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Meghan Markle Says World Only ‘Focused’ on Her Race When She Started Dating Prince Harry: ‘Things Really Shifted’

Meghan Markle World Only Focused My Race When I Started Dating Harry
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Tim Rooke/Shutterstock

More revelations. Meghan Markle said that she became more aware of her race when she started dating Prince Harry.

Related: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Relationship Timeline

The Duchess of Sussex, 41, discussed the reality of being mixed race during a chat with Mariah Carey on the Tuesday, August 30, episode of her “Archetypes” podcast on Spotify. “I think for us, it’s very different because we’re light-skinned,” the Bench author told the Grammy winner, 53. “You’re not treated as a Black woman. You’re not treated as a white woman. You sort of fit in between.”

The Suits alum went on to say that she became more aware of her Black heritage when she began her romance with the Duke of Sussex, 37, in 2016.

“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 the “Fantasy” crooner. “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.”

Related: Where Do Harry and Meghan Stand With the Rest of the Royal Family?

Meghan added that she always looked up to Carey as a child because the pop star had a similar background. “You were so formative for me,” the California native said. “[When] you came onto the scene, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. Someone … someone kind of looks like me.'”

The former Tig blogger has previously been open about the way her race made her time in the royal family more challenging. Before she and Harry tied the knot in 2018, the Invictus Games founder issued a rare public statement slamming the “wave of abuse and harassment” Meghan experienced after their romance began.

“Some of this has been very public — the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments,” the U.K. native’s communications secretary said in November 2016. “Prince Harry is worried about Ms. Markle’s safety and is deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her. It is not right that a few months into a relationship with him that Ms. Markle should be subjected to such a storm.”

Related: Meghan Markle Gets Real About Dealing With Royal Life, Motherhood and More

When the couple gave their bombshell interview to CBS in March 2021 one year after their last engagement as working royals, they both identified racism as one of the reasons they decided to step down. Meghan, for her part, revealed that a family member once asked how “dark” her son’s skin would be when she was still pregnant with Archie, now 3. (The duo also share daughter Lili, 14 months.)

During the interview, Harry confirmed Meghan’s account of the discussion, but he said he would never reveal what was said or who said it. “That conversation I’m never going to share,” the former military pilot explained. “It was awkward. I was a bit shocked.”

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