Meghan Markle Says She Was Not the Pretty One Growing Up: 'Ugly Duckling'

Meghan Markle recently said on her Archetypes podcast that she was an "ugly duckling" in school and added: "I never had anyone to sit with at lunch."

The Duchess of Sussex opened up about feeling like she was a "loner" as a teenager at Immaculate Heart High School during the third episode of Archetypes.

Meghan spoke to actress Mindy Kaling about societal attitudes to single women and shared her own feelings about herself as a teenager.

"Again, if you're not the pretty one growing up you just, like, 'oh what can I learn? What can I do? I want the A+," she said.

Kaling asked: "Were you not the pretty one growing up?"

"No. Oh god, no. Ugly duckling," Meghan replied. "Not conventional beauty as in, now maybe that would be seen as beautiful. But massive frizzy curly hair and a huge gap in my teeth. I was the smart one, forever and ever and ever and ever and then just sort of grew up."

"I grew up in L.A. and I went to Hollywood School House and then I went to Immaculate Heart," Meghan said. "But I never had anyone to sit with at lunch. I was always a bit of a loner and really shy and didn't know where I fit in.

"And so I just became, I was like, 'okay, well I'll become the president of the multi-culture club and the president of the sophomore class and the president of this and French club.'

"And by doing that I had meetings at lunchtime. So I didn't have to worry about who I would sit with or what I would do because I was always so busy."

"That makes me very emotional and, that's, I'm happy that people know that because I think people see you and they're like, 'oh my gosh, like the wedding, the couture fittings for that, and this, and that'," Kaling said. "And I think that I certainly didn't know that about you and that's nice to know."

"You do seem so intimidating," Kaling continued. "Your life is together. Like, you're so beautiful.

"And like, even in the Oprah thing it's like, oh my God, she has chickens, like, who has their s*** together enough to like raise chickens and kids like, come on, and it's nice to know that you were a lonely kid who didn't like necessarily being that way."

"Yeah, well I'm glad we both just got to share with each other," Meghan replied.

Meghan's account of her time at school came after she told the One Young World summit during a visit to Britain how "nervous" she was when she first appeared at the annual event in 2014.

"I was so overwhelmed by this experience, I think I even saved my little paper place card that said my name on it," Meghan said. "Just proof that I was there, proof that I belonged. Because the truth was I wasn't sure that I belonged.

"I was so nervous. I doubted myself and I wondered if I was good enough to even be there and what I was doing in the world, albeit important and meaningful as far as I saw it, was it deserving to have a seat at this table?"