Meghan Markle Describes Herself as an 'Ugly Duckling' Growing Up in Podcast Chat with Mindy Kaling

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Meghan Markle and Mindy Kaling are getting real about the hardships of high school.

In the latest episode of Meghan's Archetypes podcast titled "The Stigma of the Singleton with Mindy Kaling," the two women recalled what they were like in high school — with the Duchess of Sussex describing herself as an "ugly duckling."

"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 that," Meghan said. "I was the smart one. Forever and ever and ever and ever. And, and then just sort of grew up."

At another point in the conversation, Meghan talked about her love of Archie comics — "my son is not named after Archie comic books," the mom of two noted — and she said she was "way more Betty than Veronica:" "I was the smart one, not the pretty one."

Meghan added that while attending her all-girls Catholic school Immaculate Heart through middle and high school, she kept herself busy to avoid an awkward lunchroom situation.

For more on Meghan Markle's conversation with Mindy Kaling, listen below to our daily podcast PEOPLE Every Day.

"But I never had anyone to sit with at lunch. I, I was always a little bit of a loner and really shy and didn't know where I fit in," Meghan said. "And, and so I just became, I was like, okay, well then I'll become the president of the Multicultural Club and the president of sophomore class and the president of this and French club. And, and by doing that, I had meetings at lunchtime. So I didn't have to worry about who I would sit with or what I would do because I was always so busy."

RELATED: Meghan Markle's Biggest Revelations in Her Archetypes Podcast

Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Meghan Markle

Mindy 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."

The two women also bonded over being "latchkey kids."

Kaling said, You know, I was that typical latchkey kid because my parents both worked and they're immigrants. And there was, I think, it's all just like your personality, right? Like my personality loved freedom. And so for me, I loved just being able to read. You know, when I was a kid, it was like 'establish roots in this country, make money,' you know? And so, we were just at home, we weren't allowed to watch TV, so we just had to read. And so, that's, I really enjoyed that; I think that's why I became a writer is because of that, like just like, the profound boredness that I had as a child where the, my only access point was, you know, was watching, was reading books and reading magazines if we had them."

Kaling, 43, 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," the actress and writer said. "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."

Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Mindy Kaling

Meghan, 41, opened the episode by recalling a school project where she had to plan her wedding.

"I remember every little thing about it," she said. "I wanted it to be at The Bel-Air Hotel. And there was a swan lake, and I wanted the cake to be from Hanson's Bakery. And the dress — oh my goodness, the dress was strapless and poofy and I'd seen it in a bridal magazine … and, and I bought it, I mean not, not the dress — I bought the bridal magazine because I took this project seriously. I wanted to get an 'A.' And I did, maybe I got an A-."

"But my grade on this project is actually neither here nor there. Because what strikes me now — from my 40-something vantage point — is the fact that this project was even graded at all!" she continued. "The fact that this project even existed! At no point could you say, 'Nope. My dream for the future is to be single.' The message, even at my feminist all-girls school, was as traditional as it gets: first comes love, then comes marriage."

Meghan also talked about her relationship with Prince Harry and how the public reacted.

"When I started dating my husband, we became engaged and everyone was just like, 'Oh my god, you're so lucky he chose you,' " she said. "And at a certain point, after you hear it a million times over, you're like, 'Well, I chose him too.' "

The Duchess of Sussex continued, "But thankfully, I have a partner who was countering that narrative for me and going, 'They've got it all wrong. I'm the lucky one 'cause you chose me.' But it's, it is gendered and it's archetyped and it's stereotyped that… you're so lucky. And it just feeds into this idea that you're waiting for someone to tell you that you're good enough, as opposed to knowing that you're good enough on your own."

The Office alum shared a few photos from her recording session with Meghan via Twitter on Tuesday morning to promote the episode.

"Loved sitting down with Meghan on her new podcast, #Archetypes. Listen now, only on @Spotify," she wrote, complete with the hashtag #DontBelieveTheType.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry

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Meghan and Prince Harry, 37, are in Europe for several events with their longstanding charities this week. After appearing at the One Young World Summit in Manchester on Monday, where Meghan gave the keynote speech, the couple traveled to Germany for the Invictus Games "One Year to Go" countdown event on Tuesday.

Harry and Meghan are then expected to return to the U.K. to attend the WellChild Awards Thursday.