"I looked behind me and when I turned around, you were there right in front of me; We became such fast friends" - Meghan Markle reflects on meeting Serena Williams for the very first time
Serena Williams and Meghan Markle's close friendship is no secret and Markle has been in Williams' player box during some of the biggest matches of her career. The duo recently reflected on the day they met each other for the very first time. That meeting eventually led to Williams and Markle becoming 'best friends'.
They ran into each other for the first time over a decade ago at the 2010 Super Bowl in Miami. While Markle least expected it, Serena Williams herself walked up to greet her. The 23-time Grand Slam champion recently appeared on an episode of the podcast 'Archetypes with Meghan' and the duo looked back at that day in 2010.
Markle spoke about their first meeting and how it all unfolded.
"It was the same year as the Super Bowl when the Super Bowl was in New York," Meghan Markle said. "I'd never been it before and then I show up and I see you walking toward someone. I remember thinking, 'Oh my gosh, who is Serena Williams going to talk to?'"
Little did Markle know that Williams was in fact walking towards her.
"I looked behind me and when I turned around, you were there right in front of me...We became such fast friends," Markle continued.
Cut to the present day, Williams and Markle share a very strong bond that Williams believes is a result of their commonalities and mutual respect.
"We have a lot in common," Serena Williams said on the same.
Markle agreed with Williams and stressed how they both understand each other's pain of people in the media and others mischaracterizing them.
"In our friendship, when you have to see things that are mischaracterizing of me, but you experience behind closed doors the pain that I'm going through, and vice versa," Markle said on the same.
Meghan Markle reflects on the similarities between Serena Williams and herself as kids
Serena Williams and Meghan Markle met long after they both became famous in their respective fields, but they shared a lot of common ground. Both of them grew up in Los Angeles, and both Williams and Markle broke stereotypes in specific incidents as 11-year-olds.
As a young tennis player, Serena Williams was asked which great tennis champion she wanted to emulate, to which the American player replied by saying that she wants others to look up to her and be like her. Meanwhile, Markle protested against a certain 'sexist commercial' and got it to change.
"I love that look at that – Both of us at 11 years old, growing up in L.A., that was the time that I found a commercial to be sexist. And I wrote the letters and that commercial got changed. That's the same time you at 11 years old, when someone says if you were a tennis player, who would you want to be like? And you said I'd want other people to be like me. So there was something we obviously didn't know each other then, but what was it about our 11 year old selves?" Markle said on the same.
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She feels that they have both lost the fearlessness they possessed as kids due to the pressures of society, media, and the fact that they are in the public light at all times due to their respective celebrity statuses.
"When you're young, I find you're so innocent, but you're also so fearless. Right? And somehow as we get older, because of these archetypes, because of what society’s doing, because of the pressure of the media, because of all this noise, I don't think that we're as fearless as we were then," the former 'Suits' star added.