Meghan Markle says she only started getting treated like a ‘Black woman’ after dating Prince Harry

Meghan Markle believes she was only treated as a 'Black woman' after she began dating Prince Harry.

The Duchess of Sussex welcomed singing legend Mariah Carey on the latest episode of her Archetypes podcast.

The two spoke about the term ‘diva’, their careers as well as race and racism.

Meghan, who is half African-American, disclosed that as she is ‘light-skinned’, she wasn’t treated as a ‘Black woman’ growing up.

She says that all changed once she entered the British Royal Family.

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She said: “Because we're light-skinned, you are not treated as a Black woman.

"You're not treated as a white woman. You sort of fit in between.

"If there is any time where there was more focus on my race it was when I started dating my husband. 

“Then I started to understand what it was like to be treated like a Black woman because up until then I was treated as a mixed woman and things really shifted”.

Mariah, , whose father is African-American and Venezuelan, replied: “But that's an interesting thing, a mixed woman, because I always thought it should be OK to say I'm mixed, like it should be OK to say that, but people want you to choose.”

Meghan’s latest podcast episode follows her interview with The Cut, where the former actor spoke of her turbulent experience as a royal.

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Specifically, she called out Brits, who have called her children racial slurs, while explaining why she refuses to hand over family photos to the British Royal Family for public distribution.

She told the outlet: “There’s literally a structure by which if you want to release photos of your child, as a member of the family, you first have to give them to the Royal Rota.”

She added: “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?

“You tell me how that makes sense and then I’ll play that game.”

Instead of playing the ‘exchange game’, Meghan decided to launch her stand-alone Instagram account in 2019, shortly after stepping back from her royal duties.