"I need help." At her lowest point, Meghan Markle called a woman she didn't even know.

After a brief hiatus following The Queen's passing, Meghan Markle has returned to the mic for another episode of her podcast, Archetypes.

In Tuesday's episode, titled, 'The Decoding of Crazy', the Duchess of Sussex spoke to various famous women about their experiences with mental health, including actress Constance Wu and activist and Bollywood star Deepika Padukone.

And although the focus of the 55-minute interview was mostly those women's stories, Markle briefly shared some of her own.

Listen to The Spill, Mamamia's daily entertainment podcast. Post continues after audio.

When speaking with Deepika Padukone, the Duchess admitted that at her lowest, Prince Harry found a professional for her to speak to. Markle called her out of the blue.

"I mean, I think at my worst point, being finally connected to someone that, you know, my husband had found a referral for me to call. And I called this woman," the former actress told the Bollywood star.

"She didn't know I was even calling her. And she was checking out at the grocery store. I could hear the little beep, beep, and I was like, 'Hi,' and I'm introducing myself and can literally hear her going, 'Wait, sorry. I'm just. Who is this?' Um, and saying I need help.

"She could hear the dire state that I was in."

Markle added that it's important to admit when we need help.

"I think it's for all of us to be really honest what it is you need and to not be afraid to make peace with that, to ask for it," she said.

While the Duchess didn't go into further detail about why she reached that point or what happened next, she has spoken about her mental health previously, in her tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Markle admitted that after marrying Prince Harry, she reached a breaking point and was having suicidal thoughts, and "The Institution" would not provide her with any kind of help.

"I was ashamed to admit it at the time, and admit it to Harry because of how much loss he's suffered, but I knew I didn't want to be alive anymore. That was a very real, clear, constant thought. He just cradled me. I went to The Institution and said I needed help, and I was told it wouldn't be good for The Institution," she said.

"I went to human resources and said 'I need help'. In my old job there was a union that would protect me. They said, 'My heart goes out to you, but you're not a paid employee of The Institution'." 

Meghan explained that she repeatedly asked for treatment or to be admitted to a hospital for her mental health, but her requests were denied.

The latest episode of Archetypes dropped the day after World Mental Health Day, and Markle's guest Padukone spoke about her own struggles with her wellbeing.

The actress shared that after a bad period with her mental health, she decided to talk about it publicly on national television.

"I didn't want to live anymore, you know, I just... I didn't want to get out of bed. And I struggled with this for, for many, many months. I would just break down at the drop of a hat," she told the Duchess.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone)

Although she was terrified to talk about her experience openly, she was met with overwhelming praise for her bravery and now works to destigmatise mental health.

"I mean, there's two parts to this," Padukone said. "One is: I think where people struggle the most, especially in India, where there's so much stigma attached to mental illness. One is creating the awareness. Most of us don't even know that we're struggling with mental illness."

"And second, if we are to destigmatise it, to let people know that it's okay to seek help and to let caregivers know that it's okay for someone to go through this," she continued.

"It's the same way we have physical ailments. Our mind is very much a part of our body. But somehow, when it comes to mental illness, we start treating our minds like [they exist] outside of our bodies."

Agreeing with Padukone, Markle then made reference to her husband's involvement in the military, and the often unseen mental toll on defence workers.

"My husband works a lot [with] the military community as a veteran, and "invisible injuries" - they call them that all the time," Markle replied.

"If you suffer from post-traumatic stress, it's the thing that you can't see. And if you can't see it, it is just either ignored or brushed under the carpet."

Read more on Markle's podcast, Archetypes, here:

• "You can't say this so I will." The 10 biggest takeaways from Meghan Markle and Mindy Kaling's podcast.
• 'The heater in the nursery caught fire.' 5 things we learned from Meghan Markle's new podcast.

Feature image: Getty.