“I’m a very lucky woman. I have a lot of great men in my life.”
Meghan Markle had her doubts before launching her new lifestyle brand As Ever.
The 43-year-old Duchess of Sussex took to her “Confessions of a Female Founder” podcast on May 6 to talk about the launch of her brand and the impact of constantly being placed under a “microscope.”
As she explains on the podcast, even she isn’t immune to a little self-doubt.
RELATED: Meghan Markle shares why she emails her young children every single night
"I had a moment last week … I made a phone call, I said, ‘Is this gonna work? Like, is this actually gonna work?’ But I had that self-doubt," Markle said on the podcast, per People.
"Thankfully, my partner said, ‘Are you joking? We're so energized, this is amazing!’” she added.
Markle goes on to discuss the double-edged sword that self-doubt creates.
"You can't bring self-doubt to your team that's junior to you. They have to believe in what you're creating and the vision and how you hold the line," she explains.
"But you still have to be able to have someone you can go to to be human and say, ‘I don't know. Can you just tell me that this makes sense?’” she added.
Markle also opened up about the constant scrutiny she faces with just about anything she touches.
“Some might look at it and say, at least for me, it will have so much exposure," she said of her projects. "Whatever I put out in the world will have so much attention.”
But, as she puts it, there’s a downfall to the attention that most people underestimate.
“There's a flip side to that coin, which we know,” she said on the podcast. “It's a microscope that a lot of people don't have to experience.”
Markle’s comments come just a few weeks after her husband, Prince Harry, opened up about her newfound success in an exclusive interview with People, published April 15.
"I am so happy for my wife and fully support absolutely everything she’s done and continues to do," he told People. "I'm incredibly proud.”
The couple, who moved to the United States in 2020 after stepping down from their royal duties in the United Kingdom, share two children — Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 3 — together.
Markle praises her brand’s partnership with Netflix
On Feb. 17, Markle took to Instagram to announce the launch (and rebranding) of her lifestyle brand.
“‘As ever’ means ‘as it’s always been’ or some even say ‘in the same way as always,’” Markle explained in her post — describing the rebrand as “an extension of what has always been my love language.”
Her brand was originally launched as American Riviera Orchard in 2024, which was inspired by the nickname for Santa Barbara (American Riviera), where she currently lives.
“Beautifully weaving together everything I cherish — food, gardening, entertaining, thoughtful living, and finding joy in the everyday,” she said of her vision.
Markle decided to change the name of her brand after experiencing issues with the trademark. She also wanted a name that didn’t limit her content to the Santa Barbara area.
Two weeks after the announcement, Markle released her new Netflix series “With Love, Meghan.”
On April 2, she launched her first collection under As Ever — which sold out in less than an hour. Six days later, she debuted her new podcast, “Confessions of a Female Founder.”
During her May 6 episode, Markle described her first collection as a “big milestone” and praised Netflix as a catalyst to her recent success.
"Netflix coming on as my business partner is huge,” she said on the podcast.
“Just having a global powerhouse that believed in me, and the site selling out in the first 45 minutes of launch – everything, every single piece that we had been working on," she added.
The collection selling out was exactly the validation she needed.
"That told me that customers — people — believed in me and this vision. That's all you really want as a founder,” she explained.
ALSO ON MOD MOMS CLUB: Buckingham Palace responds after Prince Harry opens up about court loss
“That becomes your proof point that those late nights and the midnight musings are worth it,” she added.
