Samantha Markle slams Prince Harry’s brief appearance on her half-sister’s ‘odd and breathy’ podcast

Meghan Markle’s half-sister has criticised the Duchess of Sussex for her ‘lofty’ claims of victimhood and for the ‘dismissive and insulting’ treatment of Prince Harry on her new podcast.

Samantha Markle reacted with incredulous eye-rolls as Meghan’s ‘odd and breathy’ podcast interview with tennis legend Serena Williams was played to her on Dan Wootton Tonight.

The podcast was the first episode of Archetypes, a new Spotify series where Meghan plans to investigate ‘labels that try to hold women back’.

But Samantha accused the Duchess of being ‘rather lofty’ in her claim that she was able to ‘able to align with issues of womanhood and suffering on the grounds that she went to Immaculate Heart School where she was empowered by the nuns to be independent women’.

‘But who paid for that?’ asked Samantha. ‘That was all my dad. So let’s face it, we’re not raised in a vacuum. There are others who help us along the way, who support us and who pay for everything that gives us that platform which was our father.’

She went on to accuse Meghan of ‘self-glorifying’, saying that her claims about ambitious women could be a ‘projection’.

‘Most women are raised to be ambitious,’ she said. ‘But I think there’s been a lot of public scrutiny around how some go about climbing the ladder.’

Meghan’s half-sister also suggested that Prince Harry has been left to ‘play second fiddle’ since the couple’s wedding in 2018.

The Duke made a cameo appearance in the podcast, poking his head around the door to say hello and then calling Serena Williams’s hair-do a ‘vibe’ before disappearing again.

Reacting to Dan Wootton’s question on whether she felt Meghan had ’emasculated’ Prince Harry, Samantha said: ‘Harry seems to play second fiddle. It didn’t hurt to use the title and the royal marriage as a springboard but after the wedding was over it feels as though Harry is in the shadow.

‘It was kind of like, ‘Oh let’s let him pop in’. The whole thing felt very staged.

‘Why have him in at all if he’s not being included? It just seemed very dismissive and I felt, insulting – rather than have him included and them both talk about what’s important to them in their lives now.

‘It was really just a lot of feminine chit-chat and purring.’

Dan Wootton probed Samantha Markle on whether she felt Meghan was ’emasculating’ Prince Harry, to which she responded that ‘after the wedding was over it feels as though Harry is in the shadow’

Samantha criticised Meghan for not giving credit to their father for helping her to achieve such a platform

The podcast has also received criticism for Meghan’s comments that she was ‘shaken’ and couldn’t believe she had to continue with royal engagements after a ‘fire’ broke out in the room in South Africa where her son Archie was meant to be sleeping.

Archie, then four months old, was not in the room in Cape Town when a heater started to smoke but Meghan said she was ‘in tears’ and accused those running the tour of concentrating on ‘how it looks, instead of how it feels’.

Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told MailOnline: ‘Since, fortunately, no one had been hurt and although it must have been highly upsetting, there was surely no alternative but to continue with the itinerary of their tour. It would have been so disappointing to so many if they had not.’

Samantha raised her eyebrows and repeatedly rolled her eyes as she heard Meghan talking about having to leave Archie behind and said she ‘didn’t really believe it’.

She concluded the interview by reiterating her view that Meghan has not paid enough credit to her father in helping her to get the platform she now has.

Meghan interviewed tennis star Serena Williams on the first episode of her 12-part Spotify podcast series Archetypes

She said: ‘In my opinion she’s missing the point. The accolades belong to dad, her parents, her friends, family, those who love and support her and brought her up to where she is.

‘We don’t live in a me, me, me world.’

Archetypes describes itself as ‘a refreshing and dynamic new podcast where Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex dives into the labels that try to hold women back’.

She concluded this week’s episode by announcing that singer Mariah Carey will be her next guest.

Actresses Mindy Kaling and Margaret Cho, comedian Amanda Seales and author Allison Yarrow are also expected to appear in upcoming episodes of the 12-part series.