Meghan Markle confesses she wanted a 'Swan Lake' wedding with 'poofy' dress in Archetypes podcast

Meghan Markle has revealed the wedding fantasy she had as a teenager in California on her latest episode of Archetypes – and they've nothing to do with marrying a prince. 

• Meghan Markle has revealed that she wanted to wear a 'poofy' dress with no straps for her 'Swan Lake' wedding in her latest episode of Archetypes, The Stigma of the Singleton.
• The Duchess of Sussex was joined by US actor Mindy Kaling on Tuesday for a candid chat on the pressures for women to be married and have children in society. 
• In other royal news, Meghan Markle says it's 'very nice' to be back in the UK while urging people not to 'turn a blind eye' to global wrongdoings.
  

Meghan Markle has revealed that she once wanted to get married in a 'poofy' dress at a fancy Los Angeles hotel, admitting that she took her future wedding planning 'very seriously'. 

The Duchess of Sussex welcomed Mindy Kaling on the third episode of Archetypes, The Stigma of the Singleton, on Tuesday morning, much to the excitement of the Spotify podcast's loyal listeners. 

In the 48-minute-long conversation, the two A-listers had a candid conversation about the treatment of single women in society - and how they've navigated the pressures of being unmarried personally. 

Echoing the format of the first two Archetypes episodes, in which Meghan was joined by Serena Williams and Mariah Carey respectively, the 41-year-old set the tone of her third podcast episode with a personalized introduction. 

"When I was 14, I planned my wedding," she begins, before quickly clarifying that his 'plan' was, in fact, an assignment for her religion class at her Catholic high school, the Immaculate Heart. Despite the project taking place in the 90s, Meghan admits she still remembers "every little thing about it." 

"I wanted it to be at the Bel-Air Hotel," the royal recalls, referring to the Los Angeles five-star hotel that's housed a whole plethora of A-list celebrities, including Grace Kelly and Bette Davis, since it first opened in 1946. 

"There was a Swan Lake, and I wanted the cake to be from Hansen's Bakery," she adds, giving a shout-out to the world-famous haven of occasion treats in Southern California. As for the outfit, Meghan had something fairly dramatic in mind for her special day. 

"The dress was strapless and poofy," she says, adding that she'd seen it in a "bridal magazine" that she even bought herself. "I took this project seriously, I wanted to get an A." 

Unfortunately for the duchess's teenage self, most of these wishes never came true. For her first wedding to Trevor Engelson in 2011, she wore an A-line white dress with a bejeweled belt – no poofiness in sight. The venue was also thousands of miles from Los Angeles, with the couple exchanging vows in a beachfront ceremony at the Jamaica Inn in Ocho Rios. 

Her second wedding to Prince Harry in 2018 was also missing many of the details outlined in her high school assignment, with the duchess tying the knot at St. George's Chapel in Windsor, England, and wearing a long-sleeved, fitted dress by Clare Waight Keller.