Meghan Markle is hitting back at the public’s “gendered” response to the early days of her and Prince Harry’s romance.
“When I started dating my husband and we became engaged, everyone was like, ‘Oh, my God, you’re so lucky he chose you!’” the “Suits” alum, 41, told Mindy Kaling on Tuesday’s episode of her “Archetypes” podcast.
“At a certain point, after you hear it a million times over, you’re like, ‘I chose him, too,’” Markle said, noting that she was “lucky” to have Harry’s support at the time.
“I have a partner who was countering that narrative for me and going, ‘They’ve got it all wrong. I’m the lucky one because you chose me,’” she explained.
The Duchess of Sussex added that the “stereotyped” reaction to her relationship with her now-husband, 37, fed “into this idea that you’re waiting for somebody to tell you that you’re good enough as opposed to knowing that you’re good enough on your own.”
Markle and Kaling, 43, went on to discuss the “Mindy Project” star’s decision to raise her two children — daughter Katherine, 4, and son Spencer, 2 — without a partner.
Single parenting “makes [Kaling] emotional,” she told Markle, explaining that she has a strong bond with her own father.
“I do know that would be so valuable for my kids that they have a dad, [but] it wasn’t our family’s lot in life,” the “Office” alum said. “I do think about it with wistfulness and also fear what will they think when they grow older.”
Kaling’s children do have a godfather in her ex-boyfriend and close friend B.J. Novak.
While many have speculated over the years that the actor, 43, is the father of the “Never Have I Ever” co-creator’s kids, she told Marie Claire last month that the paternity rumors “don’t bother” her.
“If that’s what is going to be titillating to people, I’ll take it,” Kaling said.
Markle praised Kaling on Tuesday for making her own choice and creating a life “exactly as [she] envisioned it,” calling her family “perfect.”