Meghan Markle recalls ‘humbling’ experience visiting nude spas with mum as teen-Mel Evans-Entertainment – Metro

Meghan opened up as her podcast returned following the Queen’s death (Picture: Reuters)

Meghan Markle has described visiting nude Korean spas alongside her mother as a teenager in Los Angeles a ‘very humbling experience’.

Revealing her teenage embarrassment at walking around naked with her mother at a Korean spa in Los Angeles, the Duchess of Sussex relived the experience in the latest episode of her podcast.

She was exploring the ‘Dragon Lady’ stereotype with journalist Lisa Ling and comedian Margaret Cho in episode four of her Archetypes series, which resumed this week after a four-week break following the death of the Queen.

Meghan – who shares children Archie, three, and Lili, 16 months, with Prince Harry – recalled how she and her mum, Doria Ragland, shared a love of getting to know other cultures and would visit the spa, where swimming costumes were not permitted, for a bowl of noodles, sitting with women up to the age of 90 who were waiting for a body scrub.

She explained of visiting Korean Spas, also known as jjimjilbang, which focus on relaxing, spending quality time with friends and family: ‘Now, for those of you who haven’t been to one before, it’s a very humbling experience for a girl going through puberty because you enter a room with women from ages nine to maybe 90, all walking around naked and waiting to get a body scrub on one of these tables that are all lined up in a row.

‘All I wanted was a bathing suit – which you’re not allowed, by the way – and once I was over that adolescent embarrassment, my Mum and I, we would go upstairs.

‘We would sit in a room and we would have a steaming bowl of the most delicious noodles.

‘And we’d look around at all of these other women – these beautiful Korean women who had embraced the generational tradition of the jjimjilbang and shared it with one another. That was part of the Asian-American culture that I knew.’

Meghan recalled heading to the spas alongside her mother, Doria (Picture: Steve Parsons – Pool / Getty Images)

The duchess recently launched her podcast on Spotify (Picture: Backgrid)

In the latest episode, Meghan added she was not aware of the stigmas faced by women of Asian descent until many years later and called out films such as Austin Powers and Kill Bill for presenting caricatures of women of Asian descent as over-sexualised or aggressive.

The duchess said: ‘The Dragon Lady, the East Asian temptress whose mysterious foreign allure is scripted as both tantalising and deadly, this has seeped into a lot of our entertainment.

‘But this toxic stereotyping of women of Asian descent, it doesn’t just end once the credits roll.’

Journalist Ling told Meghan that, when she was a broadcaster at Channel One, she was named hot reporter in the Rolling Stone’s Hot List, but faced racist abuse in the aftermath.

She said: ‘Someone at my place of work cut out that article, drew slanted eyes over the eyes and wrote ‘yeah, right’ and then put it back in my mailbox.’

Meghan, who accused an unnamed member of the Royal Family of racism in her interview with Oprah Winfrey, responded: ‘Oh my god,’ as Ling added: ‘It was like every kernel of excitement that I possessed just withered away. It was so devastating that someone that I would see every day in my place of work, where we’re supposed to feel comfortable, just harboured those feelings about me and had the nerve to make it racial.’

Korean-American comic Cho spoke about enjoying life to the full, saying: ‘You have to really enjoy the time you have because it’s… it’s not very long, you know, it goes by very fast.’

The pair also exchanged plaudits, with Meghan telling Cho she loved her new film, Fire Island, as Cho told the duchess: ‘We actually talked a lot about you on set. We were just admiring you, just so much.’

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