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Mindy Kaling admits she felt ‘unattractive’ growing up as Meghan Markle describes herself as ‘ugly duckling’ in Archetypes podcast-Rachael O'Connor-Entertainment – Metro
She joked however that not fitting in made her ‘fortune’.
Mindy Kaling and Meghan Markle both spoke about how they viewed themselves as unattractive when they were younger (Picture: Getty/ Rex / Backgrid)
Mindy Kaling was shocked to hear Meghan Markle was a ‘loner’ and ‘ugly duckling’ growing up as she admits she also struggled with feeling unattractive.
The actress discussed the stigma and stereotypes around being a single woman in her 40s in the newest episode of Meghan Markle’s Archetypes podcast where she said she feels like ‘old mother hubbard’ but is genuinely happy without a relationship.
In the podcast, the pair spoke about their childhoods and how they viewed themselves, with Meghan describing herself as an ‘ugly duckling,’ which Mindy couldn’t believe.
Mindy, 43, opened up on her own childhood, saying she always felt ‘self-conscious’ and ‘unattractive,’ and this led to her staying in relationships where she was unhappy.
The Always Sunny In Philadelphia star responded to a comment from Meghan who suggested that ‘a lot of women would perhaps sadly, rather be with the person who is not right for them than to be alone.’
‘I’ve been that person,’ Mindy admitted.
The Mindy Project star shared her previous self-confidence issues on the podcast (Picture; NBCUniversal Media, LLC)
‘I’ve been in relationships where I’m like “That should have been a six month relationship, and instead it dragged on for two and a half years.”‘
Asked why she believes that is, Mindy explained: ‘I grew up a dark-skinned, Indian girl, overweight, glasses, in the lily-white suburbs of Boston, never thinking I was attractive.
‘I think a feeling of belonging was if a man deigns to make you their girlfriend.
‘You can’t shake that stuff. You can be into comedy and go to school and learn from smart professors but you can’t shake that if that’s your wound, that you don’t feel attractive unless you have a boyfriend.’
The star previously dated The Office co-star BJ Novak for two years and the pair remain close friends (Picture: Getty Images)
She said she went through high school and college not having a boyfriend even as her friends began ‘kissing, falling in love’ around her and she was ‘always a spectator.’
Mindy, who dated close friend and The Office co-star BJ Novak between 2005 and 2007, added however that she ‘learned a lot from that’ and many of her shows revolve around young women feeling ‘longing, and feeling horny and being rejected.’
She laughed: ‘I probably made my fortune out of it.’
The actress and writer joked she ‘made her fortune’ out of not fitting in as a young adult as many of her shows revolve around similar themes (Picture: FOX Image Collection
Duchess of Sussex Meghan, meanwhile, said she was ‘alone so much’ as a child and struggled to ‘fit in’ with her peers.
‘I never had anyone to sit with at lunch,’ she sai.
‘I was always a little bit of a loner and really shy and didn’t know where I fit in. So I thought, “oh I’ll just become the president of the multi-cultural club and president of sophomore class and president of French club”.
‘That way I had meetings at lunch time and didn’t need to worry about who to sit with because I was so busy.’
Mindy and Meghan both spoke about their respective childhoods and how they viewed themselves in the podcast (Picture: Google/REX)
Duchess of Sussex Meghan said she felt like an ‘ugly duckling’ as a child and was ‘the smart one, not the pretty one’ (Picture: BACKGRID)
Meghan said she wondered ‘Am I gonna get the guy one day?’, adding that she was ‘the smart one, not the pretty one’ growing up and ‘romanticised’ the Archie comics, which she pored over as a child.
‘I think for me, especially, my parents split up when I was around two, three years old, and I always wanted this sort of cookie cutter-looking perfect life and you looked at that and there’s like a boy in a letterman jacket.’
She added: ‘The associations our society makes around unmarried women feels so outdated and I wanted to give them a refresh.’
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Speaking about her relationship with now-husband Prince Harry, Meghan said’ Everyone was just like, “Oh my god, you’re so lucky, he chose you”.
‘But at a certain point, after you hear it a million times over, you’re like, “well, I chose him too!”‘
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