Meghan Said People Zeroed In On Her Race When She Started Dating Harry
“Things really shifted.”
The press hasn’t gone easy on Meghan Markle since she began dating Prince Harry in 2016. The former Suits actress was no stranger to the spotlight before their fairytale romance began, but the scrutiny that followed their relationship was on a whole other level. Lest we forget, the tabloids played a huge role in Meghan and Harry’s decision to leave their royal duties behind and start a new life in Montecito, California. But what exactly was it like to be on the other side of so much media attention? During the Aug. 30 episode of her Archetypes with Meghan podcast, she opened up about how people began focusing on her race when she started dating Harry — and her quote about the situation says so much.
While speaking to her guest Mariah Carey, Meghan explained how her race impacts the way she’s treated. “I think for us, it’s very different because we’re light-skinned. You’re not treated as a Black woman. You’re not treated as a white woman. You sort of fit in between,” she said, per Us Weekly. But things changed when she started dating Harry.
“If there’s any time in my life that it’s been more focused on my race, it’s only once I started dating my husband,” she told Mariah. “Then I started to understand what it was like to be treated like a Black woman. Because up until then, I had been treated like a mixed woman. And things really shifted.”
This isn’t the first time Meghan has opened up about the role race played in her relationship with Harry. In her 2021 interview with Oprah, Meghan revealed racism and her family’s safety were some of the main reasons she and Harry decided to step down from their royal duties. According to Meghan, she was told that her son Archie would have no royal title or any type of security, including protection from the media. Apparently, these conversations happened around the same time Harry was asked “how dark” his son’s skin might be.
Unfortunately, that’s far from the only example of mistreatment. On Aug. 29, Meghan accused the British tabloids of using the N-word to describe her son. In her interview with The Cut, she said, “Why would I give the very people that are calling my children the N-word a photo of my child before I can share it with the people that love my child?” (Royals are typically expected to give the press first dibs on certain photos, including the first photos of your child.)
Royal or not, no one should ever have to experience that kind of treatment from the media. Here’s wishing Meghan, Harry, and their children all the best.
