Meghan Markle podcast: Duchess of Sussex says running a business is ‘a lot like gardening’

The Duchess of Sussex has said that running a successful business was “a lot like gardening”, with some seasons for “blooming” while others were for “tending to the soil”.

Comparing the two on the latest episode of her podcast, Meghan added: “You’ve got to make sure the roots are strong enough to carry what’s coming next”.

Her comments came as the Prince and Princess of Wales attended a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace – Kate’s first in two years – and one day after the King and Queen saw a new rose named in the monarch’s honour at the Chelsea Flower Show.

READ MORE: Kate and William make triumphant garden party return

King Charles is known for being an avid gardener and his Highgrove estate sells organic produce including honey, tea, fruit preserves and biscuits.

Last month, the duchess launched a similar range of products through her brand As ever with all items selling out within less than an hour.

Speaking on the latest episode of her podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, the 43-year-old said her business idea evolved from her love of making preserves for friends from fruit grown in her garden.

“OK, so I think you guys know, I really like being in the garden, and running a business, funnily enough, it’s a lot like gardening,” Meghan said.

READ MORE: ‘Not the way I envisioned it’: Meghan’s candid confession

“Some seasons are for blooming. Others are for planting seeds, but most of the work, especially early on, it’s tending to the soil.

“It’s the foundation. It’s what everything is going to grow out of.”

Meghan and Prince Harry – who celebrated their seventh wedding anniversary this week – live on a sprawling estate in Montecito and she frequently shares photos and videos from the gardens on Instagram.

In her Netflix cooking and lifestyle show With Love, Meghan many scenes were filmed in the couple’s gardens, where the duchess grows a variety of flowers, fruit trees and vegetables.

The kitchen scenes, however, were filmed in a nearby rented farmhouse.

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The duchess was speaking with Cassandra Thurswell, the founder of sustainable hair and beauty brand Kitsch, on the latest episode of the podcast which focuses on female-lead businesses.

Inside the private life Harry and Meghan gave up royalty for

Kitsch, Thurswell explained, became successful despite receiving no money from outside investors which she described as “bootstrapping”.

Meghan said: “You’ve got to make sure the roots are strong enough to carry what’s coming next, and this is especially true when you’re bootstrapping a business, running a business, independent of any investors, private equity… you are doing it on your own.

“You have to be so intentional and careful with all of your choices, and you can’t expect a harvest to happen overnight.”

The duchess added: “Financing your own company forces a very different kind of rhythm.

“It invites you to choose patience over speed. And guess what? Eventually, with a strong vision and all of that care on the details, oh, that garden will grow.”

As Meghan’s podcast was released, the Prince and Princess of Wales attended their first Garden Party of the season at Buckingham Palace.

It was a triumphant return for Kate, who did not attend any in 2024 due to her cancer diagnosis.

The previous day, the King and Queen were joined by David Beckham at the Chelsea Flower Show in London where the new King’s Rose was on show for the first time.

In recent weeks, the Beckhams and Windsors have found themselves at the centre of headlines focusing around two separate family feuds.

Comparisons between the family rifts have been made because of similarities between the two: the King hasn’t spoken to his youngest son Prince Harry for 15 months, while David and Victoria are said to be estranged from their eldest son, Brooklyn.

Brooklyn and his wife, Nicola Peltz-Beckham, were recently guests at a party in Montecito, attended by Prince Harry and Meghan.

The two couples were said to have found “common ground” over the situation, with Meghan and Nicola, who are both American, blamed for breaking up Britain’s most famous families.

Elsewhere on Meghan’s podcast, the duchess spoke about becoming a mother and admitted that the experience was not how she “envisioned it”.

She is now mum to Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, three.

“I will say, for myself – especially when they are baby babies and, yes, the crying, before I was mum, I’ve always wanted to be a mum,” Meghan said.

“I was like ‘Oh gosh, I’m going to give a speech with a baby on my hip’.

“I had a whole vision – and then you fast forward… granted I had a lot of external things happening by the time I had both pregnancies and both babies.

“But it was not the way I envisioned it.”

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