The Duchess of Sussex is seen discussing her racial heritage and hopes for a friendlier world in a candid campaign video dating back to February 2012.
The resurfaced video, filmed as part of the ‘I Won’t Stand For…’ campaign for US charity Erase The Hate, saw stars including Meghan Markle and her former Suits co-star Patrick J Adams calling for an end to prejudice.
The former actress, 38, whose father Thomas Markle is caucasian and mother Doria Ragland is African American, had not met Prince Harry yet, and spoke about her experiences witnessing racial slurs and seeing her mother being called the n-word.
Meghan, who now shares seven-month-old Archie with husband Prince Harry, 35, spoke at the time about her hopes for a more accepting world by the time her children were born.
Meghan, who now shares seven-month-old Archie with husband Prince Harry, 35, seen in September in South Africa, spoke in 2012 about her hopes for a more accepting world by the time her children were born, in a resurfaced campaign video
Dressed in a white t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan ‘I won’t stand for racism’, she said: ‘I am really proud of my heritage on both sides, I’m really proud of where I’ve come from and where I’m coming.
‘But I hope by the time I have children that people are even more open-minded to how things are changing and that having a mixed world is what it’s all about.
‘Certainly it makes it a lot more beautiful and a lot more interesting.’
Speaking about her own experiences, she admitted the campaign felt very personal to her.
The Duchess of Sussex is seen discussing her racial heritage and hopes for a friendlier world in a candid campaign video dating back to February 2012
Recalling her own experiences, she said: ‘For me I think it hits a really personal note. I’m biracial, most people can’t tell what I’m mixed with and so much of my life has felt like being a fly on the wall.
‘And so some of the slurs I’ve heard, the really offensive jokes or the names, it has just hit me in a really strong way.
‘A couple of years ago I heard someone call my mum the ‘n word’.
‘So I think for me beyond being personally affected by racism, to see the landscape of what our country is like right now and certainly the world and to want things to be better.’
Revealing that many people don’t realise her background, she said: ‘Certain people don’t look at me and see me as a black woman or a biracial woman.
‘They treat me differently I think than they would if they knew what I was mixed with.’
The former actress, 38, whose father Thomas Markle is caucasian and mother Doria Ragland is African American, had not met Prince Harry yet, and spoke about her experiences witnessing racial slurs and seeing her mother being called the n-word
She added: ‘That can be a struggle as much as it can be a good thing depending on the people you are dealing with.’
Meghan then revealed that when her grandfather moved the famiy from Cleveland to LA, they had to use the back door whenever they stopped for food.
She said: ‘I thought that was really isolated to those days that have passed and sadly they are not.’
In 2015, two years before she met Prince Harry, Meghan wrote a candid article for American Elle magazine in which described her experiences of growing up mixed-race.
Meghan’s parents met at a TV studio in Los Angeles, where Thomas was working as a lighting director and Doria was a temp in the studio.
Meghan’s parents met at a TV studio in Los Angeles, where Thomas was working as a lighting director and Doria was a temp in the studio. Meghan is seen, aged 14, with her father Thomas
Meghan said after marrying and having her they settled in a ‘leafy and affordable’ neighbourhood where Doria, ‘caramel in complexion with her light-skinned baby in tow’ was asked where my mother was, because they assumed she was the nanny.
She described a touching story of how Doria and Thomas, although they divorced when Meghan was six, worked hard to make sure their daughter felt included.
‘When I was about seven I had been fawning over a boxed set of Barbie dolls. It was called the Heart Family and included a mom doll, a dad doll and two children.
‘This perfect nuclear family was sold in sets of white dolls or black dolls.
‘I don’t remember coveting one over the other, I just wanted one. On Christmas morning, there I found my Heart Family – a black mom doll, a white dad doll and a child in each colour. My dad had taken the sets apart and customised the family.’
A nastier encounter of racism occurred one day when the adolescent Meghan returned from university to visit her mother in Los Angeles.
Meghan wrote: ‘She was called the ‘N’ word. We were leaving a concert and she wasn’t pulling out of a parking space quickly enough for another driver. I looked to my mom her eyes welling with hateful tears. We drove home in deafening silence, her chocolate knuckles pale from gripping the wheel so tightly.’
Meghan stressed: ‘While my mixed heritage may have created a grey area surrounding my self-identification, keeping me with a foot on both sides of the fence, I have come to embrace that. To say who I am, to share where I’m from, to voice my pride in being a strong, confident mixed-race woman.’
Sstars including Meghan Markle and her former Suits co-star Patrick J Adams (pictured)called for an end to prejudice in the campain video