trying to do is be ambitious, is it comes across to your average woman [like] the women [..] who are trying to get the kids ready to go out or hoovering the sitting room as just professional middle class feminism whining about not being celebrated enough.’
Journalist Ella Whelan says ‘ambition is only worth celebrating if what you’re being ambitious about is worthwhile’ after the Duchess of Sussex (pictured) spoke about the double standards women face in her new podcast, Archetypes
Ella Whelen (pictured on ITV’s Good Morning Britain) blasated Meghan Markle and other ‘powerful’ celebrities as ‘whining’ about ‘not being celebrated enough’ for saying ambition is still seen as a ‘dirty word’ for women.
The Duchess of Sussex started her podcast, released on Tuesday, saying she is going to talk about the ‘dirty, dirty word when it comes to women – ambition’.
She told Ms Williams: ‘Apparently ambition is a terrible, terrible thing. For a woman that is, according to some. So since I felt the negativity behind it, It’s really hard to unfeel it.’
Starting off the discussion on GMB in light of her comments, Gifty Enright, a specialist in Women and Wellbeing in the Workplace, said: ‘[Ambition] is a dirty word because women when they are ambitious they are seen as pushy, they are seen as selfish and they are unlikable.
‘If ambition wasn’t a dirty word we wouldn’t even be having this conversation but women have this bind if they are ambitious, they’re not liked and they have to compromise and they have to sort of cow to that ambition and be seen as oh I was lucky or right place at the right time because if you actually dare show that raw naked ambition it threatens society.
‘We are in 2022, but it is about the primary focus of the woman is to be nurturing and communal and if you’re not and you dare to be anything else and do it blatantly [then] you pay a price.’
Author and international speaker Gifty Enright agreed with Meghan as did GMB host Rob Rinder. Ms Enright said women are often seen as ‘pushy, selfish and unlikable’ if they are ambitious in the workplace
Entitled ‘The Misconception of Ambition with Serena Williams’, the Duchess of Sussex spoke to the tennis star in the first podcast
GMB host Rob Rinder later told the debate: ‘Meghan Markle’s views, they’re very polarising and they may not be your artisanal cup of tea but it is right in this sense.
‘It is still the case now in workplaces and you see it and you hear it and it’s the last sort of acceptable form of prejudice.’
He added that women are called all sorts of names rather than ambitious and cited talking to young women the other day who opened their pitch ideas saying: ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Ambitious women are not allowed to be ambitious. They are called other things,’ he added.
Meghan’s swipe at being labelled ambitious has also been slammed as ‘a smack in the face for Harry and a punch towards the Royal Family’ by royal commentator Angela Levin
The Duchess of Sussex’s remarks on ‘ambition’ have also been slammed as ‘a smack in the face for Harry and a punch towards the Royal Family’.
Royal commentator Angela Levin also pointed to the hypocrisy of the remarks, suggesting that Meghan ‘would still be a D-list celebrity if she had not married a prince’.
She also said Meghan had come across ‘ungrateful and a victim’ when she had ‘so many chances others had not’, adding that many royals are ambitious and have had success both in their own careers and in terms of raising money for charities.
Meghan Markle has revealed how her son Archie narrowly escaped a fire that erupted in his bedroom during the Sussexes’ tour of South Africa (Pictured: Meghan and Harry with Archie on the day they met Archbishop Emeritus, Desmond Tutu, in Cape Town)
Ms Levin continued: ‘She would still be a D-list celebrity if she had not married a prince. She aligns herself with them [Serena Williams and next podcast guest Mariah Carey], but they have done brilliantly and overcome difficult childhood, whereas she has married a prince and spent a lot of money.
‘She thought it was normal to be ambitious and only when she started dating Harry did she realise that it was not welcomed. My goodness, that is a smack at Harry and a punch to the Royal Family. Harry told her about life in the Royal Family, but she obviously did not want to listen.
‘The Royal Family is about ambition in sense of duty and giving. It is not about getting to the top.
‘Why is everything so hard for her? Because she won’t accept where she is and make the best of it. She has had a nanny when most could not. She has said will see the real her, well she needs to justify the ambition claim she is making.’
Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams also described Meghan’s remarks on ambition as ‘curious’.
Harry and Meghan watch dancers as they leave the Nyanga Township in Cape Town, South Africa. Meanwhile, back at home, Archie’s bedroom was on fire, she revealed today
Meghan spoke today of her frustration that she immediately had to do another official engagement after the fire (pictured doing so with Harry later the same day)
He told MailOnline: ‘She undoubtedly feels she has been singled out. The interview was about The Misconception of Ambition, but the implication here is that after she dated Harry she feels she was picked on. She was ambitious beforehand and did well in Suits but that is not top league television.
‘There is surely nothing wrong in being ambitious and being royal, in fact the role positively encourages a member of the royal family to be ambitious to help those in need. Diana was very ambitious, her charitable work and her public profile were synonymous, ultimately fatefully so, but she did immense good.
Meghan Markle tells Archetypes podcast how nursery heater caught fire during South Africa tour while Sussexes’ baby Archie was downstairs
Meghan Markle has revealed how her son Archie narrowly escaped a fire that erupted in his bedroom during the Sussexes’ tour of South Africa .
Speaking in the first episode of her Archetypes podcast, which was released today, the Duchess, 41, said the boy’s nanny had taken the four-and-a-half month old downstairs with her when she went to get a snack.
It was then, while she and Prince Harry were at an engagement, that the heater in his bedroom went ablaze, setting the nursery on fire.
Meghan revealed: ‘In that amount of time that she went downstairs, the heater in the nursery caught on fire. There was no smoke detector. Someone happened to just smell smoke down the hallway, went in, fire extinguished. He was supposed to be sleeping in there.’
The former Suits star told how they had dropped their young son at the housing unit they were staying in for a sleep straight after arriving on their official tour, with Meghan and Harry leaving to carry out a visit to the Nyanga township, where she delivered a speech.
‘There was this moment where I’m standing on a tree stump and I’m giving this speech to women and girls, and we finish the engagement, we get in the car and they say there’s been a fire at the residence. What? There’s been a fire in the baby’s room,’ she said.
Meghan added: ‘We came back. And, of course, as a mother, you go, ‘Oh, my God, what?’ Everyone’s in tears, everyone’s shaken. And what do we have to do? Go out and do another official engagement? I said, ‘This doesn’t make any sense’.’
‘Meghan argues ambition is discouraged in women and gives no acknowledgement of the enormous advances made by the #MeToo movement. This is simplistic. There is nothing wrong with self-promotion if the results, as with Diana, benefit others.
‘If you define ambition as “a strong desire or determination to succeed”, many royals are ambitious. You naturally want to succeed in your endeavours.
‘Essentially however, this is a very negative view of women, we all know they have been breaking the glass ceiling for many years now. Her podcast, with a fascinating guest famous for her ambition on the tennis court, totally ignores this.’
During the first episode of her new podcast today, Meghan also fired another broadside at the Royal Family as she claimed she was forced to continue with engagements on a tour of South Africa despite being left in tears when her son Archie narrowly escaped a fire in his bedroom.
Meghan spoke of her distress after learning of the near-miss involving her son – which involved a heater in a nursery room catching fire – soon after delivering a speech to girls in the Nyanga township in Cape Town, before rushing back to see Archie and then having to leave him to carry out another official engagement.
Speaking in the podcast about the fire in South Africa in Archie’s room, Meghan said: ‘There was this moment where I’m standing on a tree stump and I’m giving this speech to women and girls, and we finish the engagement, we get in the car and they say there’s been a fire at the residence. What? There’s been a fire in the baby’s room.’
Meghan added: ‘We came back. And, of course, as a mother, you go, ‘Oh, my God, what?’ Everyone’s in tears, everyone’s shaken. And what do we have to do? Go out and do another official engagement. I said, ‘This doesn’t make any sense’.’
The duchess has declared that she is going to ‘be myself and talk and be unfiltered’ in the podcast, in a hint that she is planning on dropping more ‘truth-bombs’ about the Royal Family.
In a new video promoting the podcast – which has taken two years to get off the ground after the Sussexes signed a lucrative deal with the audio streaming giant estimated to be worth around £18million after they quit royal duties – the duchess said ‘people should expect the real me in this and probably the me that they’ve never gotten to know’.
She added: ‘People should expect the real me in this and probably the me that they’ve never gotten to know. Certainly not in the past few years, where everything is through the lens of the media, as opposed to: “Hey, it’s me”. I’m just excited to be myself and talk and be unfiltered and… yeah, it’s fun’.
The Duchess, who now lives in California with Harry and their two children after the couple quit as senior working royals at the start of 2020, also:
The podcast comes ahead of Harry and Meghan’s return to England next month for events in Manchester and London before heading to Germany. Harry has also been on a mini-tour of Africa, and visited Rwanda yesterday.
Former Suits actress Meghan is also an executive producer on the series, along with Ben Browning, Archewell’s head of content, and Rebecca Sananes, Archewell’s head of audio.
The podcast is being produced by Archewell Audio in partnership with Gimlet Media for Spotify.
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