Meghan Markle and Mindy Kaling in ‘With Love, Meghan’ on Netflix.Photo:Courtesy of Netflix
Courtesy of Netflix
One of the famous faces in the trailer forMeghan Markle’s forthcoming Netflix showWith Love, Meghanwas none other thanMindy Kaling.
Kaling, 45 — who previously compared herself to the Duchess of Sussex while shooting a cooking video — joined Meghan, 43, in the trailer, released Jan. 2. “This is probably one of the most glamorous moments of my life,” Kalingsaid in a clip from the show,which will drop on Netflix on Jan. 15.
The friendship between the two women dates back years, as Kaling was a guest on Meghan’s Spotify podcastArchetypes, which ran in 2022. As recently as October, Kaling shared a video of herself cooking soup on Instagram, saying, “So this is exciting,” and then quipping, “I’m freaking Meghan Markle over here.” (With Love, Meghancelebrates cooking, gardening and entertaining, among other pursuits.)
The two bonded over the experience of being “latchkey kids” in theArchetypesepisode Kaling appeared on, titled “The Stigma of the Singleton.” They also bonded over not always feeling beautiful, with Meghan describing herself as an “ugly duckling” in high school.
“Look, maybe not conventional beauty as it … now, maybe that would be seen as beautiful, but massive frizzy curly hair and a huge gap in my teeth,” Meghan said on the show. “I was the smart one. Forever and ever and ever and ever. And, and then, [I] just sort of grew up.”
The Duchess of Sussex later drove the point home, saying, “I was the smart one, not the pretty one.”
For her part, Kaling shared that she never felt attractive while growing up as a “dark-skinned Indian girl, overweight, glasses, in lily-white suburbs of Boston.”
“So I went through high school. No boyfriends. Heard about my friends kissing, falling in love, losing their virginity. College. Same. Nothing. Always a spectator. Watching things,” Kaling continued. “By the way, I learned a lot from that. I learned how to, you know, so many of my shows right now are about young women and longing and feeling horny and feeling rejected. And I’ve learned a lot from that.”
Mindy Kaling attends the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 12, 2023 in Beverly Hills, California.John Shearer/WireImage
To this story, Kaling replied, “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. And I think that I certainly didn’t know that about you. And it’s nice to know.”
As the episode aired, Kaling wrote on Instagram that she “Loved sitting down with Meghan on her new podcast, #Archetypes.”
Meghan Markle.Spotify Podcasts/Instagram
Kaling admitted in the opening segment of theArchetypesepisode “I don’t do podcasts” and was “really nervous” about appearing on the show. “I want to be really honest when I speak and, sometimes when you’re honest, it can piss people off,” she said.
Meghan said of Kaling, “I happen to think Mindy Kaling’s honesty is what makes her and her work so powerful,” adding she was “candid, genuine and really funny.”
Last April, Kaling had a run-in with Meghan’s husbandPrince Harryat the BetterUp Summit in San Francisco, where they were both speakers. Kaling laterposted a photo of the two of them, cheekily captioning it “Met my friend’s husband at a work event. Seemed pretty cool.”
Referring to Harry’s 2023 memoirSpare, she added, “Said he wrote a book. Gonna go check it out!”
Prince Harry attends the Ms. Foundation Women of Vision Awards: Celebrating Generations of Progress & Power at Ziegfeld Ballroom on May 16, 2023 in New York City and Mindy Kaling attends the Ralph Lauren fashion show during New York Fashion Week on Sept. 8, 2023 in New York City.Kevin Mazur/Getty Images; Paul Morigi/Getty Images
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images; Paul Morigi/Getty Images
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That same month, Kaling became one of the coveted 50 people whoreceived a jar of Meghan’s strawberry jamfrom her forthcoming lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard, receiving jar No. 19 of the fruit spread. “Obsessed,” Kaling wrote of the treat, tagging American Riviera Orchard’s Instagram page.
source: people.com