Meghan Markle 'treated as a Black woman' for first time when dating Prince Harry

Watch ITV News royal correspondent Chris Ship's report


Meghan Markle has said she was perceived as mixed race until she began dating Harry, after which she was "treated as a Black woman".

In the second episode of her new Archetypes podcast, Markle traded stories about being mixed race with pop superstar Mariah Carey.

Carey told the Duchess of Sussex she grew up not fitting in "anywhere" due to her dual heritage, to which Markle responded "I understand".

Pop superstar Mariah Carey was a guest on Meghan Markle's Archetypes podcast.

"You’re not treated as a Black woman. You’re not treated as a white woman. You sort of fit in between," the duchess continued.

"If there’s been any time in my life it's been more focused on my race, it’s only been since I started dating my husband.

"Then I started seeing what it was like to be treated as a Black woman because up until then I had been treated like a mixed woman."


Listen to the ITV News Royal Rota podcast for more news on the Royal Family


In 2016, after Harry and Meghan began their relationship, Kensington Palace criticised the "the racial undertones of comment pieces" about the star "and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments".

And last year, Meghan claimed that when she was pregnant with Archie, there were "concerns and conversations" within the Royal Family about how dark his skin might be.

The podcast episode released Tuesday, entitled The Duality Of Diva With Mariah Carey, explores the word “diva” and the negative connotations associated with the word.

The All I Want For Christmas Is You singer told how she wanted to be glamorous growing up: “I felt like an ugly little girl because I did not fit in with anybody. “The diva thing evolved and it continues to evolve and I play with it, it’s for laughs," Carey said.

“I think all people that are ‘other,’ if they want to show up with green hair…or they want to be fabulous and glamorous, that is up to them.

“I’ve always felt like other.”

In a separate interview, released the day before, Meghan spoke about her attempts to “forgive” her royal in-laws.

She also said that Harry had “lost” his father Prince Charles over the tabloid coverage of the Royal Family.