In the latest episode of her podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, Meghan Markle chats to Hannah Mendoza, the founder of coffee brand Clevr Brands, and revealed a ritual she indulged in when pregnant

Meghan has opened up about her pregnancies (Image: Getty Images for TIME)

Meghan Markle has opened up about her pregnancies with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet – and described how she turned to an Ayurvedic doctor. In the latest episode of her podcast Confessions of a Female Founder, released on Archie’s birthday, the Duchess of Sussex also spoke of the benefits of ‘adaptogens’ such as mushrooms, but admitted some see the approach as a “little psychedelic and super woo-woo”.

The former Suits actress discussed her belief in the ancient Indian holistic Ayurveda philosophy while chatting with Hannah Mendoza, founder of Clevr Blends. The instant organic lattes firm is another in which the Duchess has financially invested and then invited onto her podcast.

Meghan during her pregnancy with Prince Archie in 2019(Image: Getty Images)

In an earlier episode of her Confessions Of A Female Founder series, Meghan spoke to her hair colourist Kadi Lee, co-founder of hair wellness brand Highbrow Hippie, which the duchess invested in last year.

Mendoza, who grew up in the UK but later set up home on the west coast of the US, described how she began making a friend, her now co-founder Roger Coppola, mushroom-based cappuccinos to help him during a time of grief. Meghan acknowledged the fungus often had other “connotations”.

Meghan explained: “I think a lot of people, when they hear mushrooms, they go ‘OK, she’s talking about being hippie-dippy, grounded in all these things’. If you aren’t familiar with adaptogens, you can go to this place of ‘Oh, it’s feeling a little psychedelic and super woo-woo’.”

Adaptogens are active ingredients in certain plants and mushrooms which are said to impact how the body deals with stress, anxiety and fatigue. Her husband, Prince Harry, famously admitted taking magic mushrooms in California in 2016 in his autobiography Spare.

Meghan with Hannah Mendoza of Clevr Blends(Image: https://clevrblends.com/)

Meghan described how she turned to an Ayurvedic practitioner when pregnant with Archie and Lili and how it was about seeing “food as medicine”. She said: “So there are these items and ingredients that have been part of our natural ecosystem and dietary system for a long time, whether acknowledged or not, that somehow you say mushrooms, and now people have a connotation attached to it.

“But it’s really just a food trend that I believe you were far ahead of in terms of saying, ‘Hold on, these have properties that can in some way make you feel differently in a really safe way’. During my pregnancies, I had an Ayurvedic doctor and so much of it was about seeing food as medicine.”

Harry told in his memoir how the couple listened to Sanskrit songs in the delivery room with Archie on the advice an Ayurvedic doctor and whispered to their newborn that they loved him after the practitioner told them babies absorb everything said to them in the first minute of their life.

Ayurveda, which means the “knowledge of life” in Sanskrit, is a holistic approach to balancing the body, typically using natural herbs and massage.

Meanwhile, Meghan also spoke of facing “so much exposure” and being under a ‘microscope’. “Some might look at it and say, at least for me, it will have so much exposure, whatever I put out in the world will have so much attention,” she said. “I go, yeah, and there’s a flip side to that coin, which we know, it’s a microscope that a lot of people don’t have to experience.”

The duchess said she realised people “believed in me” after she went into partnership with “global powerhouse” Netflix and when her first As Ever products sold out. “When I think about big milestones for my own business with As Ever,” she said.