Meghan Markle Says the Word 'Slut' Sticks to Women

Meghan Markle said female sexuality "is so much more vilified than for a man" and even women in their 50s can receive comments that they were "a slut in college."

The Duchess of Sussex said men, by contrast, are described as "players" during their early sexual experiences, during the latest episode of her Archetypes podcast on Spotify.

Her comments came during a discussion with actress and singer Michaela Jaé Rodriguez on experiences during her teenage years.

Meghan said: "I mean, one of the things that I think as all women we face is, as you're getting older, you're exploring and starting to understand your sensuality, your feminine divine, your sexuality oftentimes.

"It can be very much used against you, and I give the example of, you know, for a woman especially versus a man, a man, if he is a player or out having fun or whatever he's doing, it's often celebrated, even heralded.

"But for a woman, I don't care if she is perhaps the most successful woman in finance in her mid-50s. I promise you someone will still go, 'yeah, but she was such a slut in college.' It will stick with her.

"And I don't understand what it is about the stigma surrounding women and their sexuality, the exploration of their sexuality, that is so much more vilified than for a man."

Meanwhile, in another section of the podcast, Meghan interviewed Candace Bushnell, whose real-life newspaper column gave rise to Sex and the City.

Bushnell said: "Women were told what your sexuality is supposed to be like, you know, you're only supposed to want to have sex with one person and then you're supposed to want to just have sex with that one person for the rest of your life.

"And the women I know just they weren't like that. So, my question is always 'What is woman's real sexuality when you take away the I am dependent on a man aspect?' Like, what if women had their own money and they had their own power, what does their sexuality look like?

"It looks a lot like Samantha Jones, you know, being single in New York in the '90s. And having a lot of women friends who were single and we're not dependent on a man for whatever reason, you know, there was a lot of sex going on.

"And a lot of enjoyment of sex and, you know, pretty much any of the cliches about women's sexuality, I found they were just not true. And that was really the impetus for writing Sex in the City."

Bushnell said, "everybody thinks that my life changed, it did not really," and added: "I did not make a ton of money from Sex in the City."

Meghan asked, "how does that make you feel?" and Bushnell replied: "Yeah, it makes me feel angry."