Marrying into royalty may sound like a dream come true. However, Netflix’s new Harry & Meghan docuseries proves that for one famous couple, it was anything but. On Thursday (December 8), the streaming service premiered the first three episodes of the long-awaited project. One of them finds Meghan Markle discussing how the treatment towards her shifted upon moving to the UK.
Throughout the show, the Suits alum discusses how she spent much of her life with others seeing her as a white woman. At one point, she even recalled times from her childhood when people would stop her darker-skinned mother, Doria Ragland. They would surprisingly ask her whose baby she was carrying around due to their difference in colour.
According to Markle, it wasn’t until her relationship with Prince Harry began making rounds in the media that her race became something of prominence. “At that time, I wasn’t thinking about how race played a part in any of this,” she said of the beginning of their romance. “I genuinely didn’t think about it.”
“It’s very different to be a minority but not be treated as a minority right off the bat,” the activist went on to explain. “I’d say now, people are very aware of my race because they made it such an issue when I went to the UK. But before that, most people didn’t treat me like a ‘Black woman.’ So that talk didn’t happen for me.”
Elsewhere in the episode, Ragland speaks of cautioning her daughter of the rampant racism headed her way. “I said to her very clearly, I said, ‘This is about race.’ And Meg said, ‘Mommy, I don’t want to hear that,’” she shared.
“I said, ‘You may not want to hear it, but this is what’s coming down the pike,’” Markle’s mother added.
Additionally, Prince Harry was expressing frustration at how his family refused to offer protection to the woman that he loves. “Some of the members of the family were like, ‘But my wife had to go through that so why should your girlfriend be treated any differently?” he vented.
“Why should you get special treatment? Why should she be protected?’ I said, ‘The difference here, is the race element,’” the father of two declared.
Check out the trailer for Netflix’s Harry & Meghan docuseries below. Afterward, let us know if you tuned into the first three episodes down in the comments.
[Via]