Meghan Markle Tells Mariah Carey She Was Only "Treated Like A Black Woman" After She Married Prince Harry
Meghan Markle became the Duchess of Sussex when she married Prince Harry, but the two gave up their royal duties (and titles) last year in order to live a life of their own. Meghan has since spent much of her time in the press talking about race; she discussed her experience as a biracial woman with Mariah Carey in her latest podcast episode.
Meghan has been in the spotlight for a variety of reasons over the last couple years. She is being sued by her sister for claiming that she grew up an only child, she claimed that the British press calls her children "the N-word," and she once said the British royal family asked racist questions about what her son's skin color would be. She's continuing the conversation about race in her new podcast series called "Archetypes." Her latest guest is singer Mariah Carey, and the two spoke about their experience in America as biracial women.
Meghan Markle Tells Mariah Carey She Was Only "Treated Like a Black Woman" after She Married Prince Harry
Mariah Carey is half black, like Meghan, and she opened up about what it was like to grow up in a "predominantly white neighborhood." She told Meghan that she "grew up poor in a mixed-race family when interracial marriages were pretty rare in the U.S."
"I didn't fit in anywhere at all," Mariah said. "I tried my best to feel comfortable."
Meghan said Mariah was a positive influence on her when she was growing up. "You were so formative for me," she said. "Representation matters so much."
"But when you are a woman and you don't see a woman who looks like you somewhere in a position of power or influence, or even just on the screen – because we know how influential media is – you came onto the scene, I was like 'Oh my gosh. Someone kind of looks like me,'" Meghan continued.
She then told Mariah she was treated differently after she married Harry. After she became the Duchess of Sussex, she "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," she said. Mariah chimed in to say that "people want you to choose" which race you are when you're a mixed woman. "They want to put you in a box and categorize you," Meghan agreed.
Meghan is planning to host Mindy Kaling, Issa Rae, and Constance Wu on her upcoming podcast episodes.