Podcast: Must-have accessory for all famous women

SINGAPORE – The year 2025 is the season of the female celebrity podcast.

Socialite and television personality Khloe Kardashian launched Khloe In Wonder Land. Royal family member Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, began Confessions Of A Female Founder and American activist Monica Lewinsky started Reclaiming With Monica Lewinsky.

Good Hang With Amy Poehler, hosted by the titular comedienne, also began life in 2025. IMO With Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson is the former first lady’s third podcast since 2020, and is co-hosted with her brother.

There are women in Singapore with podcasts, hosted by the likes of media personalities Marissa Trew and Hanli Hoefer (Just So We’re Clear) and Love, Bonito fashion brand founder Rachel Lim (Who We Are With Rachel Lim). But for global name recognition, no name based in the Republic can match Obama or Poehler.

As the joke goes, anyone with a microphone can launch a podcast, which is precisely why nobody should. Unless you are already a brand, your show would be a drop in an ocean of 3.5 million podcasts estimated to exist, according to a 2025 report from research firm Statista.

Meghan Markle, 44, and Lewinsky, 52, had their names mired in controversy. British tabloids portrayed Markle as a mixed-race, divorced actress whose 2018 marriage to Prince Harry was framed as a threat to royal tradition.

Lewinsky was a White House intern whose name became a raunchy punchline for talk show hosts after she entered into a sexual relationship with then US President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

Confessions Of A Female Founder, a business and self-help show, is Markle’s second try at a podcast, following Archetypes, a chat show launched in 2022 which lasted just one season.

Launched in April, Confessions is now the No. 1 show in Apple’s Business category, according to a ratings report published in People magazine. This must feel good to the woman blamed by the tabloids for throwing the British royal household into disarray. The couple stepped away from official duties in 2020.

Lewinsky’s show, Reclaiming, is about taking back one’s name after it has been dragged through mud, an appropriate topic for a woman shamed into becoming invisible for years.

Her show draws respectable mid-tier numbers, sitting at No. 178 in Apple’s US Society & Culture category, according to podcast analytics firm Rephonic.

Nearly all female celebrities treat podcasting as a side hustle, one that lets them extend their brand into topics that interest them while they continue to act, host or write.

The effort-to-profit ratio explains their popularity. Unscripted podcasts – which include the chat show format most celebrity hosts prefer – do not require large crews or lengthy work schedules, unlike film or TV productions.

During the Hollywood strikes of 2023, podcasts were a lifeline for celebrities, allowing them to stay active while the entertainment industry ground to a halt.

For women with a great public image, podcasting is a no-brainer. As for those treated unfairly by the establishment, becoming a successful podcaster is possibly the best revenge.